Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia
True Story: a VA (county not revealed for my protection) deputy uses a confidential reliable informant, who is driving a vehicle and has a passenger holding an ounce of meth, to make a traffic stop. when he stops the car he doesnt explain why, he stops them only because the informant gave him their location and the informant has waived her 4th amendment. The deputy obtains the ounce, arrests the passenger and then writes a police report and states the stop was for a loud exhaust and had info from an informant not at the scene of stop. The deputys report contains several lies: there is no exhaust leak (Have reciepts for new exhaust 1 yr earlier), the driver was the only informant. the driver is willing to testify her involvement and has tape recorded conversations she (CI) had with the deputy that prove the driver was the sole informant,she has the deputy recorded saying he lied on the report to hide the drivers identity so that it would not be revealed even in court! I am the driver/CI and I was intimidated by that deputy and did this to my husband, I wanted to confess to husband, and was told i better not and that is when the deputy told me what hed wrote in report and I recorded it. the deputy lied on his police report, is that alone reason for the charges to be dismissed or not tried? Could the deputy be prosecuted and/or fired?If charges go to federal court instead of state, would the county deputys lies have same effect on the trial in a US fed. court as on trial in VA court?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Alleged lies coming from the mouths of law enforcement officers regarding the integrity of a "cop stop" for probable cause would be unlikely to have any different effect (once proven) whether the matter was prosecuted in state or federal court.
If the charges were not dismissed before trial, the defense counsel for the accused would likely find it appropriate to initiate a motion to surpress the evidence.
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