Do you think this action is a legit felony charge?

Believe me Christine, the county in which I work will probably drop the charge to jaywalking.

 

No matter what profession, we should all be held to the same standard. Perjury is a felony in most states to show the severity of the crime. If you lie in court, you could very well skew a case where either a guilty person went free or much worse an innocent man goes to prison. I'd say convict him of the felony and then tell him that if he stays out of trouble for 10 years he can apply to the governor to have it reduced to a misdemeanor. That way he has every opportunity to learn from his mistake.

 

That's petty much standard across the country now. 51 officers have been killed in the U.S. in the line of duty so far this year. Vehicle accidents were the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in the first half of 2013 (18%) and five of those were officers making traffic stops getting hit by passing motorists. Seems like a good idea to me to slow down or move over.

 

I think "frantically" is hyping it up too much. It came to my state a long time ago, it was either change lanes or drop down to 25 MPH. Basically you do either, but theres no chaos that results because of it, just traffic

 

Well its like someone stated before, perjury can convict or set someone free. If it was just a penalty, everyone would be blatantly lying in court and serving the 3 months or $1000 fine.

 

I wasnt ever implying this officers wasn't doin his job or getting the bad guys. And your right I dont know what he, you , or anyone else in you department does. I'm jus saying its pretty random that the same cop was involved in both situations, the first the guy being let off and the second being this guy all of a sudden openly admitting to lying without being questioned. And yes there's nothing wrong with stopping and questioning anyone, I guess that it just all fell into the right places.

 

it sounds like he deserved it for lying under oath.

 

I only read the 1st page.

1st thought, he should have kept lying, instead of admitting to a felony.
2nd thought, there seems to be a lot of disdain and mistrust of the cops in here.

 

I don't blame the cop, he was technically just doing his job, he just has to be a pretty huge *** IMO to follow up and charge a guy with a felony over a window tint. That screws the guys life over for good if it sticks.

In that cops situation I'd explain to the guy how bad he messed up and offer to help him scrape the tint off right there.

 

A couple of days ago we had a driver strike an officer and he was driving on a suspended license, failed to yield to an officer's emergency lights, texting while driving, and then struck the officer who was on a traffic stop. The officer's pelvis was shattered and her ribs broken along with other big time lacerations.

 

But you wouldn't mind an officer being ripped to shreds at court and charged for lying under oath now would you Trevor?

 

?? I was trying to say that the law doesn't make people crazy and change lanes frantically. But also I was agreeing with this law. Are you saying that an officer was hit as a result of this law?

 

No I am saying an officer was hit because someone failed to follow that law in addition to texting while driving.

 

Brett, I feel like if the guy was dumb enough to lie, dumb enough to admit he lied, and dumb enough to sign a statement then he's getting what he deserved. I would hope the same charges would be filed against any officer lieing under oath and that he/she would be removed from service. In situations where cops lie under oath but are never charged I still believe they should be removed from service.

 

Officers get hit because people don't pay attention (and are often complete idiots). Not paying attention is against the law while driving. Making a hundred new laws about paying attention won't help.

I do think the cop should have arrested the guy, I just hope it's not a felony conviction. Even tho' he may be able to get it taken off his record in the future, it screws him over pretty good for many years and it's an expensive hassle to get removed. Something that may be out of his reach if he's denied jobs or other opportunities because he's a felon.

Is the window tint ticket even a misdemeanor there or is it just a petty offense/infraction? It would be harsh to get a felony record for lying about something that isn't even considered a misdemeanor.

 

Would it be harsh for an officer to be fired over lying about something trivial in court?

 

Define trivial.

If your job requires an oath like this:

On my honor,
I will never betray my badge,
my integrity, my character,
or the public trust.
I will always have
the courage to hold myself
and others accountable for our actions.
I will always uphold the constitution
my community and the agency I serve.


Then, no, it would not be 'harsh' to be fired for lying in court.
However, it still wouldn't automatically become a felony in Christine's Book of Jurisprudence.

 

No it would not be harsh, wouldn't it be a felony to lie under oath? I mean if someone knowingly lies under oath what is trivial? Any instance of corruption, abuse of power, etc. is terrible for police as far as public perception is concerned. Not to quote spider man but police officers have great power and along with that great responsibility and any abuse of power undermines the large percentage of cops doing a good job.

 

Again over a window tint? No, that's pretty petty.

Lying on a drug charge, DUI, domestic dispute, etc is different.

But all things equal, you are right that I am of the mindset cops should be held to a higher standard when it comes to the law since they are the ones to enforce it.

I'm neutral on this scenario because its just so dumb. Window tints snowballing into a felony is seriously over kill, but the guy being dumb enough to actually admit this to a cop almost deserves it haha