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Lies Becomes Cops’ Way Of Doing Business

By NORM PATTIS

Candor is more than a cardinal virtue among lawyers. It is a professional requirement, something like the air we breathe. Whether dealing with the court or third parties, lawyers are expected to be truthful and fair. Perhaps that makes us quaint. It certainly makes us easy marks for those who view deception as part of their craft.

A young lawyer in my office was recently made the dupe of some liars. And when the lawyer confronted the liar, things got even worse. I wish that jurors could see what the lawyer has seen: Truth sacrificed to tactical objectives and then lies adopted as a matter of self-defense. All this done by our guardians, state troopers strutting their stuff in the name of public service.

It started easily enough. A young man is stopped by state troopers for some reason or another. He is ticketed. The police seize his car. When he asks his lawyer why the cops took his car, he doesn’t get an answer. So his lawyer calls the Troop I barracks in Bethany for an answer. Getting none that makes any sense, the lawyer writes a letter demanding return of the car.

A trooper calls. The legal department has cleared return of the car. So the lawyer and client appear at the barracks to retrieve it. When they arrive, the young man is whisked off in cuffs, arrested on a warrant the state troopers had perfected while they held the car.

Veterans in the business of cops and robbers see this for what it is: Another lie blessed by the self-proclaimed strategic needs of law enforcement. Hasn’t the Supreme Court condoned such modest acts of deception? We don’t require candor of cops, yet those who lie to law enforcement can face prosecution, an odd asymmetry in a republic.

The young lawyer was incensed. Our office has for many years now represented folks charged with crimes. That sometimes means turning a person in who has an active warrant lodged against them. We’ve also turned over firearms and other contraband. We don’t counsel flight from arrest.

After the client was booked and processed, the lawyer returned to Troop I to confront the liar with a badge. The trooper was incensed, no doubt counting the lawyer among the naïfs that officers are free to bilk in the great game of liar’s poker they call a day’s work.

I am not sure why the lawyer returned to the barracks. In a sense, it was refreshing to see a soul so possessed of a sense of honor that it was capable of being wounded by routine deceit.

Things turned ugly. The lawyer spoke bitter words. When the trooper threatened an arrest for breach of the peace, the lawyer reminded him that an officer’s peace cannot easily be breached. The trooper then shoved the young lawyer, who defended himself by raising his hands. On impact, the lawyer was forced backward, injuring a finger he uses to pick chords on the guitar he plays with professional ease.

“I tripped,” the trooper now said, so accustomed to lying.

The lawyer demanded that a criminal complaint be sworn against the trooper. For hours, he waited in the lobby of the barracks for someone to take his complaint. When one was finally taken, word filtered out from state police that troopers were now seeking a warrant for the lawyer’s arrest. And they intended to file a grievance against the lawyer, too.

Bring it on, I tell the state police brass later. There will be no pleas here. This prospective prosecution is a farce. Give us a chance to educate a jury about cops playing liar’s poker and calling it justice.

Plato once wrote that there are three sorts of souls. One class is incapable of knowing the truth, but possesses the spirit necessary to defend. I often think of these clueless mastiffs as police officers. The courts do us no favors by requiring us to obey those free to lie to us. That is the very essence of unthinking authoritarianism. •

Norm Pattis is a criminal defense attorney and civil rights lawyer in Bethany. Most days he blogs at normpattis.blogspot.com.