Sometimes, your criminal case may become more difficult because the police officer claims to have a confession from you or a damning admission that hurts your case—even if that confession appears nowhere in the police report or his notes. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will know what to do in this case.

Your criminal defense attorney should attack the officer’s testimony and suggest that the officer misinterpreted the statement or may even be lying. Your attorney should emphasize that the statement was made months, if not years, ago and that the officer has participated in a large number of arrests and investigations since then. The attorney can try to get the officer to admit that many of them involved similar types of cases, and that in the course of those cases, he interviewed hundreds of suspects and witnesses. Your attorney can emphasize the fact that exact words in an interrogation are extremely important, and that the officer is trained to write accurate reports in order to preserve evidence for a case. Your attorney can also emphasize that the officer relies on these reports to remember what happened a long time ago, although other officers and prosecutors rely on the same reports to investigate and put together a case.

If this cross-examination tactic is successful, your criminal defense attorney may argue that if the officer was so careless about the case that he could not commit the defendant’s own words to writing, the jury should not place any weight on his testimony that the confession happened.

Though most people think the laws governing Miranda rights are simple because people have seen them on TV so many times, there are many grey areas in the law that may cause some confusion. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney can help advise you on what the implications of Miranda are for your particular case.

In general, the burden is on the prosecution to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that an individual voluntarily waives Miranda rights. The police are not allowed to deliberately elicit an unwarned confession prior to reading Miranda rights in order to try to skirt the requirements. However, if the police inadvertently fail to administer the warnings, that does not prevent them from later reading them and then obtaining a confession.

There are exceptions to the requirements of Miranda. Routine bookings and border inspections generally do not require Miranda rights to be read, although they may be required during booking in certain cases. The police use a standard form of questions restricted to biographical information when booking suspects. If instead the questioning is an extended interrogation that moves beyond the biographical, it will not be accepted as routine booking questions. Miranda warnings must be given if the police ask questions designed to obtain information about the crime. In one case, the police had a dying declaration that “Tony” had shot the victim, and in their custody a suspect who called himself “David.” The court held that a lengthy questioning of him about his name and whether his name was really “David” was intended to provide a link in the chain of evidence and constituted custodial interrogation within Miranda.

The police may also forego Miranda warnings in cases where there is an objectively reasonable need to protect the police or the public from an immediate danger associated with a weapon. In one case, the police had been informed that a suspect was armed, and saw him discard something at the scene. Upon arresting him, they saw that he was unarmed and were entitled to ask him where he had disposed of the gun without reading his Miranda rights. This public safety exception, however, does not apply if there is no specific and articulable danger to the police or public, or if the danger disappears when the defendant is arrested.

If you have further questions about exceptions to Miranda, contact knowledgeable New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today. The initial consultation is free of charge.

Sometimes, civil and criminal litigation overlap, and cases are filed concerning the same allegations and parties. When this occurs, you may need the services of a New Hampshire criminal defense attorney to explain how this affects your case and what your options are.

Often, the civil proceedings will simply await the outcome of a criminal case to incorporate its verdict. This is necessary in civil proceedings, for example, in shareholder derivative suits or to decide on the revocation of a professional license if the party is convicted.

If you are acquitted of the charges, the plaintiff in the civil case must prove the allegations in the civil case like any other, although you will not be allowed to use your criminal acquittal as evidence in your defense.

Even after an acquittal, you may still be able to invoke your Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate yourself, if you are worried that criminal prosecution is possible on different charges or in a different jurisdiction. Double jeopardy does not bar successive prosecutions in separate states or jurisdictions. Even if you are protected from future prosecution in one state by a final judgment, you may still find that you are subject to prosecution in a different state or jurisdiction. For this reason, you may still invoke your Fifth Amendment privilege in a prosecution based on the same conduct. However, some states have passed laws barring such successive prosecutions.

If you have further questions about civil versus criminal litigation, contact dedicated New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg for a free initial consultation at 603-686-5454.

If you’ve committed a fairly minor crime and don’t have a lengthy criminal record, you may be eligible for a diversion program. In a diversion program, the prosecution files charges but then puts the case on hold while you meet certain probation conditions. The conditions include such things as reporting requirements, restitution, and a treatment program. You may also be subject to random searches of your home.

