If you are accused of a crime that you did not commit, there are several things you must do to protect yourself and help yourself with the case. Depending on the severity of the charges, false accusations can be really devastating and can put you in a really dark place. It wouldn’t be wrong to state that false accusations can really turn your entire world upside down.
Who is the Accuser?
If you are accused of a crime that you did not commit and the accuser is a person you know or a person who you really care about – then the betrayal of that level is really difficult to comprehend and process. When you are going through something like this, there is really not a lot that somebody can tell you, especially when they haven’t been through the same situation.
If You Know the Accuser
If the accuser is someone you know, you need to resist the urge to talk to them or explain the situation to them. Remaining silent is your best option. While it is incredibly important to avoid engaging verbally with the accuser, it is equally important to not be alone with the accuser.
The thing is that no matter what you say, everything can be taken out of context, and the accuser can twist those conversations and actually turn them into something else, such as harassment, stalking, and whatnot.
The Logical Thing To Do: Call A Lawyer
Now, you must fight your urge to respond to the accuser or to give them an explanation. Also, depending on the severity of the accusations, you might want to call an attorney. The attorney, together with their team of private investigators, can take a deep dive into the matter and help you fend off the accusation in court.
Meanwhile, make sure to collect supporting evidence and provide as much detail as possible to the lawyer so that they can get down to the nitty-gritty details and find evidence in your favor.
If the Law Enforcement is the Accuser
Now, if you are accused of a crime that you did not commit by the police, then again, it is in your best interest to keep your mouth shut and not talk about the case, including denying or explaining the situation. If you are arrested after the charges have been made by the police, don’t resist the arrest; cooperate with the police.
Practice Your Right of Silence
Again, you must practice your right to remain silent. Naturally, the police will want you to talk or deny or give an explanation about the case. However, you must keep in mind that whatever you say will and can be used against you, which is why the only thing that serves you during and after an arrest is to stay silent and only ask for a lawyer.
How Can the Lawyer Help?
Suppose you are in a situation where you are charged with drug possession by the police. In this scenario, it is in your best interest to get in touch with an attorney who exclusively deals with drug possession charges, such as the San Antonio Drug Trafficking Defense Lawyers, if you reside in San Antonio.
The lawyer will look for errors and holes in the charges, and their top objective will be to get the charges dropped or at least lessen the sentence. The lawyer will leverage your constitutional rights and assess whether they were violated by the police.
For instance, you might have been questioned by the police without you being given the chance to hire a lawyer. The police might have failed to read you your Miranda rights. You get the point – hiring an exclusive lawyer who handles the cases that you are accused of will always work in your best interest.
Keep A Journal
When you are accused of a crime that you did not commit, you are going through a lot of things. The thoughts that you can be having can be very overwhelming. However, you need to know that in such situations, you must remain calm and act strategically to get yourself out of such situations. The best thing you can do right after a false accusation is to create a timeline of the event as you experienced it.
Keeping a journal with you will allow you to jot down things as soon as you remember anything related to the accusation. The thing about memory is that the way you remember the instance today won’t be the same as how you will remember it a few weeks or months later.
The notes that you will make will prove helpful for your lawyer during the court hearings.
Create a List of Witnesses
You need witnesses by your side, which is why, apart from creating a timeline of the event, you need to create a list of potential witnesses as well. When it comes to creating a list of witnesses, make sure to jot down their names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and your relationship with each of the witnesses. Include a brief summary of their respective statements before giving the list to your lawyer. This way, your lawyer will know what to expect from the witnesses and how they can use those statements to help you fend off the false accusations.
Understand That You Are Not Lone
Finally, being accused of a crime that you did not commit can take a serious toll on your life as well as your mental and emotional health. On that note, you must understand that you are not alone in all of this. Of course, you need to separate yourself immediately from the accuser if they are someone you know and avoid engaging with them. However, you need to start collecting supporting evidence and make sure you have a witness who can testify to what happened and how it happened.Get in touch with a lawyer as soon as possible, and don’t worry about the lawyer’s fees as most lawyers have a contingency fee, which means that you don’t have to pay them anything upfront, and they will get paid only after they help you win the case.
