Any help would be helpful here. I don't have enough money to hire an attorney, and I hear court appointed attorney's don't really offer much help. So can the report be dismissed for making false statements, and if so would you know any of the court cases were this actually happened?If a police officer makes false statements on a police report, is it possible to get his report dismissed?
If you have some sort of proof, then MAYBE. Merely saying the statement is false, is not proof. They know you thinks it false, thats why you plead not guilty. You would need some irrefutable proof that the statements made by the officer where false, and not clerical error false, knowingly perjury false. Then the charges MIGHT be dismissed, depending on the other evidence and nature of charges.
Having the report dismissed may be irrelevant, anyway. All a report is is the statement of what happened. They may have other evidence that links you to whatever the charge is.If a police officer makes false statements on a police report, is it possible to get his report dismissed?
Reports are not stand alone items that are used as evidence.
Reports are nothing more than an officer's records of the event. The statements on the report mean nothing in court as the officer would have take the stand to testify. It's at that point that an attorney would ask questions of the officer and show that his testimony contradicts his report. If his testimony is a lie, it would be up to your attorney to ferret that out and prove he is making false statements in his testimony.
So in short, the report is only there to give the DA a recap of the events that took place.
And for those that think we lie, get real. If any officer was ever caught perjuring himself in court, their career would be over right then and there. No testimony would ever go without be scrutinized and questioned again, and no jury would ever believe you again. We have no reason to lie. If the scumbag gets away with it, so what? He's a scumbag, we'll get him later on another crime.
By the way research has shown the thetre is no significance difference between private attorneys and public defenders so if your case is not a big one I would not borther about hiring a attorney.
As for the false report, tell the public defender about it or just file a complaint with the police department. Internal Affairs would investigate.
Among Police Officers there is a saying '; You Lie, You Die';, meaning if you lie on the job the department will fire you
because if that same officer was to testify in court and the defense attorney finds out about his lie, his testimony will be thrown out.
Roy
It depends on the error on the police report. If it makes the situation void, it would be dismissed, but it's your word against his, and likely the court is going to side with the officer. If he simply made a clerical error or forgot to write something down, hey, we are all human, and it would be thought of as such.
I doubt it. Most police officers are trained on how to ';Testilie'; instead of ';Testify';. It makes convictions much easier for them to obtain in court.
They know what they are doing and are very good at it.