Providing false information to a police officer is a misdemeanor. Being that we are one of the top criminal defense lawyers in Arizona, we see trends of different types of cases within different courts. For instance, some courts prosecute one type of case more often than other types of cases. Scottsdale is one of the more common courts for us to see False Reporting or providing false information to a police officer. We see this in all different types of contexts within the Scottsdale Court.
For example, the Scottsdale Police Department is the only law enforcement agency that I’m aware of that will cite somebody for False Reporting if they tell the officer they did not have anything to drink and their breath or blood alcohol analysis comes back positive for alcohol. This is absolutely insane, in my opinion, an opinion that is widely shared within the criminal offense legal community, you do not have to incriminate yourself. This means, if the officer asks if you’ve been drinking, you have every right to say no. When I see a charge like this associated with a DUI, believe me, we fight this charge to the end to get it dismissed. I’m not going to let the Scottsdale Police or the Scottsdale Court, breach my clients Constitutional Rights. Constitutional Rights are something that I take very seriously, and I hope that every criminal defense lawyer in the Country takes seriously. My lawyers and I have been trained to stand up for our clients and do what is right. We never take the easy way out.
Another example of how we see False Reporting, is when we have clients who are under the age of 21 and provide the police officer with a fake ID or give them information that is false suggesting that they are over 21. We see this in situations when officers are investigating Minor in Consumption of Alcohol or Minor in Possession of Alcohol. Again, our job as criminal defense lawyers is twofold first. We want to ensure that our clients’ Rights are protected. Second, we want to ensure that our clients receive outcomes that are not going to affect the rest of their lives. The latter means, we understand that when under pressure or maybe alcohol induced, people make mistakes. We do not want this mistake to define them. It shouldn’t. We want to demonstrate to the judge why this was a one off occurrence and why we need to “sweep this under the rug, “and for clients to move on with life without a criminal conviction on their record.
If you look at the misdemeanor laws that a police officer could cite a person for, you would be surprised. A police officer can really cite someone for pretty much anything. The truth of the matter is, most of the time the police officers simply just don’t care. They’re willing to issue a citation for, in this case False Reporting, send a person to Scottsdale Court, and let them deal with the consequences. They don’t care whether this will affect a job, a promotion, education, scholarships, or anything else that may have an impact on the individual’s life.
What the police officers don’t appreciate is, false reporting is a misdemeanor. You do not want a misdemeanor on your record. The more infractions a person has on their criminal record, the more it’s going to affect them long-term. Having a conviction for False Reporting is something that’s preventable, but you need to take the appropriate steps. An appropriate step would not be trying to represent yourself. If you go this route, I promise you are going to make matters worse. Another unwise choice is to hire a law firm who does not have your best interest in mind and treats you like a number. The most appropriate step is to hire a law firm who is at Scottsdale Court nearly every single day of the week, will take the time to understand your situation, will treat you like a family member, and who will share the common goal of erasing this conviction from your record. If all of these are values that you would want in an attorney, then hiring our law firm to represent you for false reporting is the smart move.
Please give us a call anytime day or night, we are open 24 hours a day seven days a week and would be more than happy to discuss options for you.