The prosecutor dismisses the charges when you finish the probation period. In addition, your record may be expunged.

While a diversion program sounds tempting, there are certain drawbacks. For example:

● Diversion is not an acquittal. You may have to admit that you’re guilty. Your admission may be used against you in a civil case brought by the victim or in a criminal trial, if you don’t finish the program.

● You probably will not be able to sue for wrongful prosecution or arrest.

● The diversion might be deemed a conviction for purposes of your driver’s license or immigration status.

● You probably will not be able to participate in a diversion program the next time you are arrested.

Due to these drawbacks, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may advise you that it might be better to plead to a minor violation, such as disorderly conduct. Doing so would relieve you of the probation conditions, and you may still choose to participate in a diversion program if you are arrested again.

If you’ve been arrested, contact experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg at (603) 686-5454.

A grand jury document subpoena is a court order. It is much more serious than a discovery request in a civil case. In civil cases, you usually have two opportunities to respond to a discovery request. The court can sanction you only after the opposing party has filed a motion to compel against you.

f you expect to receive a grand jury document subpoena, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will direct you not to destroy any documents that may be included in the subpoena. Destroying documents when you’re expecting a subpoena may subject you to prosecution for criminal obstruction of justice.

Therefore, if you know of documents that will probably be included in a subpoena, maintain those documents, even if you have a policy to periodically destroy documents. If you destroy the documents and are charged with obstruction, you may be able to defend yourself on the grounds that you destroyed them pursuant to a regular policy, rather than pursuant to an intent to obstruct justice. However, you’re much better off avoiding being prosecuted for obstruction in the first place. As your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will advise you, it’s a bad idea to revive an inactive document destruction policy right at the start of a grand jury proceeding.

If you expect to receive a grand jury subpoena, tell your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney as soon as you can. He or she can call the prosecutor and arrange to receive the subpoena for you. This will prevent a process server from bothering you at home or work and having access to your family or coworkers for questioning.

If you expect to receive a grand jury subpoena, contact New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg at (603) 686-5454. The initial consultation is free of charge.

After you make your initial appearance before the court following your arrest, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will explain to you what happens next. You will be entitled to a preliminary hearing or examination, and the prosecution must introduce sufficient evidence to justify holding the case for court. You are entitled to the assistance of counsel at this hearing under the Sixth Amendment.

While the Constitution does not require the preliminary hearings, the Fourth Amendment does give you some rights if you are detained beyond 48 hours. You are entitled to judicial review of probable cause in that case and must receive a probable cause determination, unless the prosecution establishes a bona fide emergency or extraordinary circumstance. You are also entitled to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses at the preliminary hearing.

The prosecutor might pre-empt the preliminary hearing by obtaining a grand jury indictment (if available) within the time set for your hearing. If possible, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney should schedule the preliminary hearing quickly, before the prosecutor makes this move to put your case before the grand jury. However, the prosecutor might threaten to indict on the highest charge or charge a mandatory minimum if he is forced to indict sooner rather than later, which can be difficult to waive in plea bargaining later on. Your attorney will need to look closely at the prosecutors’ office record to gauge whether these threats are valid.

The magistrate usually sets the preliminary hearing at your initial appearance before the court or the arraignment. If the magistrate has not set a date, your attorney should file a written demand to set one. Under the law of some states, your right to a hearing will be waived unless explicitly invoked by you or your attorney. If the court fails to hold a timely preliminary hearing, you will be released, but the charges against you will not be dismissed. If your attorney needs more time to prepare your case, he or she can seek a brief postponement of the preliminary hearing, and should stipulate that the time should be excluded from the speedy trial statute.

If you have further questions about what happens following your arrest, contact New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg at (603) 686-5454. The initial consultation is free of charge.

Confessions to the police are always damaging to your case, but they are not necessarily fatal. There are ways to challenge confessions or make the jury think they were made falsely, and a New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to help you do that.

One type of confession is the unrecorded but noted confession. Many law enforcement agencies do not record statements; rather, the agent or officer takes notes and then types up a report describing what the person said. These reports are often filled with inaccuracies and wishful thinking about the defendant said, as well as untrue conclusions about what the defendant meant. It is easy for police to interpret statements wrongly, and an experienced New Hampshire criminal defense attorney will look for examples of words or sentences from the report that seem like they clearly did not come from the defendant.

