Can I Ask for Legal Advice As a Fiction Writer

[harmonica]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

I am writing a fictional book, and was wondering if I could ask for advice on how a criminal prosecution and defense, scenario would go, if that is okay, to ask for it, for writing on here.

Basically for my story, a gang of villains are recruiting a new member, and they give him a 'blood in', which is a term used for when a gang tests a new recruit, by having him/her spill the blood of another person, or at least see if they will do it.

The gang in my story, wants to make sure that the new recruit is not be an undercover cop. So they put him through the blood in, but they do not want to put the man in a situation where he has to harm a real hostage. The reason is, is because if he is an undercover cop, and there could be other cops nearby, they would be up on kidnapping related charges, if they had a real hostage for the new recruit to harm.

So the gang decides to use one of it's own members, posing as a hostage, for the new recruit to pull the trigger on. But the gun will not be loaded. It will be loaded with a dummy round, that won't fire, in case the new recruit is an undercover cop. That way, if he is, and he tries to bust the gang, the hostage, will not testify against them, if she is rescued.

During the blood in test though, a real cop is patrolling the streets, and he gets a glimpse of two of the gang members search the new recruit for weapons and a wire. He sees that the new recruits are hiding their faces with sunglasses and hats, as well, to hide their faces from the new recruit.

After seeing that the new recruit is clean, the gang takes him to the place where they are holding one of their own members, who is posing as a hostage for the new recruit.

The cop follows them, sneaks around to see what is going on, and spots the blood in, in progress. He stops it and manages to arrest one of the gang members, and rescue the fake hostage, thinking she is real. The other gang members as well as the new recruit, escape as the cop rescues her and arrests the one.

The fake hostage, pretends to be a victim and says to the police that she does not want to get involved and remains silent, hoping that without her testimony or any given statements by her, that the charges against the defendant will be dropped, cause she is not cooperating. But the prosecutor decides to subpoena her since this kidnapping case is a big deal to him, even though she never made any prior statements to the police and seems to want to keep quiet out of fear.

So with her being subpoenaed, I was wondering, how would a defense attorney go about defending a client in this particular case, when he knows that one of the prosecution's witnesses, is secretly on the defendant's side, and will probably say something in both of their interests, if forced to testify?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

I am writing a fictional book, and was wondering if I could ask for advice on how a criminal prosecution and defense, scenario would go, if that is okay, to ask for it, for writing on here.

Basically for my story, a gang of villains are recruiting a new member, and they give him a 'blood in', which is a term used for when a gang tests a new recruit, by having him/her spill the blood of another person, or at least see if they will do it.

The gang in my story, wants to make sure that the new recruit is not be an undercover cop. So they put him through the blood in, but they do not want to put the man in a situation where he has to harm a real hostage. The reason is, is because if he is an undercover cop, and there could be other cops nearby, they would be up on kidnapping related charges, if they had a real hostage for the new recruit to harm.

So the gang decides to use one of it's own members, posing as a hostage, for the new recruit to pull the trigger on. But the gun will not be loaded. It will be loaded with a dummy round, that won't fire, in case the new recruit is an undercover cop. That way, if he is, and he tries to bust the gang, the hostage, will not testify against them, if she is rescued.

During the blood in test though, a real cop is patrolling the streets, and he gets a glimpse of two of the gang members search the new recruit for weapons and a wire. He sees that the new recruits are hiding their faces with sunglasses and hats, as well, to hide their faces from the new recruit.

After seeing that the new recruit is clean, the gang takes him to the place where they are holding one of their own members, who is posing as a hostage for the new recruit.

The cop follows them, sneaks around to see what is going on, and spots the blood in, in progress. He stops it and manages to arrest one of the gang members, and rescue the fake hostage, thinking she is real. The other gang members as well as the new recruit, escape as the cop rescues her and arrests the one.

The fake hostage, pretends to be a victim and says to the police that she does not want to get involved and remains silent, hoping that without her testimony or any given statements by her, that the charges against the defendant will be dropped, cause she is not cooperating. But the prosecutor decides to subpoena her since this kidnapping case is a big deal to him, even though she never made any prior statements to the police and seems to want to keep quiet out of fear.

So with her being subpoenaed, I was wondering, how would a defense attorney go about defending a client in this particular case, when he knows that one of the prosecution's witnesses, is secretly on the defendant's side, and will probably say something in both of their interests, if forced to testify?

Is this the same book you have been writing since 2010?

There is a series of books called the "HOWDUNIT" series that covers the how to's of police procedures, private investigations, crime scene investigations, and includes books on discovering the cause of death, a guide to poisons, a guide to weapons ... and more. They are published by Writer's Digest Books and, although an older series, they work as a good resource for writers of fiction. I suggest you look into purchasing some.

 

[harmonica]

No this is a new story, and that 2010 one was a completely different one.

I actually own the howdunit books. However, the books do not go into the specifics of my particular type of scenario, and there are circumstances at play, that the books do not address.

 

[quincy]

Here is a link to the New York Attorney Rules of Professional Conduct, telling you what an attorney can and cannot do when representing a client (see in particular Rule 1.6b): http://www.nycourts.gov/rules/jointappellate/ny-rules-prof-conduct-1200.pdf

 

[harmonica]

Okay thanks. But that section of the book does not discuss if an attorney is required to give up dirt he has on the opposing councel's witnesses. If the prosecutor has a witness, who is secretly in collusion with the defendant, does the defense attorney, have to make the prosecutor aware of that?

 

[HighwayMan]

This is getting really old.

Why don't you gather all of your questions and sit down for an hour with a criminal defense attorney and voila! You'll know everything you need to. It will cost you between $300 and $600 (probably) but it will be money well spent.

 

[quincy]

Okay thanks. But that section of the book does not discuss if an attorney is required to give up dirt he has on the opposing councel's witnesses. If the prosecutor has a witness, who is secretly in collusion with the defendant, does the defense attorney, have to make the prosecutor aware of that?

Please read again the Professional Rules, the link to which I already provided. The answer to the question you ask is there. See Rule 1.6 (as noted earlier) and see Rule 3.3.

That said, I agree with HighwayMan that your questions can be better asked and answered elsewhere. Although there are some of us on this forum who do not mind at times helping a novel-writer, this forum is not designed to offer this type of help.

Good luck.