Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: Giving a statement to the police

A person can not change the past, of course. A statement a person gave in the past cannot be changed, other than something like a deposition subject to a right to read and sign. You can, however, give a second statement. Yes, the government can charge you with a crime for giving a false statement, and this can be misused by the government to effectively prevent the truth from coming out, at times. On the other hand, people change their statements to police all the time, and very rarely get charged with a crime for doing so, in actual practice. If you are concerned about this, a lawyer could help minimize or prevent risks involved. One important note: a statement given under oath, in court, is subject to a perjury felony charge, if false. A statement to police, not in court, not under oath, is not; and is generally only subject to a misdemeanor charge if false. So it is a worse crime to lie in court under oath than to lie to police initially. This issue arises most frequently in cases involving parties who know each other well, and made a statement to police while very angry, and in retrospect realize they had exaggerated, then seek to give a truthful statement that the accused did nothing wrong, only to find a prosecutor threatening them with prosecution if they dare tell the truth, that the initial allegation was false. Sometimes, the initial allegations are misunderstood by police, or the person making the statement was impaired by alcohol or mental illness, or other reasons why the person's initial statement was not reliable, such as they heard about it but didn't see it themselves, yet said they did initially. When in doubt, seek the help of a lawyer.