And here the defendant talked to a Federal Agent, they determined that he was lying and followed him.
He is in the country illegally, under an assumed name and possible false identity. Not Cool, At All.
The concept of innocent until proven guilty requires evidence and a chain of responsibility for said evidence.
If there is no evidence or they fail to secure the evidence, how then would our justice system maintain its reasonable integrity?
If the evidence were to mysteriously disappear because it was never in the custody of the Agents and a chain of custody was not maintained, then there could be no case and they would have to let the man roam free.
The Martha Stewart example was a joke and I had hoped you would see it. I personally don’t think lying to a Federal Officer should have the punitive effect of lying under oath.
But, there it is. The government had no case regarding her stock transaction and only pursued and prevailed on lying to Federal Agent.
Total Joke.
The passport provided was valid. Whether it was illegally obtained has yet to be determined. The 2nd passport was canceled which makes it irrelevant (and not illegal to possess) regardless of who it was issued to.
My bone of contention is that the firearms have nothing to do with the arrest and, so far, have not been demonstrated to be illegal. Pre-emptive confiscation of legally held arms is a frightening concept I don't want to happen in this country, regardless of who they are taken off of.
We are in agreement that what happened to Martha Stewart was a travesty. They went after her because of who she was, not what she did (allegedly)