B
Bruzilla
Guest
A detective from the Clay County Sherriff's Office left a message on my phone today indicating that he had interviewed my youngest son at his high school this afternoon. He said that he had received word that my son might know someone who was involved with an act of vandalism that occured at another school some weeks ago. When my son got back from school he told me that the detective had had him called in at the school and "talked" to him about the incident at the other school.
At that point I called the detective, and he told me that my son was not a suspect and that the only reason that he had called my son in was that someone had told him that he had heard my son saying that he knew someone who knew someone who might be involved. He told me that he had called me after the interview and had left a message, which I told him I had received, and I told him that I had no problems with him asking my son for the information. I also told him that if I heard anything about the crime that I would forward the info along to him.
I then went and talked to my son and told him that the police didn't suspect him of doing anything wrong and that they had only called him in to ask him about who he knew that might know more. My son then told me that that was not what the detective had asked him about. He told me that the detective had asked him several questions that implied he was a suspect, such as:
"Why do you think that I had you called in here?"
"There's a lot that's been going on and what do you know about it?"
"Do you know how severe the punishment for this crime is?"
"Would you be willing to submit to a polygraph?"
"We got fingerprints and shoe tracks from the crime scene, and is there any reason to believe they might be yours?"
These questions seemed a far cry different from the "can you tell us who you heard might be involved" questions the detective had told me about, and seemed to be more of an open-ended fishing expedition that a simple request for information, so I called the detective back and told him that his account of the interview differed quite a bit from my son's without offering any details... in short I ran the "I Know What You Did" trick on him. The detective immediately went into defensive mode and started telling me that he only asked "those types of questions" as a means to determine an emotional state for the person he is questioning (in short to see if they get nervous or defensive) and that he asks those types of questions of everyone he talks to. At this point I hadn't asked about any specific questions, but he knew exactly which questions I had a concern with. I told him that in my opinion he had violated my minor son's rights by questioning him about a possible crime without the consent or presence of a parent or a lawyer.
His response was that he had never asked any accusatory questions, but in my opinion his definition of an accusatory question might be fine when dealing with adults but asking open-ended, leading, questions of a 16-year old who's been drug in out of class with no explanation is not right. I felt that I should have been called prior to the interview, not afterwards. The detective tried to use the dodge that they only wanted to ask my son about if he did know someone who might be involved, but that was not the nature of the questions. He then tried to dodge the issue by repeatedly assuring me that my son was not a suspect, which I said made no difference in this situation. Basically, if you are going to ask a minor child questions that are designed to coerce an incriminating statement from them, a parent or lawyer needs to be present.
Getting nowhere with the detective I asked to speak to his supervisor, who in short told me that there are no "Florida" laws that prohibit the police from pulling in a minor and questioning them without a parent or lawyer, which I find very, very, hard to believe, but I think is also a violation of the 5th ammendment. He told me that they can talk to any minor about anything, without anyone's presence, to which I told him that if that's true I doubt there are many parents that know that.
I'm going to talk to the principal at the school tommorrow and get some feedback from him, then I'm going to the Jacksonville newspaper and some of the TV stations to see if they'll raise this issue and inform parents that they're kids are leaving more of their rights at the bus stop.
At that point I called the detective, and he told me that my son was not a suspect and that the only reason that he had called my son in was that someone had told him that he had heard my son saying that he knew someone who knew someone who might be involved. He told me that he had called me after the interview and had left a message, which I told him I had received, and I told him that I had no problems with him asking my son for the information. I also told him that if I heard anything about the crime that I would forward the info along to him.
I then went and talked to my son and told him that the police didn't suspect him of doing anything wrong and that they had only called him in to ask him about who he knew that might know more. My son then told me that that was not what the detective had asked him about. He told me that the detective had asked him several questions that implied he was a suspect, such as:
"Why do you think that I had you called in here?"
"There's a lot that's been going on and what do you know about it?"
"Do you know how severe the punishment for this crime is?"
"Would you be willing to submit to a polygraph?"
"We got fingerprints and shoe tracks from the crime scene, and is there any reason to believe they might be yours?"
These questions seemed a far cry different from the "can you tell us who you heard might be involved" questions the detective had told me about, and seemed to be more of an open-ended fishing expedition that a simple request for information, so I called the detective back and told him that his account of the interview differed quite a bit from my son's without offering any details... in short I ran the "I Know What You Did" trick on him. The detective immediately went into defensive mode and started telling me that he only asked "those types of questions" as a means to determine an emotional state for the person he is questioning (in short to see if they get nervous or defensive) and that he asks those types of questions of everyone he talks to. At this point I hadn't asked about any specific questions, but he knew exactly which questions I had a concern with. I told him that in my opinion he had violated my minor son's rights by questioning him about a possible crime without the consent or presence of a parent or a lawyer.
His response was that he had never asked any accusatory questions, but in my opinion his definition of an accusatory question might be fine when dealing with adults but asking open-ended, leading, questions of a 16-year old who's been drug in out of class with no explanation is not right. I felt that I should have been called prior to the interview, not afterwards. The detective tried to use the dodge that they only wanted to ask my son about if he did know someone who might be involved, but that was not the nature of the questions. He then tried to dodge the issue by repeatedly assuring me that my son was not a suspect, which I said made no difference in this situation. Basically, if you are going to ask a minor child questions that are designed to coerce an incriminating statement from them, a parent or lawyer needs to be present.
Getting nowhere with the detective I asked to speak to his supervisor, who in short told me that there are no "Florida" laws that prohibit the police from pulling in a minor and questioning them without a parent or lawyer, which I find very, very, hard to believe, but I think is also a violation of the 5th ammendment. He told me that they can talk to any minor about anything, without anyone's presence, to which I told him that if that's true I doubt there are many parents that know that.
I'm going to talk to the principal at the school tommorrow and get some feedback from him, then I'm going to the Jacksonville newspaper and some of the TV stations to see if they'll raise this issue and inform parents that they're kids are leaving more of their rights at the bus stop.
