Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Could a drug case get get thrown out due to multiple errors on the arrest reports written by police and investigator? Can the arresting officer and investigator write up an arrest report months after the incident and back date them? With incorrect dates and incorrect address the arrest happened?


Asked on 1/31/15, 8:22 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Samuel Edmunds Sieben Edmunds Miller PLLC

Perhaps. It depends on whether the errors amount to violations of the constitution, or otherwise infringements of your rights. As for the writing of reports, I suppose officers can write reports anytime they please. If a report is written months later, we might be able to challenge the accuracy of the reports based on the passage of time. The date/address issues normally don't help if they are clerical errors that the government can easily fix. Bottom line is that if you're charged with a drug crime, you need a defense lawyer immediately. Don't talk to the cops unless we tell you to.

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Answered on 2/01/15, 5:35 pm
Thomas C. Gallagher Gallagher Criminal Defense

Could it be? Sure. If it does it will take a lot more than that, though. Yet these things could be helpful to building an effective defense. Errors like that typically are not enough standing alone, to cause dismissal of a criminal case. But sometimes we can connect them to other flaws which can then result in a defense win. It's great to look for defenses like this. It's even better to be working with your criminal defense lawyer to look at all the known facts, to help construct the best defense possible.

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Answered on 2/02/15, 12:47 pm


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