Legal Question in Criminal Law in North Carolina

I had temporary custody of my sisters 2 teenage sons. She signed a power of attorney due to the fact she could not support them. She is an drug addict and has been in and out or rehab and prison most of the kids lives. When she gave me the power, we enrolled them in a non-public private school, and they were doing quite well. I live in NC, and she lives in FLA. She has a 12 year old daughter who chose to stay in FLA with her mom. This past Saturday, my sister drove 12 hours to NC, without even telling me. She showed up at my house in the middle of the night and said "the boys have to come home to FLA, she gave them hardly anytime to pack their things. Whenever I asked what was going on, she claimed the oldest child was ordered back to FLA due to being accused of sexual assault. I did not believe that, and started making phone calls to the police department there in FLA. On Tuesday, I finally talked to a detective, who said my nephew was NOT under investigation. The detective asked me for my sisters name, which I gave. He said there was an abuse case, but it was closed, because it was out of his jurisdiction. He then went on to say the investigation was completed by a school resource officer, and it was sent to the city PD where I live. I got nervous, because even though I know we(my husband and I) have done nothing wrong, we are just a little puzzled as to why an investigation is being done up here. We contacted the police station and have been told 3 different investigators are working on the case, and when we contact them, they seem to have no idea what we are talking about. Finally, one officer told us there was an investigation going on, but said he passed it on to another investigator, who may contact us next week or so to come in and answer some questions. But, he couldn't tell us what the investigation was. I haven't been able to contact my sister since she left NC with the kids. So, my question is, should we bring a lawyer with us, or is this simply an investigation where we are witnesses?


Asked on 11/01/13, 8:57 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Bring a lawyer to what? To go answer questions? Are you serious? You would actually just stroll in and happily answer questions and assist the people who are potentially investigating you simply because they asked you too? If law enforcement is asking you questions it is because they don't have the information they need to arrest you and they are hoping you will be stupid enough to provide the info to them. I mean think about it, if they had what they need why bother questioning you. Never ever under any circumstances whatsoever answer questions from law enforcement. Once you get out of grade school officer friendly ain't yer buddy no more!

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Answered on 11/01/13, 10:58 pm


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