Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: lying to police officer during questioning

You have to separate moral guilt from legal guilt. If you now make an admission to the officer, you could only ompound your problems.

A criminal defense attorney in your area is who you should consult with, not the police. There will be plenty of time to admit things if and when it's appropriate.

Re: lying to police officer during questioning

If you decide to change your statement you could be facing "hit and run" charges. Such charges can have very hard or negative consequences which may effect areas of your life you have not thought about. Therefore before you make such a decision I suggest you contact a criminal defense attorney in your area and pay to consult with him or her for half an hour to discuss it. You will get sound legal advice that supplies you with the information you need to make an informed decision and you will have a attorney client relationship with the attorney regarding your discussion so it will be remain a confidential conversation. Furthermore if you should need the assistance of an attorney regarding the situation you will have someone lined up who is familar with the facts. If you do not know any attorneys in your area you can contact the local county bar association and they can give you named from their referral list. Feel free to contact my office if you have other questions. Good luck

Re: lying to police officer during questioning

I gather they do not have too much trouble concluding it WAS your car that hit the parked car. So your insurance or you will pay the damage. Sounds like a nice, tidy story with a happy ending.

Re: lying to police officer during questioning

A hit-and-run charge mentioned by Mr. McGinty is not the only thing you need to worry about. Lying about a material fact to a police officer in the course of an investigation is a separate crime. If you call the officer and admit what you did, you will thus be confessing to two different offenses for which you can be prosecuted and punished.

Ideally, you should have told the officer in the first place that you would not speak with him until you had a lawyer. Telling him a lie only increase to your need for competent legal counsel. Before you do anything else, get an attorney to represent you.