Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York
I am a Lieutenant in the Lakewood Fire Department. In my travels, I came across a vehicle that was illegally parked in a fire lane. The vehicle parked directly in front of a sign that says "FIRE LANE - TOW AWAY ZONE". Being nice, I did not want to tow the vehicle, it was at a mall. So I called the mall and a receptionist answered. I told her "This is Ryan with Lakewood Fire Department. Could I please talk to security? �She asked me what she could help with and I informed her that there was a vehicle illegally parked that I would like security to see if they could find an owner and have them move, because I don�t want to have the car towed. About 30 seconds later, the security guard comes out and informed me that it is his vehicle and that he will be moving it but he was running late. I said that was no big deal since he would probably know if we were coming there for a call anyways, he could move it quickly enough and everything. He seemed very understanding. Well today, I was called into the police department by the Sergeant Investigator and he said that this security guard filed a report stating that I was "impersonating a police officer" and that in his deposition he said that introduced myself as a police officer. I never did do that, I specifically said Lakewood Fire Department. The only thing that I could think of is that they put 2 and 2 together when I said Lakewood Fire Department, and Tow an Illegally Parked Vehicle, and security. So anyways, today I had to give a supporting deposition about what happened after I had my Miranda rights read to me. The investigator did not tell me all too much. He said that he knows I was in good intent and that I should have just called the police to handle the issue instead. I told him that if I would have known it was going to be this big of a deal, I would have. But I didn�t want to tie up a police car on a simple parking complaint. The Fire Chief's in our department DO have the authority to issue tickets. I do not believe I overstepped any authority as I just kindly security to find the owner and have them move the vehicle so it wouldn�t get towed. Should I contact a lawyer for this as of this point, or should I wait and see if anything else happens. I answered all the detectives questions today because I know I did not do anything wrong.
Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
You should contact your union immediately and get their lawyer on the case. Very little good can come from giving the police a statement without counsel present. You need a lawyer and fast. Also, don't put any more statements about the case on line.
You already gave a statement, so at this point just wait and see. If the security guard made an honest mistake, probably nothing will come of this since all you did was warn him about being illegally parked.
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