Devallis Rutledge
DA Special Counsel
Police Magazine
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A new Supreme Court ruling expands officers’ vehicle search capabilities.
Read More →After all you've gone through to make the collar and get the case prosecuted, the last thing you need is to cause a mistrial because of some miscue around the courthouse when your arrestee is on trial.
Read More →Hearsay rules confound police, lawyers, and judges alike. "Hearsay" is a statement made outside the courtroom that might be true or false, repeated in court to prove that it was true.
Read More →Miranda, Miranda, Miranda. Sometimes, we spend so much time on this one aspect of interrogation law that we tend to forget there are three other constitutional tests of admissibility of a suspect's statement.
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The U.S. Supreme Court recently considered whether it was permissible under the Fourth Amendment for law enforcement officers to locate witnesses to a fatal hit-and-run accident by setting up a checkpoint to stop vehicles.
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Is it always necessary to comply with knock notice before forcing entry to serve a search warrant?
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Documentation and self-control are the keys to protecting yourself against charges of unreasonable force on persons in custody.
Read More →A pretrial identification procedure is considered too unreliable if it is "so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of misidentification."
Read More →Obviously, no reasonable officer is going to risk his or her personal safety or the public safety in order to satisfy rules regulating the admissibility of evidence in a criminal trial, or even to avoid personal civil liability.
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Sometimes the man or woman in charge shoulders the blame, even when not personally involved in an incident.
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