I'm going to get a little pop culture on everyone here. Caitlyn Jenner (back when she was Bruce) was involved in a car accident in February 2015.  Jenner's vehicle was in a car accident and the driver of the vehicle Jenner hit died. There has been speculation that Jenner will be charged with vehicular manslaughter. The thing that people often misunderstand is who exactly does the charging of a crime.  

Police Officers can pull a person over and give you a traffic ticket for certain offenses like speeding, failure to yield etc. however, if these are petty misdemeanors, they are not classified as crimes in Minnesota.   Some tickets are misdemeanor crimes but those have required court appearances and are reviewed by the local prosecutor.  

It is the prosecutor that has the discretion to charge a person with a crime.  The police officer will arrest someone and write a police report then recommend that a person be charged with a particular crime.  The prosecutor is the attorney who looks at the evidence and decides if there is enough to charge a person with a crime.  The prosecutor is presented with the police reports that outline witness statements, evidence collected and the officer's observations and report and then uses his or her legal experience to decide if there is probable cause to charge a person in a court of law and with what to charge a person with.  It is NOT the police officer's decision.  It is NOT the victim's decision.   

A police officer can arrest someone and book them on a domestic assault but if the prosecutor looks at the police report and decides that the elements of the crime are not met or that the case should not be charged then the prosecutor does not charge the case out.  That simple.  The police can go back and gather more evidence and try to convince the prosecutor to charge the case but the police can not charge the case themselves.  

Is a prosecutor more likely to charge a case with a pushy victim?  Well, yes and no.  The squeaky wheel gets the oil but it is also easier to prosecute a case with an active victim.  There are also laws that require a prosecutor to consult with a victim regarding a plea agreement.  If the victim is being unreasonable then the prosecutor may take that into consideration.  

What to take away from this?  If you are a suspect in a criminal case: 1- Use your right to remain silent 2- Immediately contact an experienced attorney 3- An experienced attorney can contact a prosecutor pre-charging on your behalf and make a difference in a criminal case against you.  

Talking to the police is the number one way to get yourself convicted.  I'm not kidding.  When I was a prosecutor many, many of my cases were successful because suspects spoke to the police.  If you have nothing to hide, great!  Talk to an attorney first. The police are required to let you contact your attorney once you ask for one.  It is your right.  Use it.  

Contact an attorney and explain your situation.  I have consulted prosecutors on behalf of clients prior to charging decisions on cases and made a difference in how charges were brought or even if charges were brought.  It is easier to prevent a charge than to defend it.  If you are an avid blog reader then you know that a criminal charge (even if dismissed later) goes on your criminal record so it is better to avoid it all together or have lesser charges.  

I promised exceptions to the warrant rule and that blog post is still coming. Until then, remember your rights and remain respectfully silent.  

This blog is for information purposes only.  For a free consultation contact Casanova Criminal Defense, LLC at 612-968-1278.

Have you checked your Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) report lately?  No?  Well, you should. You check your credit report every year. You should also be checking your BCA report.  Even if you have never been arrested or committed a crime, you should run a BCA check. Why?  I'll tell you.

First, identity theft or clerical error may affect your BCA record.  A person may have used your name and/or date of birth while being arrested and that could be tied to your BCA identity.  The BCA could have entered something incorrectly and it could be attached to your profile. The police department may have reported something incorrectly to the BCA as well. It is never a bad idea to check.

Second, if you have been arrested or convicted of a crime, you want to make sure that it was documented correctly.  If you plead to a crime that was not originally charged, you want to make sure that was properly reflected in the BCA's record.  For example, I had a client in Dakota County who was convicted of Careless Driving instead of the DWI he was charged with.  The BCA mistakenly put the conviction as the DWI not the Careless Driving.  Not only did that alter his criminal history, it hiked his insurance rates.

If you have had a conviction expunged, you want to make sure that the Court's Order was properly executed by the BCA.  I ran a Hennepin County client's record to verify that her expungement went through and when we went to court for something else we verified it was gone!

Third, remember that time in college you were really drunk and you woke up in jail?  Yeah, that will be reflected in your BCA record.  All arrests are documented on your BCA record.  You may have forgotten about being arrested but the BCA didn't.  Those arrests will show up on record checks.  However, there are ways to expunge those arrests from your record!  Call me and I can assist you in taking care of those documented arrests.

So, you ran your record check and found something wrong.  What do you do?  The good thing is that it is fixable.  For BCA entry errors, a letter to the BCA with documentation of what should be entered is all it should take.  That has been successful for me on behalf of my clients.  If it is the court that has erred, then a motion to the Court or a hearing may be needed.  

Sometimes the BCA reports are a little difficult to read if you are not experienced so feel free to give me a call to help obtain or interpret the record.