My sons 'crime' in New York

[Peetall]

Hi
My son was recently in New York where he was mugged & had his phone, his friends phone & approx. $100 taken.
Basically he was embarrassed about the fact he hadn't put up a fight to stop the guy so told his friends that the guy had pulled a knife out.
He wanted to just forget about it & get on with their holiday but his friends contacted the police & he initially kept to the story of the guy having a knife but later admitted that the guy didn't actually have a knife but he did get threatened & the items were taken from him.
The police then arrested my son on a charge of wasting police time & falsifying information. The fact that he was actually mugged was seemingly forgotten.
He was issued with a court date & told he would have to go back to New York on 3rd December to appear.
What is the best way to avoid going back to New York & attempt to resolve the issue in other ways? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Many thanks

Ps
My son tried ringing the court but couldn't get any advice other than to not appear but would then probably be arrested the next time he entered the USA.

 

[Banned_Princess]

Hi
My son was recently in New York where he was mugged & had his phone, his friends phone & approx. $100 taken.
Basically he was embarrassed about the fact he hadn't put up a fight to stop the guy so told his friends that the guy had pulled a knife out.
He wanted to just forget about it & get on with their holiday but his friends contacted the police & he initially kept to the story of the guy having a knife but later admitted that the guy didn't actually have a knife but he did get threatened & the items were taken from him.
The police then arrested my son on a charge of wasting police time & falsifying information. The fact that he was actually mugged was seemingly forgotten.
He was issued with a court date & told he would have to go back to New York on 3rd December to appear.
What is the best way to avoid going back to New York & attempt to resolve the issue in other ways? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Many thanks

Ps
My son tried ringing the court but couldn't get any advice other than to not appear but would then probably be arrested the next time he entered the USA.

hire a lawyer in New York to handle this for him.

 

[xylene]

Hire a lawyer.

You are trivializing what your son did. I'm not sure why you are doing that.

He falsely accused someone of a much more serious crime.

His reason, to save face and manhood, is pathetic.

 

[sandyclaus]

Hi
My son was recently in New York where he was mugged & had his phone, his friends phone & approx. $100 taken.
Basically he was embarrassed about the fact he hadn't put up a fight to stop the guy so told his friends that the guy had pulled a knife out.
He wanted to just forget about it & get on with their holiday but his friends contacted the police & he initially kept to the story of the guy having a knife but later admitted that the guy didn't actually have a knife but he did get threatened & the items were taken from him.
The police then arrested my son on a charge of wasting police time & falsifying information. The fact that he was actually mugged was seemingly forgotten.
He was issued with a court date & told he would have to go back to New York on 3rd December to appear.
What is the best way to avoid going back to New York & attempt to resolve the issue in other ways? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Many thanks

Ps
My son tried ringing the court but couldn't get any advice other than to not appear but would then probably be arrested the next time he entered the USA.

You've heard of the boy who cried wolf? Same thing is happening here. Your son is likely being prosecuted because of filing a false police report and committing perjury to do so. The fact that he lied when he filed his report calls into question his credibility in the remaining facts of his case (i.e. whether or not he was even mugged in the first place can be considered doubtful).

Since your son decided that saving face was MORE important than telling the whole truth about the series of events, it's unlikely that the police will believe anything else about his claim of being mugged. Hope it was worth it to him.

 

[HighwayMan]

...on a charge of wasting police time & falsifying information.

There is no such charge as "wasting police time". He was probably charged with Falsely Reporting An Incident. The police tend to take these types of crimes very seriously and for good reason.

This is obviously a crime in New York - in this case probably a misdemeanor. He must appear in court on the designated date or hire a New York attorney to appear for him.

 

[xylene]

It is certainly a possibility he will have to appear, even if he gets a lawyer.

 

[HighwayMan]

Yes, at some point, even with an attorney, he may very well have to appear anyway.

What court is involved here?

 

[Peetall]

Firstly, thankyou for all replies, they have been very helpful.

It is The Criminal Court of the City of New York, on Centre Street.

 

[Ohiogal]

Firstly, thankyou for all replies, they have been very helpful.

It is The Criminal Court of the City of New York, on Centre Street.

You don't seem to understand how serious this is. Lying to the police about what happened to make the truth more "appealing" to your son is not a positive thing. Your son's excuses are NOT acceptable. You son needs to realize that what he did cost the police money, could have resulted in someone spending time in prison that they didn't deserve and does not account for your son's ability to be a witness with any credibility. Why should they waste time hunting down this thief when your son is the chief witness -- and he is also a KNOWN PROVEN liar.

 

[eerelations]

Agree with Ohiogal, this is serious. The issue isn't whether or not your son should go to court over this, it's whether or not he goes to jail and/or pays a hefty fine. He did not commit a 'crime' he committed a crime.

 

[Proserpina]

Hi
My son was recently in New York where he was mugged & had his phone, his friends phone & approx. $100 taken.
Basically he was embarrassed about the fact he hadn't put up a fight to stop the guy so told his friends that the guy had pulled a knife out.
He wanted to just forget about it & get on with their holiday but his friends contacted the police & he initially kept to the story of the guy having a knife but later admitted that the guy didn't actually have a knife but he did get threatened & the items were taken from him.
The police then arrested my son on a charge of wasting police time & falsifying information. The fact that he was actually mugged was seemingly forgotten.
He was issued with a court date & told he would have to go back to New York on 3rd December to appear.
What is the best way to avoid going back to New York & attempt to resolve the issue in other ways? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Many thanks

Ps
My son tried ringing the court but couldn't get any advice other than to not appear but would then probably be arrested the next time he entered the USA.

Quick question.

Where do you and your son actually reside?

 

[Peetall]

We live in the UK, my son was on vacation when the crime happened. The issue we have is with being able to afford the travel costs, not trying to escape punishment, and knows he commited a crime, and did admit to the police he was falsely reporting a crime after he initially lied.

 

[Proserpina]

We live in the UK, my son was on vacation when the crime happened. The issue we have is with being able to afford the travel costs, not trying to escape punishment, and knows he commited a crime, and did admit to the police he was falsely reporting a crime after he initially lied.

This is not going to be a popular response, but it is legally accurate.

The UK will not extradite for this crime. If your son has no intentions of returning to the US, while it might be morally bankrupt to ignore the issue it will not have any effect on his travels throughout Europe or the vast majority of the rest of the world.

(let the flaming begin...)

 

[eerelations]

Your son can skip going to court, with no repercussions, as long as he never goes to the US again as long as he lives. If he's OK with that, then he doesn't need to think about this again.

 

[Peetall]

He definitely wants to return to the US at some point in the future, so we cannot ignore it. We were hoping that there may be some way to resolve the issue from over here without him having to spend what for him would be a vast amount of money which he may not be able to afford on travelling back so soon.