What Should I Say to the Police if Arrested in Illinois? Facing criminal charges in the state of Illinois? Andrew Russek and Joshua Boardman, skilled attorneys from Combs Waterkotte, discuss everything you need to know about Illinois criminal charges, including DUI, drug charges, sex crimes, conspiracy, violent crimes, gun charges, and more.
Combs Waterkotte is a leading criminal defense law firm serving Illinois and Missouri. Our Illinois defense attorneys will fight for your freedom and rights and will not stop until you get justice. If you are facing criminal charges in Illinois, we can help. Call us at (312) 500-HELP 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: What should I say to the police if I’m arrested in Illinois?
Andrew Russek: Normally… the general rule is to remain silent because you never know if something you’re saying is going to be taken out of context, whether deliberately or not. Sometimes, we’ve seen cases where a large portion of the case is the fact that you admitted to being at the scene or that you admitted in a self-defense case to hitting or shooting the person. Even if there’s clear self-defense, you just gave them half of what a police officer or prosecutor needs, where if you remain silent, your version of events can still come out someday, but you can make sure it’s necessary and that no one’s going to use it against you or misrepresent it. So there’s very rarely a chance to, or very rarely is it advantageous to speak to the police, at least not without a lawyer going through your options and helping you make that decision.
Joshua Boardman: And it’s counterintuitive for a lot of people because if you’re not the type of person that has frequent run-ins with law enforcement or you firmly believe that you did not do anything wrong, I think our natural instinct is to explain, hey, I didn’t do anything, you know, I didn’t mean that, that’s not what occurred. But like Andrew said, in reality you can, to some extent, dig your own grave trying to assert your innocence from the get-go.
Dunn: You know, it doesn’t matter what you know or what they think or how that works, it’s very specific to just keep your mouth shut and call an attorney.
