Legal Question in Criminal Law in North Carolina

My autistic son worked for only a few days as a janitor at an elementary school and quit the job because the supervisors were so shady to say the least. A couple months later, he received a call from the local police that wanted him to come in and question him about the theft of some laptops at the school a day or two after he quit. He and I went in as requested and they read him his rights and told him he was not a suspect, but that they had video footage of someone that looked like him in build but no facial pictures. My son was very upset and was raised as a good person and has never wanted for anything that we could not provide him. He was then asked to come back in a month or so to take a polygraph test and he willingly agreed.

He took that test today and the results were inconclusive, which really upset him. The person who administered the test from the SBI spoke with me afterwards and said that she agreed he was very figity and has a mental incapacitation that causes the test to not be able to accurately pass or fail him. I explained to her that he has been this way his entire life and takes medication for his illness. That he also sees a psychiatrist regularly. After being told the results, we were told we could leave and that it was up to the DA to decide whether to pursue him or not.

I am very upset with this entire situation. We have been cooperative with them all along, but this video that they state I cannot see makes them believe that he is guilty. What happened to innocent until proven guilty. Last time I checked, 90% of the population is his build. He is 5' 9" and 160 lbs. Once again, the only thing they have mentioned to me is that his build looks like him.

My questions are:

1. Is that type of evidence something that they could turn around and charge him for?

2. Is it even legal to administer a polygraph to someone with a mental disability?

3. Should I stop talking to these officers at this point, as they seem to want to base their investigation off of what THEY assume to be him?

Thank you for any help you can provide. Larry


Asked on 1/31/13, 6:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Why this isn't obvious to everyone I will never know - if law enforcement had what they needed to make an arrest, they would simply arrest you and not bother with questioning and polygraphs. When law enforcement asks you to 'cooperate' what they mean is - we don't have enough to make an arrest, won't you please be stupid enough to provide the missing information for us so that we can arrest you. You should have never went down for questioning and you definately should have never submitted to a polygraph. What you should have done is politely asserted your constitutional rights and consulted with an attorney - there is no telling how many innocent people are in jail right now because they thought they were doing the right thing by 'cooperating' with law enforcement. The sad fact of the matter is that Officer Friendly is no loger your friend once you get out of grade school! To answer your questions:

1) Everything he said can be used against him. The polygraph can not be used as court evidence but it may sway the DA to roll the dice and prosecute him.

2) Yes - assuming you consented.

3) YES! YES! YES! Please do stop talking to law enforcement and start talking to an attorney as soon as possible to see if anything can be done to undo the damage your well intentioned but incredibly naive 'cooperation' has done.

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Answered on 1/31/13, 6:47 pm


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