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Can a Police Officer let you off and then come back the next day to charge you?

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M

MikeBTL

Guest
What is the name of your state? CO

I had an encounter with a police officer for something stupid I did. I explained the situation, both parties agreed everything was fine, and the officer said since everyone involved was fine that he wasn't going to push it any further. No one was given a summons/citation/ticket or arrested/booked/etc. He said no citation/arrest was going to be made, and the only write up he was doing would be an incident report, and that's it

Well, the next day the police officer comes back and tells me he was told he had to take action against me. So, he handed me a citation for the misdemeanor which happened the day before, stating yesterday's time and date on it, as if it was written at the time he came to talk to us.

Is this legal? What should I do?
 


M

MikeBTL

Guest
And another thing, the citation has the wrong citation code on it. The police officer wrote a different misdemeanor citation code but in the description box, wrote the correct name for the citation.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
MikeBTL said:
No one was given a summons/citation/ticket or arrested/booked/etc. He said no citation/arrest was going to be made, and the only write up he was doing would be an incident report, and that's it

Well, the next day the police officer comes back and tells me he was told he had to take action against me. So, he handed me a citation for the misdemeanor which happened the day before, stating yesterday's time and date on it, as if it was written at the time he came to talk to us.

Is this legal? What should I do?
Yes, it's legal. As for what you should do, you might consider consulting an attorney.

Sometimes the officer on the street makes the wrong call and has to go back and take corrective action. I have told officers on occasion to do just that. For instance, once a few years ago, not writing a report on a little bar brawl came back to bite us when one of the parties 'discovered' two days later that he had a fractured skull from the fight. Now, we are required to write the report and submit it to the DA even if nobody demands action.

The citation having the wrong code might be a problem - especially if the section is for another offense. However, keep in mind that you may have been cited for a local code rather than a state code violation - depending on the nature of your offense.

You should consult an attorney.

- Carl
 

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