LabRat wrote:Seabear wrote:I was reading the road rage thread and remembered that I hadn't posted this story.
Recently a friend of mine told me about a bad situation his nephew is in. Seems he was riding his motorcyle to or from work and a lady cut him off nearly hitting him. He watched her go ahead and nearly swipe another unrelated MC. The second ridder flipped her off and sped away. When they came to the next stop light my friends nephew yelled at the lady telling her she nearly hit him and the other rider and that she needed to pay attention. The light turned green and he took off. Next thing he knows this lady is tailgating him. He speeds up and gets away from her. When he gets home 3 police officers show up and say that the lady had called in and said that he waived a pistol at her and threatened her. As it turns out he has a CHL and was carrying. He explained to the police what happened and that he in no way would have done that and risk loosing his CHL and his job for which he has to have top security clearance. 2 officers believed him and felt the lady was lying, but one didn't believe him. Now he has a little legal battle to deal with.
It mad me realize just how easy a CHLer could be falsely accused and when checked, sure enough, there is a gun. Hmmm, how you gonna get out of that one?
A lot of things went wrong in this scenario from the get-go.
1st: The first person to call the cops is the victim, regardless of what was done.
If you see a dangerous maneuver, call the cops, give good info and let them sort it out.
2nd: Never interact negatively with another motorist; either verbally or by demonstration (swerving near to them, etc.)
Don't do it and then refer to #1 above.
3rd. Once the police arrive at your house, speaking to them will result in no good outcomes.
(I input in another thread regarding this thought).
There is no way to talk yourself out of being arrested or charged. Either they've already decided to arrest or not.
What you say will not sway them one way or the other and you give them further information they didn't already have or suspect.
Remember, 3 cops were sent, not 1....so someone already thought this was a very serious matter.
Now that the cops have verbal information from the accused (rightly or not), its not just the woman's word against the rider, all 3 cops will now testify that:
a) defendant told us he had a verbal altercation with the woman (confirms an important piece of her story);
b) He was carrying a handgun at the time we spoke to him (can't be avoided due to CHL rules on identification), and here's the kicker.
c) He stated that he did have a handgun at the time the woman reported (albeit falsely) that he pointed a gun at her.
All the cops had before he spoke was her accusation and the fact that he was carrying a gun at the time THEY SPOKE TO HIM.
The now-defendant supplied the information that he had the gun at the time of the verbal altercation.....that slams the door on "Honest officer, I didn't do it because I'm a CHL holder" defense. "People" are capable of anything at anytime. Its like your stockbroker telling you "past performance is no indication of future results".
While 2 out of 3 cops believed the guy, it only takes 1 officer to arrest anyone. And you likely won't be able to use that "disagreement" between them as any indication of whether the MC rider is really innocent. It'll be inadmissible since its opinion, not based on "fact" (wherever they may have come from).
In this case a camera video would help alot if it captures the entire event. Doubtful.
This woman guessed and got lucky; but the MC rider helped build the case against himself.
All this is just my opinion................
LabRat