You lost your temper, that’s true. Maybe you uttered a few threats that you didn’t really mean and threw a punch or shoved someone to the ground in anger.
Now, the police are calling your number or have come to your door and you’re not sure what to do. You’re pretty certain you’re about to be charged with some kind of assault.
Five mistakes you shouldn’t make right now
Under the circumstances, your stress is pretty natural. It’s important, however, not to let your feelings take over and lead you deeper into trouble. Here are five things you should not do:
- Talk to the police: Police officers can lie to you. They are trained to use everything from sympathy ploys to intimidation to get suspects to start talking. Whether you’re in handcuffs or not, you need to exercise your right to remain silent. You cannot talk yourself out of this situation.
- Blast everything on social media: Step away from your keyboard and stay quiet. If you start railing against the other party to this situation or the police, that can add fuel to the fire you’re in (and become evidence against you in court).
- Contact the other party: Whether you hope to broker peace or want to tell them exactly what you think of them, contacting the other party to your fight right now is a very bad idea. You could just end up with more charges.
- Destroy evidence: Maybe the fight started out over text or via Messenger. Maybe you had your phone on “record” during the fight. Either way, don’t give into the temptation to destroy those records. Destroying evidence is a crime even more serious than what you’re already facing.
- Try to handle things alone: You need experienced guidance from a criminal defense attorney right now.
When your future’s on the line, get the kind of legal help you can rely on. You don’t want your situation to worsen.