A knowledgeable criminal attorney can move for production of the officer’s handwritten notes and then compare differences between what the notes say and what is included in the report. Any omissions from the report can then become compelling evidence. This technique works best with details that seemed unimportant at the time but become decisive at trial. If the officer’s notes contradict what is in the report, how can the jury trust his recollection on the stand as to what the defendant told him?

If you have been arrested, one thing you definitely don’t want to do right away is confess. A confession severely limits your options for how you can help yourself later. However, in some cases, it is possible to challenge the basis of a confession and have it ruled invalid. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to help you.

One common tactic is to challenge a confession’s voluntariness. Before a jury hears about a confession, a trial judge has to rule that it was made voluntarily, and will hold a hearing to determine if that is the case. Your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might make a motion alleging that the confession was involuntary. The specific allegation will depend on the nature of the claim. If the basis for suppression is a violation of your Miranda rights, your attorney might file a motion alleging that upon your arrest, the police omitted the warnings when asking you questions. A more detailed claim might spell out the circumstances that amount to coercion. In some cases, the court will insist that allegations come from affidavit by a person with personal knowledge of the case, such as the defendant.

It is best to have the hearing on the admissibility of the confession before the trial begins for a few reasons: the decision on the confession may dictate whether the case goes to trial, is pled out, or dismissed; a criminal attorney will need to know whether the jury will hear the confession in order to ask relevant questions during jury selection; and the court will save the jury delay and inconvenient by not holding the hearing mid-trial.

The jury will not be present for the hearing, as the trial will be irreparably harmed by allowing the jury to hear the confession and subsequently disregarding it.

It is better to win a claim of involuntary confession rather than prevail on a Miranda violation because a coerced confession cannot be used for any purpose at trial. Even if you lose the involuntariness challenge before the judge, you may be entitled to introduce testimony about how the police obtained the confession and the environment around you, in order to argue that it should not be credited and may have been given falsely.

If you have questions about confessing to a crime, contact knowledgeable New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg for a free initial consultation.

Your criminal case will become much more difficult to defend if you made any sort of confession to the police following your arrest. However, there may still be room to argue that the confession was made involuntarily in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process, although it is usually difficult to make this argument. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney can tell you if it might be a possible defense in your case.

The Miranda warnings given by police officers when making arrests are intended to prevent pressure tactics. If the police issued the appropriate Miranda warnings during your arrest, it is unlikely your confession will be found involuntary. However, the courts apply a “totality of the circumstances” test to determine if a confession was coerced. The Constitution prohibits law enforcement officers not only from physical torture, but also from using psychological devices to get a confession against a defendant’s will. The question is whether the police officers acted such to overbear the defendant’s will and elicit a confession involuntarily.

The courts will consider the following factors:

• The defendant’s age and education;
• The defendant’s mental health and emotional state;
• The defendant’s intelligence or mental deficiency;
• The advice given (or lack thereof) regarding constitutional rights;
• The length of the detention;
• The absence of family;
• The repeated and prolonged nature of the interrogation;
• The use of physical punishment; and
• The defendant’s familiarity with the judicial system.

If you have further questions about coerced confessions, contact dedicated New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg today for a free initial consultation.

Bail can be an unexpectedly complicated process for those have been recently arrested and do not understand the system. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to help you understand the process better.

There are a few different types of bail which your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might seek for you, but the type that applies will depend on the specifics of your case and other factors, such as where you were arrested and the crime for which you were charged.

You may be released on an unsecured bond under certain circumstances. This means that you are released “on your own recognizance” or on a bond that requires no cash deposit or collateral. However, you will be held liable if you fail to appear on your court date or violate the bail conditions.

Failing to appear in court is a serious crime that carries its own penalties, such as years of imprisonment, if prosecuted separately, or additional penalties and longer prison time if factored into the sentence of your underlying offense.

You might also be released under a cash bond, which requires a cash deposit or collateral in order for you to be released. The bail might be “straight,” requiring the entire amount, or a percentage of the total amount. However, if you fail to appear, you will be liable for the total amount, and if you are ultimately convicted and the sentence includes a fine, your cash bond may be applied to the payment of the fine.

If you have more questions about how bail works, contact dedicated New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Sven Wiberg. The initial consultation is free of charge.