Alexis Austin Litle

should you speak to the police or the detectives that are investigating a case no uh i i say that with a pause literally every defense attorney cringes when we hear that the the true answer is not alone ever under any circumstances should you ever ever ever ever ever talk to the police if you're possibly being charged not without an attorney now if you have an attorney and there's something that your attorney thinks yes you can talk with the police about this your attorney can go with you and do the interview with you but generally speaking you do not want to walk yourself down to the police station and voluntarily go in and start talking

the reason is this even if you're completely innocent of the charges that doesn't necessarily mean that another person isn't saying something untrue about you and police are people too they have no way of knowing what person a is saying is true or not and what you are saying is true or not so they have to take all of the evidence that they hear evidencing statements made by other people and they have to determine what they think happened

now if this other person is saying a whole bunch of stuff and they're accusing you of doing something and you go down and say no i didn't and the police question you to the point where they can get you to admit to doing something even if they say that it's helpful to your case they can then charge you a common thing that i see officers do a lot is they will say well talk to me will help your case no it won't talking to you will help their case because what they're trying to do is they're trying to build a case

there is very rarely a time when a police officer or law enforcement officer will want to question you and you're not in trouble the only way that that's going to happen is if you have reached out to them and called them and asked for help and you already know what the issue is but if law enforcement reaches out to you and says hey i need you to come down and give a statement unless you were the witness to some crime if you are actually being charged with something you don't want to go talk to them without an attorney with you and you don't want to go talk to them without talking to that attorney first

so the general rule of thumb is shut up and lawyer up even if you're innocent

because unfortunately innocent people sometimes get themselves into the worst predicaments because people will just talk and talk and talk and try to be helpful but everyone says something stupid every now and then and you don't want that stupid thing to come out to the point where it's going to impact you and have you end up with criminal charges just because you were trying to do it on your own

hire the lawyer bring the criminal defense expert in to make sure that you're not sticking your foot in your mouth and get yourself charged and when in doubt shut up and lawyer up

a common thing that i see officers do a lot is they will say well talk to me will help your case no it won't talking to you will help their case because what they're trying to do is they're trying to build a case

no uh i i say that with a pause literally every defense attorney cringes when we hear that the the true answer is not alone ever under any circumstances should you ever ever ever ever ever talk to the police if you're possibly being charged not without an attorney

unfortunately innocent people sometimes get themselves into the worst predicaments because people will just talk and talk and talk and try to be helpful but everyone says something stupid every now and then

Generally, though, in a domestic violence case, someone can be subpoenaed to testify against their spouse, marital privilege does not apply in a domestic violence case, because you are the named victim in the case you are the one against whom the crime is alleged to have been perpetrated.

An actual subpoena that can force you to go into court is a personally served subpoena. So in order for you to be forced to go to court, you have to be personally served with a document by someone that says this is the court date, this is where you're being served to go you have to sign it, they have to send you have to be personally served. Now, technically, you don't have to sign it, they can hand it to you and they can write that you are handed it.

But basically, a human has to personally serve you in order for you to legally be required to go to court. What often happens is especially in El Paso County, we have such a large jurisdiction, that the DHS office will send out these subpoena waiver postcards or subpoena waiver letters. It gets a little tricky though, because when people get these letters, and they read them, they see the highlighted portion that says you are required to appear at court and they freak out thinking oh my gosh, I'm gonna get a warrant if I don't go to court.

But if you read it carefully, in that language, it will say sign here to waive subpoena service. What that means is, the best way I can explain it is think of it like an RSVP. I know that that sounds kind of trivial, but it makes the most sense in my head.

If the state sends you a waiver of subpoena service, and you see the fine print that says sign and return to waive subpoena service. Basically, what you're doing is self serving the subpoena on you

You cannot cannot cannot have any defense attorney who represent your spouse giving you advice, though, if they give you advice, that is witness tampering, it is unethical, it is illegal, they cannot do it.

Now, if you get a subpoena, a lot of confusion comes up in these cases, because there's a difference in actually being subpoenaed or being asked to waive subpoena service.

I want to be very clear, this video is not legal advice.