Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Idaho

Re: Setting up a sting without proof of wrong doing

This is criminal, not civil. The police can and they do

hide in wait in many circumstances in an effort to catch people

committing crimes. The typical is where the police park outside a

bar and follow bar patrons after they leave to determine

whether someone is driving while intoxicated.

The police didn't set a trap for you to step into, you

placed yourself in the position of being arrested because you

had alcohol in your possession. The police didn't put the

alcohol in your possession, therefore, there was no trap.

If you are talking about entrapment, the answer is a

little bit different. Entrapment is when the police put the

idea of committing a crime into someone's mind, to commit a

crime he would not otherwise have committed. If the person

already had the intent to commit a crime, there is no

entrapment.

However, the police didn't entrap you either. They didn't

place the idea of committing a crime into your mind.