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Courts will be open, but primarily to deal with emergencies. Matters will be addressed via teleconferences or video conferences. Final decisions in all types of legal matters may be held at bay for months.

As an alternative, parties in civil matters, family and domestic relations matters, such as divorce, modifications, custody and support actions have an alternative. They and their attorneys can seek an alternative to pursuing their remedies in court. The alternative is attorney assisted mediation and arbitration. There are many arbitration services in which by agreement the parties can litigate their dispute of legal matter to a final resolution, often for less than the cost of litigating the matter in court.             

If you have a legal matter of any type that has been delayed or interrupted, contact us so we can determine if there are viable alternatives to pursing your important legal matter in court, or suffering by court closures and uncertain delay.  Our attorneys can also act as experienced neutrals should you desire our services in mediation matters.

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The police have called; they want to talk to you or a family member and you are unsure of what you should do. The answer is straightforward, and we can’t stress it enough: Do not talk to the police.  You may think you have nothing to hide, that there is no reason not to talk to the police, that they will think you are guilty of something if you do not talk to them; that you are not cooperating.

Do not be intimidated and do not talk to the police.

The first thing you should do is to seek the advice of an experienced attorney who will deal with the police on your behalf.  If the police suspect that you have done something wrong you will not help yourself by talking to them or answering any questions.  There have been hundreds of cases of people who were innocent of any wrongdoing, yet nevertheless confessed to committing a crime during the course of a police interrogation.  Many of these false confessions only came to light after DNA testing proved conclusively that the accused who actually confessed did not commit the crime.  One of the most famous cases of false confessions is the Central Park jogger case – the defendants all confessed to a crime that they did not commit, only to be exonerated after many years in jail.

O’Connor and Ryan has successfully represented thousands of persons accused of crimes, from drunk driving, drug cases, to rape and murder.  If you are confronted by the police or arrested for a crime call us for help.

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A False confession may seem like a rare occurrence. Do you think someone would confess to a crime that they did not commit?

If you are inclined to say no, keep reading.  All too often people are subjected to police interviews or interrogations in cases where they have truly done nothing wrong and have not committed any crime.

These folks agree to talk to the police because they know and believe that they have nothing to hide, so they think ‘what is the harm in talking to the police?’.  But this can be a fatal mistake. Innocent people, subjected to lengthy police interrogations do admit to acts that they did not do. The innocence project notes that 1 out of 4 people wrongfully convicted but later exonerated by DNA evidence made a false confession or incriminating statement.  There are many reasons for this.  A police interrogation, (sometimes euphemistically called an “interview”), can be a psychologically coercive and isolating event in which the will of the person being questioned is worn down, sometimes with threats, promises, false statements and other forms of deception.

There are many documented cases of bad police interrogations leading to false confessions. Some people spend many years in jail as a result, while a few manage to prove that they were innocent in spite of saying otherwise. For an example of a bad interrogation, and one which I was able to establish as false, is demonstrated on WBUR’s Anatomy of a Bad Confession.

Credit: WBUR Anatomy of a Bad Confession: Worcester Police Sgt. Kevin Pageau, right, and Detective John Doherty, left, interrogate Nga Truong, 16, following the 2008 death of her baby boy. (WBUR screenshot)

Avoid a False Confession by Knowing Your Rights and Contacting a Lawyer Immediately

You must ask for and obtain the advice of an attorney before any interview or interrogation occurs, and you must make sure the police videotape that interview or interrogation in its entirety.  Do not answer questions without these important safeguards and do not be too intimidated to ask.  Do not think because you are innocent of any wrongdoing that there is no need for these important and constitutional safeguards.  The police may not tell you that you have a right NOT to talk to them.  The police may not tell you that the interview may be video or audio taped.  If you ask for a lawyer they may and often do suggest – “oh you must be guilty if you’re asking for a lawyer.”  Do not be fooled or intimidated.  When in doubt, do not talk or answer questions and seek the advice of a lawyer no matter whether the crime or action involved are serious or not.

O’Connor and Ryan can help you if you’ve been charged with a crime, and we have a strong history of ensuring our clients are granted the rights they deserve- contact us today.

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