An Attorney Makes Your Best Case...
“The arresting Officer decides the charges of the arrest. Stay calm, be polite, request and attorney and do not give the Officer a reason to add charges.”
Do not make a statement to the police. While all of us have seen and heard this advice all our lives - there are so many cases where smart people decided to talk to investigating officers thinking they would help themselves. Later they learn their statement was what was needed to convict them. Any false or misleading statement is a criminal act, and when you are under stress it can be hard to give an accurate statement. Always be respectful - but firm: you can explain to the officers that you look forward to talking to them after you speak with your attorney. Remember too that phone calls from the jail are routinely tape recorded by the Sheriff. Jail visits with friends are conducted over phones and those too are routinely tape-recorded by the Sheriff. "PEOPLE IN CUSTODY SHOULD NEVER DISCUSS WITH ANYONE, OTHER THAN THEIR ATTORNEY, THE FACTS OF THEIR CASE." Occasionally an inmate will "snitch off" another inmate in hopes of making a deal with the prosecutor. Sometimes even a small amount of information is enough to give a snitch enough to sound credible when making up a "jail house confession."
Sometimes police ask the person arrested to "cooperate" and help them "bust" someone else. From my perspective, this is a terrible choice - it nearly always works out badly for the informant. Informants are known as "snitches." Obviously, they are unpopular folks - in jail they are often attacked if left in the general population. Police frequently promise more than they can or will deliver to snitches. Sometimes they promise not to file the snitches' case or to keep their identity secret. There are many ways the identity of a snitch can come out.