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The most common defense to a charge
of resisting or obstructing an officer,
and one that we've had a great deal of success with,
is to take the position that the police officer is simply
exaggerating.
And quite frankly, this happens all the time.
I've worked on hundreds and hundreds
of resisting arrest cases, first as a prosecutor,
and now of course, as a criminal defense attorney.
And I can tell you this is probably
the crime where we see the most trumped up and bogus charges.
A very common scenario is the police officer's
handcuffing you and puts the cuffs on way too tight,
and you sort of reflexively move your arm
because you're in terrible pain.
But the police officer writes in his report,
oh, the subject was flailing his arms
and gyrating his body in order to prevent me
from handcuffing him.
And the prosecutor sees that and adds
a charge of resisting arrest.
Or maybe the officer approaches you
and tells you to put your hands behind your head,
and you say, officer, what did I do?
Why are you detaining me?
You're just asking for information,
but the police officer writes in his report
that you were combative and took a fighting stance.
Our job as criminal defense attorneys
is to show the prosecutor and the judge, and sometimes even
the jury, that the police are exaggerating the story
and embellishing and making up facts to put a case on you,
and that this charge should be dismissed.