A Proven Criminal Defense Team

Pre-charge considerations: responding to initial police contacts

On Behalf of | Nov 23, 2020 | Criminal Defense |

Many readers of criminal law blog posts might reasonably believe that Colorado law enforcers become active in a given case only after they have formally filed criminal charges.

That is certainly what police officers and investigative teams want suspects to believe.

It is a common misassumption, though. In fact, those parties are invariably busy from the first moment they cast attention on an alleged offender. One online legal source duly stresses that point, underscoring the protection of an individual’s rights during a criminal probe. It states that police officers “are trained to get the information they need out of you whenever they can.”

That means this: If you’re an alleged suspect willing to talk to investigators immediately following an initial contact out of fear or a spirit of cooperation, they are more than willing to listen.

Especially if you make no demands to speak with an attorney.

The bottom-line surrounding pre-charging activities and questioning is that policy will seek to extract every incriminating piece of evidence that they can from a suspect before filing any charges. That goal can be optimally promoted when proven attorney input is absent.

Many Colorado residents targeted in criminal probes don’t readily appreciate that in a timely way. They talk freely instead, to their ultimate detriment.

That result is neither imminent nor assured. An investigated individual can lawfully demand to speak with legal counsel at the earliest phase of a criminal probe.

“Hiring an attorney during a criminal investigation doesn’t make you guilty,” states the above-cited legal source. “It makes you smart.”

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