12/11/2018

Defending Yourself Against A Charge Of Resisting Arrest NJ Law Enforcement Brings

By Thomas Cooper


There are a lot of people who have strong feelings about some of the policies and attitudes taken by the current administration. This can cause them to make signs, attend rallies, and take to the streets. Sometimes when law enforcement tries to break up a demonstration innocent protesters are accused of resisting arrest NJ officers threaten them with.

You can be accused if you do not obey an officer's instructions exactly in the middle of a tense situation. If you are seen as a resistor, you can be arrested and jailed although what you did was not really unlawful. You need to understand that it is up to the prosecution to prove a case against you. They must prove that you understood the individual you had the conflict with was in fact a real police officer. The prosecution must prove the officer acted legally and your behavior was intentional.

The most common ways protesters resist officers is by struggling or fighting when law enforcement attempts to detain them. You might lay down, sit down, or go limp when an officer tries to remove you from an area. You could also be arrested for giving a fake name or bogus information when an officer asks you to verify who you are and whether or not you have the right to be in a certain space.

Breaking this law has serious consequences. If you are convicted on a misdemeanor charge you could be looking at a year in jail and up to four thousand dollars in fines depending on where you live. You might be going to a probation officer for as much as five years and be required not to commit the same offense during that time.

A felony conviction has much more serious consequences. You can be sent to jail for as long as three years. If you are convicted in Louisiana, you could be looking at a ten year sentence. You may have to pay restitution in the form of ten thousand dollars. You will have to see a parole officer for a specified amount of time every month or week.

If there is an upside to a charge of intentional resistance, it is that the charge is hard to prove. Your lawyer might defend on the premise that the officer used excessive force and you were forced to protect yourself in self-defense. The lawyer may also argue that the officer was not authorized to arrest you.

You can argue that the report is not factual. You have to be careful if this is your defense because it probably won't help your case to openly accuse the officer of lying. Instead you should argue that the report doesn't reflect the incident as you experienced it.

Another argument is you did not pose any real threat or potential harm. Yelling at a police officer or running away, without actually doing any harm, can be a valid argument. Whatever your defense, it takes a good lawyer, on your side, to argue it.




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