Criminal Trial Techniques; Police Fabricated Testimony.

The Municipal Court Cop Trick; How To Put Him Back In the Bag.

A police officer testifying for the State is often trapped into a hole during cross-examination by defense counsel, and like a rodent, he decides to take the offensive and attacks, with the fabricated sentence, such as, “... and the defendant admitted that the marijuana was his.”

Wow, what a shock for defense counsel; a glaring admission by the defendant, and not one word of this “alleged confession”, stated in the police report. How many defense attorneys have been caught in this trap; only later to scratch their head in disbelief.

Well this cop trick is easy to neutralize by defense counsel sending a pretrial letter to the prosecutor requesting that any admission of the defendant be disclosed to the defense prior to trial, so that the defendant, if necessary can file a Miranda Motion or Rule 104 Hearing to determine the statements admissibility.

When the cop attempts to make the make believe admission during direct or cross, defense counsel can object citing the no prior disclosure was made to defense counsel, thus denying the defendant’s opportunity to file a Miranda Motion and/or 104 Hearing to determine its admissibility and suppress the statement.

Remarkably, even a municipal court judges, will sustain this type of objection.