Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Texas

I have recently had a false charge/statement filed against me. The Detective in charge of the case told me that at the time, when he initially questioned me at my home, that he had enough evidence to have a arrest warrant issued and arrest me right then. Since then, I have helped him to find evidence proving my innocence and the part of the case involving me has been closed. The only thing is that I was charged/accused of Felony Michief, and this has cause me emotional and mental stress, on top of stress of being harasses via the police constantly being called for false accusations, and am wondering what I can do. If I can get an attorney what type of attorney handles this type of case and would there be one that would take the case probono, since I am disabled and really do not have the funds for high legal fees. This has been continuous for the last 4 months (the beginning of September 2010). It has also affected my mother, who is now having to wear a heart monitor for an undetermined amount of time, because they are harassing her as well, just to get to me.


Asked on 12/21/10, 5:46 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
ERICK PLATTEN LAW OFFICE OF ERICK PLATTEN

Hello there,

I would like to know if you were formally charged for an offense. You might have been threatened with charges and feel as if you had formal charges but actually nothing was filed.

So, were you arrested?

Did the County or District Attorney file an information or indictment against you?

If the answer to these questions is no, then you didn't have any formal charges filed against you and your help with the police cleared you from having any formal charges filed against you.

Now, can you sue the police? In order to be able to sue a law enforcement agency they must be acting in a certain way or harming you in a manner that violated your civil rights. These cases are known commonly as USC 1983 civil rights actions. These are normally filed whenever the police use excessive force against you or torment you in a certain manner that is not consistent with their authority.

The police are protected from being sued and you have a high burden to meet to pierce through this veil to be able to sue law enforcement.

Sincerely,

Erick Platten

Platten Law Office

304 West Rusk Street

Tyler, Texas 75701

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Answered on 12/27/10, 11:32 am


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