Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

My son's father got pulled over in a vehicle that the police say was under investigation by the drug task force. When they pulled him over before they even walked to the car (Hands in the air) they started shooting because they claimed they seen a gun...my son's father said he thought they were going to shoot him dead and so he took off. He took them on a chase and ended up loosing control and crashed and then two police cars crashed into each other...they tried to run and got caught. They found no drugs and no gun. The police claim they probely threw it out, but the officer that was behind them the whole time did not see that. They said he tried to hit the officer and knuged the police car that was in front of him. They also claim this drug task force vehicle did not have a video. They dropped two charges and offered him a plea...my question is are these vehicles required to have video's and if they can't produce a video can the case be dismissed? Also if two differant officers had two differant storys on the beginning of how the stop went down can this also help him? If it helps this happened in Port Huron MI 48060 March 19th the charges are 1. assault harm less than murder 2.officer flee -3rd degree 3.police officer assault 4.police officer assault 5. destruction of police property


Asked on 5/21/10, 8:40 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Patrick Tracy Patrick J. Tracy, Esq, P.E.,

This is not a question that can be answered on a bulletin board. These are however, very serious charges. Some of the evidence may be supressed based on whether there was probable cause. My advice is to seek competent counsel to represent your son.

Patrick Tracy

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Answered on 5/25/10, 11:19 am
Neil O'Brien Eaton County Special Assistant Prosecuting Attorney

On-board video equipment is not required by law (statute or constitutional protection). Some departments have no $$$ for this. Some have the resources to equip all cars, and some can equip just some cars. I would be more concerned if the car was equipped with video that worked, yet it somehow was not activated. In my experience, most of these systems record automatically when the emergency lights or siren are activated (and some record a minute or two before they come on so you see what leads up to it all). As for the "different stories": here's what juries are told by judges: "People see and hear things differently. It is up to you to defermine whether someone was mistaken, or someone intentionally lied, and how much weight to give to those statements." It's not a free pass for the defendant.

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Answered on 5/25/10, 11:23 am


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