Michael A Haber PA Criminal DUI Defense Litigation Miami Blog

Why You Should NEVER, EVER, Speak to the Police without a Criminal Defense Attorney, by 20 y/o Daniel Garcia of Houston, TX

Meet 20 y/o Daniel Garcia (yes, that's his mug shot below...).  If the articles that I've read (which all essentially say the same thing) are even half true, then that right below is the face of "S-t-u-p-i-d" (with a capital "S").

Why?  Simple:  Because Daniel spoke to the cops and confessed to crimes that they'd've had one a hell of a hard time connecting to him, much less proving in a courtroom, had he just simply invoked his rights, shut his yapper and let his lawyer do the talking, and thinking, for him.

The lady had Pagetel employees transfer her data from her old phone to her newly purchased albeit used Samsung and when she got home and scrolled through she was shocked to find multiple images of child pornography in the camera's photo memory, prompting her to call police.  A cop techie CSI type found hundreds of images of child porn on the phone, including graphic images of children, some as young as four (4) years old, in sexually explicit situations.  Further investigation resulted in a list of prior subscribers, among whom was, yup, you guessed it, Danny-boy.

So the cops show up at his door, unannounced, and seek a discussion.  Mind you this is a discussion that Danny, and anyone in the US of A, is entirely free to fore go, but not our unsung hero.  Danny agrees to speak to the cops and as it turns out he not only speaks to them but he sings, and he does so in a manner worthy of the old Irish ditty... only the ending of Danny's own personal aria doesn't have him sitting over another crying about love lost; rather, in this version, Danny goes to prison, where he will make all sorts of new friends and embark on all sorts of adventures, perhaps sparking ditties of his own which will be sung for the ages in his memory.... Frankly, I don't think that I can get much more sarcastic than that, but the point to be made is that had Danny just shut up then the cops would have had to have proven that he was the one who downloaded the illegal images and that he had knowledge, as opposed to any of the phone's other prior subscribers.  And given the facts that his phone was reported stolen and that there were other subscribers the cops task in this case just might not have been easy peezy lemon squeezy.

Instead Danny gave himself up to the man on a silver platter, admitting to crimes that went above and beyond that which the cops had on the phone (and, again, might not have been able to connect to him sans his admissions).  Danny admitted to downloading the hundreds of images that were on the phone.  He admitted to viewing and downloading child porn for eight (8) years.  He admitted that he'd been inappropriately touching (we call this "lewd & lascivious molestation in Florida) and eight (8) year old girl since she had been in kindergarten.  In short, thanks to his inability to SFTU Danny was arrested and charged with three (3) counts of possession of child pornography and one (1) count of indecency with a child and is in jail with a $90,000.00 bond.  

I can't speak to Texas but in Florida Daniel would be facing serving the rest of his life in prison. and, ironically, the best shot at leniency that he would enjoy would come from the undeniable fact that he saved the system time and resources by admitting the offenses and streamlining his own arrest and prosecution.  As a criminal defense lawyer I cannot recommend such a course of action, so, instead, here is my advise: