It is not a great feeling. You are going about your life and you look in your rear view mirror and see the red and blue flashing lights of a police car. When you pull over and the officer comes up to your window, one of the very first questions they will ask is, “where are you coming from?” What do you do? If you are facing criminal charges like DWI, drug charges or any other criminal offenses in Minnesota, make sure you sit down with an experienced Minnesota criminal defense attorney. Better yet, make sure they are a Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist.
From the beginning, the police officer is trying to build a criminal case. Any statement that you make that they can use to support that, they are going to use.”
Statements Against Interest and Admissions
When a police officer asks where you are coming from, they are looking for evidence to support the possibility that you have or are committing a crime or whether or not you are a threat to public safety. This creates a baseline that they will later write down in a police report. If you say you were at a party, this supports the DWI narrative. If you were in an area where a crime may have recently been reported, again, this supports the narrative that you may have been involved. The real purpose is to seek what are called admissions to crimes and/statements against interest. If you are charged with a crime, these statements will almost certainly be used against you.
How do I Respond?
If a police officer asks you where you have been, you have no obligation to answer the question. In fact, it is generally not in your interest to do so. Rather, be polite and simply ask the officer ”am I being detained?” This is not an admission and turns the questions to the officer rather than to you.
“If you tell the officer you were just at a party or at a restaurant or at a bar, this will be into their report and they will use it against you.”
If you are facing serious criminal charge in Minnesota like DWI or drug charges, knowing your rights, what charges you face and the ramifications of those charges are all critical. An experienced Minnesota DWI attorney and Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist can help.
Jack Rice is a nationally known criminal defense attorney with a quarter century of experience. He is also Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist, former prosecutor and former CIA Officer. Jack is also the Founder of Jack Rice Defense, a boutique criminal law firm located on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota. Contact Jack Rice Defense for a free confidential consultation or call 651-447-7650 or 612-227-1339. Jack’s got your back.
