The police report can be reduced to an entire evening to just a few pages. The charge itself may fit on a single line.
It’s not often that you find a life that is so elegant.
Perhaps dinner started at seven. The argument started at nine. Someone left the house around 10 pm, came back later, and a neighbor then called police at around midnight. Or maybe a driver spent the evening with friends, got driving, got pulled over a few miles later, sat for roadside testing or a breath test, then was arrested. All of this activity could have been consolidated into an arrest in the early morning.
Criminal defense lawyers who are located in Grand Rapids Michigan can benefit from putting back the sequence.
Start Prior to the Arrest
Everyone will remember the moment of drama flashing lights, policemen at the door, handcuffs, or a call from a detective. To understand the full impact of the event, it may be necessary to go back to the time.
Michigan law considers the relationship between two people when deciding whether to prosecute an incident of domestic violence. The information provided by the firm identifies spouses and former spouses, persons who share a child, the current or previous partners in love and individuals who previously lived together.
Even the events that preceded the police action are important. Did there exist a conflict in progress? Who was in attendance? When did the encounter begin? Did anyone leave and come back? Did you get a message prior to or after?
These questions aren’t designed to fabricate a false story. These questions assist Grand Rapids domestic violence defense lawyers understand the allegations in their actual sequence, rather than focusing on an arrest by police as a beginning point for everything.
The particular charge that is made also plays a role. Michigan makes distinctions between different domestic violence charges, and materials from the firm indicate that prior convictions can affect the severity of subsequent charges.
An OWI Stop Has Its Own Timeline
A drunk driving incident can be uncovered in a much shorter amount of time, but sequence still matters. The driver’s behavior, the reason the officer initiated contact, the results of the stopping, the roadside procedures and the statements, the tests as well as the subsequent arrest all play a role. If you mix all of the incidents, you are able to hide the fact that different parts of the incident have different purposes.
Michigan’s MCL 257.625 which is also known as Operating While Intoxicated (OWI), defines the offense. The information from the firm explains that a breath test, also known as PBT, or PBT, is a test for screening purposes and is not admissible in trial as proof of intoxication. However, it can be used to determine probable cause.
That distinction is one reason drunk driving defense lawyers in Grand Rapids, Michigan may reconstruct the stop instead of focusing exclusively on one number a driver remembers from the roadside.
Sometimes the Timeline is present on a phone.
A few criminal investigations begin without the police obtaining any direct evidence.
Sexual offenses may be based on incidents that took place earlier. This could have been within a relationship, family or personal situation, or at work. According to the description of the company, a person may be informed of an investigation before they are arrested.
In this case the chronology may be spread over multiple sources. Communication records can reveal how people communicated. Digital records can help to explain the sequence of events. The same period may be described in different ways by the people who were involved.
This doesn’t mean that a text message automatically is a proof or a disproof of an assertion. This means that sexual misconduct attorneys in Grand Rapids Michigan will need to know how communication, statements or other evidence, and any other details that is available can be woven together.
Documentation and Memory are not the Same.
Following a stressful experience People tend to remember the moment rather than timestamps. “It was later that night” is a common phrase in conversation, but is too vague to be a valid answer to a crucial legal issue.
Documents can aid in organizing memories. Contact histories and existing messages and receipts, court documents or even receipts along with photographs will help you create the timeline. What’s relevant is determined by the particular case.
It is also essential to safeguard records and to not alter them in order to improve the appearance of the situation. A lawyer representing defense attorneys can discern what information could be significant and figure out how to deal with the situation.
One case number is not enough to take in the entire night
Shawn Haff reports more than 16 years practicing criminal defense in Grand Rapids, and the Criminal Defense Law Center of West Michigan reports more than 1500 criminal cases handled over 25+ years of combined practice. The firm’s experience includes OWI and domestic violence assault, drug charges, sexual offenses, weapons, theft of driver’s licenses, retail fraud restoration and expungements.
Past outcomes, such as dismissals, acquittals, or reductions in charges, don’t predict the outcome of any new case.
Every new story has its own people, sequences and allegations, as well as evidence etc. This is what matters.
An arrest can happen in minutes. In just a couple of words, you can create an arrest label. It is crucial to look at the night in its entirety and the sequence of events.
