Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Help!!

If am undercover sting or operation is taking place, with you knowing it and you ask the undercover agent before proceeding with anything, if they are affiliated with, working or a member of any law enforcement or goverment agency and their responce is basically ''Hell no!'' and they sort of bust you because of that. Is that legal? Wouldnt that constitute Entrapment or something? Please Help!!!


Asked on 2/18/04, 1:28 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Help!!

Sorry, but no. Undercover police are not required to answer truthfully when asked if they are police officers.

The fact that an officer misleads you into believing he is a civilian does not constitute entrapment. Entrapment occurs when the police put so much pressure on a suspect that he commits a crime he would have been unwilling to commit otherwise.

We all have our limits and any of us can be pressured into breaking the law (some much more easily than others), but the police are not allowed to push someone over this line and then arrest them for it. It's not entrapment if the defendant was already inclined to break the law and the police just gave him an opportunity.

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Answered on 2/18/04, 3:16 pm
Lyle Johnson Bedi and Johnson Attorneys at Law

Re: Help!!

Cops lie to people all of the time. Lieing is interrogation technic regularly by the police. They even receive training in how to use lies to obtain confessions.

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Answered on 2/19/04, 2:16 am


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