civil rights violation?

What is the name of your state? new york
my husband, a legal alien, was arrested for 2 count of grand theft larceny (2 bounced checks) 3 weeks ago. when he was arrested his rights were never read to him (he was not interrogated), and stood handcuffed to a wall for nearly 7 hours. after he was processed, instead of being directly sent in front of a judge, all media outlets in our region were contacted so the news got out (my husband is a business man). The chief of police then told my husband that he was finished in this town, and other threats which i do not have the exact wording of. my husband did not know the charges leveled against him until he was before the judge, and at that time was only arraigned on one of two counts. three days later he was arraigned on the second count. since that time he has only spoken to his public defender twice, and in two weeks has not received one call back. tomorrow is the deadline for submitting witnesses for a grand jury trial, and without speaking to his lawyer, my husband cannot even be a witness. he is being stonewall and basically sold down the river, political entities are behind 95% of it. another court date is slated for 1/28 and as i said before the lawyer has nt even looked at the evidence/paperwork my husband had me prepare. we cannot afford a criminal lawyer and i am in need of some solid advise. thank you for any help!

[stephenk]

did you husband bounce the checks? what is the total value of the checks that bounced? why did the checks bounce?

Yes he did bounce the checks, the total is $5,500 and the reason for the bounces was an error in deposits. The future CFO of the company was working on funding money, deposits were to be made but never were. My husband knows that he should have checked the balance of one account before writing a check on it and depositing it onto another account, but trusted the depositor in question. He wants to make restitution to correct the error but is being prevented from doing so. There is an underlying political problem with the entire situation and their main goal is to have him deported. My main problem is with the way that the arrest and subsequent "defense" - i use that term very loosely- has been handled. Were there any civil rights errors in the way it went down?
Thanks for your time and response, I appreciate it.

[stephenk]

since he was not questioned there was no need to give him his "Miranda" rights.

your hubby qualified for a public defender? Unless you are dirt poor I would strongly suggest you beg, borrow and sell off goods to get money to hire a private attorney, especially since your husband is losing confidence with his public defender.

there is no such thing as a grand jury trial. there is a grand jury that can decide whether to indict your hubby for the larceny. What does your hubby's employer have to say about this whole mess since the employer seems to be the cause of the problem.

[stephenk]

What happened to the money your hubby pulled from the account with the bad check?

I truly appreciate your responses and thoughts stephen but as of this morning most of this is a mute point. The Consulate of my husband's home country was contacted by myself last night and they are stepping in to deal with the public defender and da. What will probably amount is a major move by myself and my daughter to his home country after he's been back to get a job and get things properly set up. Take care and again, thank you so much for your time.

stephen, if you're on tonight, could you tell me if it's kosher for the press to release information pertaining to an inmate before he has the information (since his lawyer is uncommunicative), and to report false information? Thanks for everything

[stephenk]

depends on what was reported. they can report the arrest, the criminal charges, the allegations, background information, etc.

what do you claim the press reported that was absolutely false?

They keep changing the amount of the bounced checks, each time it's reported it's increased by a few hundred dollars. It was also reported that he was addicted to painkillers (advil doesn't count), stole hardware and software from a company that alleges he never worked for them. All of which is untrue. Most recently they claim he jumped a $200,000 bail in Australia but amazingly he was never charged with anything and still retains his passport. A smear campaign is being waged against him in a small upstate NY town. Thanks for listening and trying to help

[stephenk]

what is the name of the newspaper? maybe they are online and I can read the article.

Is there any way we can communicate via e-mail? I'd rather not put certain information in this public forum.

The posting to your husband being addicted to pain killers is illegal. Thus in a form of defimation of charater. I would check into that.

[stephenk]

the exact wording of the article is important. if the article states, for example, "Mr. X has been alleged to be addicted to pain pills" then a defamation claim is weak. If the newspaper states, "Mr. X is addicted to pain pills", then the newspaper better have proof to back up the statement.

It states: The report also said that he was "addicted to any form of painkiller that he could obtain." Which is an absolute lie, ibuprofin for a headache doesn't count.

That was a "report" given to the local police department from a former employer who has issues over patents with my husband. They had also opened mail addressed to my husband and made other claims that are untrue. The local police department never verified any of these allegations, they just had them printed in the paper.