Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin
If I took responsibility for a pipe that wasnt mine but I said it was to help out a person, can I go back on that and tell the court it was theirs and not mine?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Not necessarily, since law enforcement usually only gives a person one chance to tell the truth. Once you begin telling competing versions of the same story, the only realistic conclusion is to reject everything that you say (except for possibly the first version), since you would then begin to resemble a pathological liar. Any logical analyst at that point would tend to conclude that everything you said was self- self-serving at best, regardless of your motives, if not totally unworthy of belief. Additionally, lying to a police officer who is investigating a case is a misdemeanor in WI (obstructing an officer) under WI law, and is a felony to the FBI (obstruction of justice) in federal cases. This makes it problematic to now go to police and try to set the record straight, since you thereby expose yourself to new and totally separate criminal charges which new charge might actually be more serious than the original charge. It is therefore extremely difficult to try to reopen an old conviction on the basis that you lied to police the first time that you were interviewed, but have since "seen the light" and are now telling the "truth." Most judges would conclude that there is simply no reason to take anything that you says seriously, resulting in a denial of your motion to reopen. Experienced criminal lawyers, however (particularly those with a law enforcement background themselves), know of ways to rebut some of these presumptions with other evidence, if any is available. If you are serious about doing trying to reopen your old conviction, you therefore owe it to yourself to schedule a private consultation with an experienced criminal lawyer. Please be aware that my responses to you in the public web forum do not make me your attorney and that I am not representing you or taking any action on your case. These answers are intended for public educational use only. Regardless of this, however, you are still welcome to contact me during business hours at my in Racine if you still have questions.
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