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originally posted by: Alien Abduct
A friend of mine witnessed a shooting up close in a hotel lobby. Two men came in and one of them shot a guy in the lobby. The guy in the lobby shot back and killed one of the aggressors (the one without a gun).
My friend witnessed this up close and she is very distraught about it. The guy that returned fire killed the other guy and wasn't supposed to have a firearm. She has to go to court for him. The other guy that shot the guy in the lobby is going to court for attempting murder so she has to go to court for him.
Every time she has to go she relives the incident and now she is on medication for anxiety and other mental problems caused by this.
My question is can she exercise her right to remain silent and let the prosecutor know that that is what she is going to do every time he makes her go to court so he might as well stop making her go?
originally posted by: Alien Abduct
A friend of mine witnessed a shooting up close in a hotel lobby. Two men came in and one of them shot a guy in the lobby. The guy in the lobby shot back and killed one of the aggressors (the one without a gun).
My friend witnessed this up close and she is very distraught about it. The guy that returned fire killed the other guy and wasn't supposed to have a firearm. She has to go to court for him. The other guy that shot the guy in the lobby is going to court for attempting murder so she has to go to court for him.
Every time she has to go she relives the incident and now she is on medication for anxiety and other mental problems caused by this.
My question is can she exercise her right to remain silent and let the prosecutor know that that is what she is going to do every time he makes her go to court so he might as well stop making her go?
originally posted by: EternalShadow
a reply to: Alien Abduct
...
Either look at it that way, or ball up and take the obstruction, contempt or falsifying a statement charge.
originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Alien Abduct
Well, somewhere along the line your "friend" must have told someone she saw something because otherwise she wouldn't be called as a witness. If she would have just said...."I din't see nuttin'!"...right at the very start she'd be sitting on the couch drinking a cold one right now.
So, seems to me, she ignored her 'right to remain silent' right at the very beginning of all this, and this is the root of her problems now!
ETA - You know, there's a real valuable message to be learned here. People will say the damndest things in a high-stress environment. Law enforcement knows this, and they capitalize on it. Often, people feel compelled to get involved, their egos drive them to it; they want to be part of all the attention. They don't know it, but their best course of action is to just SHUT THEIR PIE HOLE and walk away. If, after thinking about it, with a clearer mind, they feel like they want to talk to someone about what they saw, LATER, then they should do so. Until then, they should just remain silent. You might want to remind your friend of this.
A friend of mine witnessed a shooting up close in a hotel lobby.
My question is can she exercise her right to remain silent and let the prosecutor know that that is what she is going to do every time he makes her go to court so he might as well stop making her go?