It’s something that happens to at least one person in nearly every Dateline episode: Getting arrested.
But it’s not that common for the average American.
So what are some things to think about if you do find yourself under arrest?
On today’s episode of Dateline: True Crime Weekly, Andrea Canning asks criminal defense attorney Elmira Yousufi what to do if you ever get arrested.
You can listen to the full episode now, for free.
Plus, read a transcript of their exchange below:
Canning: Elmira, welcome to the show.
Yousufi: Thank you for having me.
Canning: One thing I have learned from all my years on Dateline is that you may seriously want to consider involving an attorney if you’ve ever been arrested.
Yousufi: Absolutely. Yes. If you’re in the process of being arrested, don’t try to resist, don’t try to talk your way out of it. And when it’s time to make a phone call, either let your family know or contact your attorney and have them handle it because just simply being arrested does not mean you’re going to face criminal charges. An arrest is something that can be taken care of. However, if you speak, if you try to resist, then you are potentially causing a lot more harm.
Canning: What about the person who has been wrongly arrested and truly didn’t do anything, but they feel, “Well, I’m just going to speak because I don’t want to look any more guilty by getting an attorney involved because I did nothing wrong.” Still the same advice? ‘Don’t open your mouth’?
Yousufi: Still the same advice. I promise you, even in those situations, more likely than not, it just gets you in trouble.
Canning: Another thing we’ve seen are the incriminating jail calls.
Yousufi: When you are actually in jail, don’t make statements over the phone when you’re speaking to family members or friends because those calls are also being recorded. And you should also assume that your jail mate is a snitch, or an informant. So you don’t want to be speaking about it to your jail mate because you want to seem tough that’s another way people get themselves in trouble.
Canning: I think some people are a little fearful of the public defender, you know that maybe they’re not as experienced. Should people be concerned about that?
Yousufi: That’s a really good question. It depends. I’m here in San Diego, California, and I can’t speak well enough about the Public Defender’s Office here. They have amazing attorneys -- very experienced attorneys. The real issue here is that they just have a large caseload so they just may not be able to give every individual client the attention that they need and deserve. If you are financially able to hire a private criminal defense attorney, then you should, but it’s important that you do your research, that you look into the firm. But if the public defender is your only viable option, depending on where you live you may be just fine.
Canning: All right, Elmira, thank you so much for these tips, and let’s just hope that people don’t need them, because we don’t want to see people getting arrested, but if that does happen to you, excellent advice. Thank you.
Yousufi: Thank you so much.
