Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

I left my friends house to walk home. It was about 1am and I turned around and saw a car turning around about a 100 yards away in a parking lot. I keep walking not thinking anything about it. I turn around a few seconds later and notice the car is slowly following me from a distance. Unfortunately I am one of the only black males that attend my college and have been harrassed many times at parties and on the streets and walking home early in the morning alone my insticnts were saying trouble. I decide to just jog home because I was about a hundred or so yards from my home and didn't want to get into anything stupid. As soon as I start jogging I hear somebody yell STOP. There were no lights or sirens at this time just a man yelling for me to stop from this car that has been following me. At this point I took off running like any normal person would do. I ran about 75 yards when I saw the lights turn on and the sirens turn on. I immediatly stopped and layed on the ground. The officer gave me a ticket for evading arrest. He said he was following me because a white male who fit my description (yes again I am african american) just got in a bar fight near there. And he wanted to make sure it wasn't me. I feel like this is something I can fight. I know this sounds like a sympathy story but it is the truth and I feel like I can go to court and win this, unfortunately I cannot afford a lawyer so any help I can get would be great. Thank you for your time.


Asked on 1/01/10, 9:28 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
JAY Nixon nixon law offices

Assuming that it was an unmarked squad car following you and that you had no way of knowing that it was the police, your initial decision to run sounds reasonable under your particular circumstances; my guess being that you occasionally get harassed due to being the only minority in your school. If you stopped promptly once the officer identified himself, your initial running would therefore not appear to be illegal. However, I have not yet heard the officer's side of the story, which may sometimes carry more weight in court that that of a citizen. I do not know if your charges are in criminal (circuit) court or municipal court, but if it is circuit court, you should be able to request representation from the public defender's office. If you are not eligible for a public defender (they do not cover municipal courts at all), you should speak with criminal lawyers in your area to see if you can get a break from their normal fees. If all else fails, you should request a trial on your own and make them prove the case, or see if the prosecutor will dismiss it voluntarily if you stay out of trouble for an agreed period of time and/or pay court costs. My comments here are not legal advice, nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us. However, you are welcome to contact my office to discuss retaining me or to set up a free initial consultation at my office in Racine. I also can sometimes arrange to travel outside of Racine for initial consultations if absolutely necessary.

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Answered on 1/07/10, 3:57 am


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