Posted on 06/30/2004 9:09:46 PM PDT by BlueMondaySkipper
I need some legal advice from my Freeper friends.
Here is my story:
A few weeks ago, some buddies and I went out to a bar in a small town in Wisconsin. After last call, we exited the bar and began walking to my boat to drive home.
A little way down the sidewalk there was a man standing there looking at a car that was parked on the other side of the street, maybe 30-40 yards down the street. There was a woman next to the car knocking on various windows and talking to someone inside.
As I walked up to him, I stopped and asked what he was looking at. He told me that his son was in the car and his mother (the son's) was trying to get him out.
Apparently he had just turned 21 and had gotten a DWI a few days earlier. He wasn't supposed to be out that night, and now he had been drinking and would not give up the car keys.
We made small talk for a little while, talking about trouble with kids and so on, while the mother continued to try to get the kid to unlock the car. After a while I was ready to leave so I got an idea and told the guy that I would get the kid out of the car.
I proceeded to walk diagonally across the street to towards the car. On the way over, I pulled my wallet from my pocket and put my hand on my cell phone which was clipped to my belt. When I got to the car, I flashed my driver's license and said "Open up buddy". The kid inside was taken aback a little bit, and then he opened the door. The mother grabbed the keys an the problem was solved. I put my wallet back in my pocket and walked away, confident that I had done my good deed for the day.
That was May 29th.
Today in the mail, I got a complaint from the State Of Wisconsin, charging me with Impersonating a Police Officer which is a Class A Misdemeanor punishable by a forfeiture of up to $10,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 9 months, or both.
I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping this kid off the road, but now I looks like I'm in trouble. I don't really feel like hiring an attorney but at the same time, I certainly don't want to have to pay a fine or go to jail.
The complaint said I would be notified of the court date within 7 days, but also included with the complaint was a summons which said I must respond with a written answer within 45 days. The complaint said I was in violation of Wisconsin statute 939.51 but that is actually the description of the Class A misdemeanor. I did some looking online and found statute 946.70, Impersonating peace officers, that by my reading I probably am guilty of.
I'm tempted to just respond and state I'm not guilty based on the statute they referred to, but I'm sure that wouldn't get me far.
I don't know how they got my name. The only thing I can think of was someone saw the whole thing and tracked me down through my boat registration number.
Any suggestions? I would appreciate any input the legal minds here could provide.
Thanks
man that sucks, best of luck to you
I would at least talk with a lawyer if you want to beat it. AS it stands, you probably wont be paying the 10 grand that is the fine or facing any type of time sentencing. But I would suggest that you make the story known as much as you can.
Can't offer you any legal advice but you left a bar and drove your "boat" home? :')
You know the story's not going to be pretty when it starts "my buddies and me went into a bar and..."
I'd send them a copy of what you just wrote...you never identified yourself as a police officer, nor intimated to anyone that you were going to...
Did you EVER say "I'm a police officer/LEO/FBI/BATF/CIA"? If not...the act of flashing your valid driver's license is NOT "impersonating anything"...if the drunk/dumb kid INFERRED that you were, it is HIS problem...not yours or the States.
I advise you to get a SHARK lawyer...if his parents or the kid are behind this, then they have to admit UNDER OATH that their delightful cherub was ILLEGALLY behind the wheel of an auto...so he hangs for it! That should take the starch outta them...
How did the cops get your name and address?
I am not a lawyer so I can't help you with this problem, but I am curious, did you state to the kid that you were an Officer? I will bet that the kid told the authorities that you did.
Is the complaint only by the kid or is his mother joining him? I would think she would be supporting you.
I don't see the problem if you never identified yourself as a cop. The kid was obviously so intoxicated that he thought your credit card was a police badge.
Chances are their story will fall apart upon questioning under oath.
I can't help at all, I just want to give you my sympathies. It stinks when you try to help people and you get stung for it.
If it had been my kid , my husband or I would have broken the window and hauled his butt out. Can't be much different than kicking a locked door in :') Good luck with this. I hope you weren't set up. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be the good guy, huh?
Not only was that the wrong thing to do, it was also kinda dumb. The guy in the car could have had a gun and blown you away. Anyway, get a good lawyer and hope you can bargain down to community service. I presume you have had no problems with the law in the past.
Get a lawyer, get a lawyer, get a lawyer.
Don't be cheap -- getting a lawyer now will be far better investment, than having any criminal conviction on your record ( it will ruin your credit, among other things, adversely effect your current and future job prospects, etc), not to mention the fine you end up paying.
Let me repeat:
Get a lawyer, get a lawyer, get a lawyer.
And get a good one.
Good luck!
OK, I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV, but my advice is to dump your drinking "buddies" and look for some chicks.
As the old saying goes,"No good deed goes unpunished."
Get a good lawyer is all I can say.
By using your wallet to appear to be a badge, you impersonated a police office in the state of Wisconsin. There could be video tape evidence of you doing this. Although our small towns are often though of as being hick towns, many establishments in small towns in Wisconsin do have cameras that can view certain areas. My guess is that this is how the found out, because if the kid wasn't suppose to be out drinking and had just gotten charged, there is no way he is going to go to the cops with this and risk stiffer penalties or probation being revoked.
I do certainly hope that when you left the bar you had not been drinking there. Kind of scarey to think that you would drive drunk.
Point blank and rather bluntly, take personal responsibility for your actions. Of course you knew you were impersonating a police office, why would you use your wallet to appear to be a badge?
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