Resisting arrest charges dismissed in D.C.

Resisting arrest charges against a Koehler Law client were dismissed recently by the government.  This was after our trusty investigator Robert Kapler secured surveillance recordings that conclusively disproved the claims of Secret Service officers.

As I often tell Robert, sometimes our wins are attributable to my legal acumen.  Other times we win because of what he produces.  This win belongs in his column.

According to D.C. Code § 22-405.01, it is illegal to resist one’s own arrest.  It is also against the law to prevent the arrest, detention, or attempted detention of another person.  Either form of the offense is punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a $1,0000.  That the maximum punishable is greater than 180 days means that this charge is jury-demandable.

In this particular case, our client was accused of offending some other people near the White House. They then reported him to Secret Service officers who happened to be working nearby.

Captured by surveillance cameras, what the Secret Service officers do next is absolutely shameful. 

The officers do not approach our client calmly to seek his side of the story.  Instead, two officers run up to him as he attempts to get onto a bicycle.  They pull him off the bicycle without speaking with him or giving him an opportunity to cooperate. 

They throw him to the ground, one of the officers kneeing him in the back.  Three additional officers run onto the scene and also jump on top of our client, who is now curled up in a fetal position. The officers then tase our client – not once, but twice while he lay helpless on the ground.

Nobody should ever be treated this way:  He was protecting himself, not resisting arrest. 

Whenever the defense comes into possession of exculpatory evidence, there is always the question:   Do we share it with the government with the hopes that the government will dismiss the case?  Or do we wait and surprise them with it at trial?

The question really turns on the question of trust.  Do you trust the prosecution enough to do the right thing?

The answer in the old days was pretty clear cut:  “Yes, you are absolutely right,” the prosecutor would respond.  “The officers behaved poorly.  Thank you for turning it over.  We will dismiss the case immediately.”

I do not have the same confidence with respect to the new crew at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. But I made the decision to turn it over nonetheless.  And, although I eventually got the right result, I was dismayed by the delay:  The assigned AUSA sat on the video for over a month before she dismissed the case.

This was because of her workload:  “I am busy,” she told me.  “I will get to it when I get to it.”   The video was three minutes long.  

This prosecutor will not be getting my nomination for AUSA of the year.