Legal Question in Criminal Law in Kentucky

I'm in Kentucky, and was set up by the police and wrongly arrested here in my hometown because I refused to work for the authorities. I was interrogated for 9 hours on thanksgiving night by officers and was told I had no choice but to work for them and if I repeated what I was told they would put me in jail or kill me. I tried to get out of their mix, and soonafter I was jailed. Now I'm fighting the county and losing. I'm out now on a failure to indict, and running scared. I have contacted the fbi and the u.s.attorney general's office, and neither have replied. I can't get anybody to hear my situation and take action. I know their operations and nobody is interested. My life is at stake, facing 35 years for something I didn't do, and am looking for help. My mom and dad hired a lawyer, but I think he is tied in with them too. He's not really working on my case and acts uninterested. Now that he's got our $10,000 he is hardly doing jack. I need advice as to who to contact for help. Really. Because I'm beginning to think all of theses people here are crooked. Any advice?


Asked on 9/02/10, 10:02 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Andrea Welker Welker Law Office

Local police matters generally aren't within the jurisdiction of the FBI and certainly not the US Attorney General. If you believe your civil rights were violated, then you probably want to contact the ACLU instead.

I'm not exactly sure what you expect to happen here, though. If what you say is true, and the police wrongfully detained you, threatened you and then fabricated evidence against you for some crime you didn't commit, what exactly do you expect your attorney to do to prove that evidence was planted? There is only so much an attorney can do, and if there really is some big conspiracy to charge you with some crime you didn't commit, then it's not like anybody is going to come forward and tell the truth. It would be your word against the word of several police officers, and take a guess who's going to be believed by a jury. Also, if they have failed to indict you with any crime so far, then there really is nothing any attorney can do. It's simply a matter of waiting to see if they bring the matter back before the grand jury, whatever the matter is, and get an indictment. Perhaps there are things in your situation that your attorney can be more proactive about, but you need to have a discussion with him about that.

Don't go in with the expectation that just because you paid an attorney, he's going to be able to magically fix whatever the situation is. This may be something no one can fix. Also, I somehow doubt that the police merely picked you out of the phonebook to harass and coerce into working for them. Is it possible you have an "in" with unsavory individuals, for instance, involving the trafficking of illegal substances, and that "work" is to become a confidential informant? If so, I would suggest making new friends.

Folks, if you're being questioned by the police, just say "I want my attorney, and I'm not talking to you." At that point, the interrogation must be stopped. Yes, police do not always stop questioning you, and they can still hold you for a certain period of time, but eventually they have to let you go. They're the police, not the mafia. If they're threatening you, or overstepping your civil rights, you can take legal action against them and hold them accountable. Corruption runs rampant in certain small towns in Kentucky, but they are still answerable to the authority of the state.

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Answered on 9/07/10, 12:45 pm


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