You're listening to arrested with yours truly. Mike Brooks and criminal defense attorney Dan conaway. Well, Dan, we've talked about, uh, what the criminal justice system is this morning. We've also talked about due process and we heard a lot about you and how you came to be, where you are now. A little bit about the book arrested, arrested, but when people are arrested and they say, I know my rights. Well, a lot of times as a former law enforcement or law enforcement officer, I don't think people really do know what their rights are, whether they're arrested, uh, whether in front of a judge, uh, whether it's, uh, they're convicted and you, let's start off when you were arrested and you were advised of your rights. You know, what, what is, you know, we heard about, you know, Miranda and everything else kind of start at the beginning of when someone's arrested. They say, I know my rights. What are people's rights? Really, that's a great question because everybody thinks they have rights. And the truth of the matter is that we all do as Americans, we all have rights. Um, and you mentioned the three people, the three types of people that the book's written for them. My book arrested for, um, those are my clients quite frankly, you know, everyday people, just normal human beings every. Exactly. Most people that get arrested, um, and many people that get arrested are simply there just going through their lives and usually something happens where something goes wrong or the shoe drops or something and they ended up in the criminal justice system. So when you talk about, you know, what rights do they have and what are your rights as a person, let me focus on the individual person who's actually arrested and let's just look at that. Sure. And let's look at it from a couple of basic rights that we have that are in our constitution. And again, they're based upon principles that are much older than that. They go back to the Middle Ages, back to Magna Carta, back to beyond that. Let's first start with very simple idea and that is the idea of when the government can actually arrest you or when the government can actually search your home. Let's just look at those two. Okay. So let's start with, uh, when the government, whether it be a local police officer, a state officer, or a federal officer. It's all the same. Happens to arrest you when law enforcement put you in cuffs. Okay. So what's your right? You have several rights in that situation. First of all, you have the right that the only way that you can be arrested is if the government could show probable cause. What's probable cause? Probable cause. The easiest way to put it is probable cause is the lowest amount of evidence. You need to have the government be able to do something and got somebody. Let me ask you this. When I was, when I was a rookie when I was in the police academy, they always, they kind of drilled into us what probable cause. And I always said that probable cause is any set of facts or circumstances that would lead a reasonable imprudent officer to believe that a crime has been committed is being committed or is about to be committed. Is that pretty accurate? Uh, that I would argue that's how the police look at it. I would say that it's a higher standard than that, but for just a street cop, you know, between reasonable suspicion and probable cause that's a, that's pretty good. Okay, that's pretty good. We'll run with that. Okay. So, you know, so yes, that's exactly right though. And so one of your rights as a citizen is to have someone like Mike who understands what probable cause it causes. It has a definition of it, have it in his head or if he needs to get a warrant to make the arrest, which oftentimes you do. Uh, the, the magistrate judge who's listening to Mike talk about why he thinks he has probable cause to arrest somebody is willing to issue the warrant. And I'm able to articulate that in the affidavit for that particular. You've got to spell it out exactly. And it can't just say, well, you know, this guy looks fishy. No, it's got to have detailed something. No, no, that's not gonna work. Right. So it's gotta be in there. The same thing with searching your home, yet you can't go into somebody's home as a government officer and just start rooting around. Um, and you have to get a search warrant and it's the same, the same thing. There has to be probable cause and you have a right to see the search warrant. When the officer comes to your home, you have the right to sit there, officer has to say I have a search warrant to search your home. Right. And in even having written a number of search warrants myself is you have to show probable cause but then you also have to explain the scope of that particular search warrant. You just can't go in there and say I'm, I'm looking for what I think, what I think I need. No, you have to go in there because you have to even describe the building of the house, whatever, whatever you're searching the vehicle, you have to describe that down to a t, you know, and, and with, with details and then you have to on the scope of what you're looking for, you know, is it a, is it written material? Is it computer material is. But you have to be very specific. You just can't go in there and say jewelry. Money. Yeah. You have to be very specific even showing anything shiny and nice. Lucky, right? Exactly. You know, guns. No, you have to be very specific. You do. And um, by doing that you're ensuring the person's rights. And again this write, this write precedes our country. This is a concept that's described by people in like blackstone and by people who are writing in the Middle Ages about meaning a thousand years ago it was blackstone. Blackstone is a jurist and a writer who wrote on treatises during the Middle Ages and you look at people like coke and these other people that wrote and not just not just English Englishman, an English woman, but also people from other cultures. Again, going back to the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans, this idea that your home is sacred, that your person is taking and that the government can't just take things away from you and take your liberty or your property or come rooting around your house. They have to be specific. They have to follow the rules. They have to follow due process and therefore your rights to privacy, your rights to your person. Your property are protected. And that's essentially the system and one of the things that I find, one thing that I really still find fascinating about my job, and I talk about this in my book, arrested, um, is how not only how much people, not only how passionate people are about it, but also, um, how it's still matters so much because, you know, when you're in law school, let me, let me go back to last from when you're in law school, you're learning all this stuff and you're reading all this stuff and it's interesting and it's fine, but it's also kind of Blab, Blab, Blab, and then you get into the real world. And I remember the first cases I ever was involved in just watching the people in the courtroom and the passion involved the emotions behind it all because you're dealing with people's fundamental beliefs and writes, sure. And, and that kind of thing. Is, is still as relevant today? Absolutely it is, is, it was a thousand years ago. We got about a minute and a half now. People all the time when they get arrested a days and you and an officer reads them their Miranda warnings. Why do they have to do that? Okay. First of all, you have to be in custody. Yep. Now, what does that mean? Well, it depends on the court you're in and that could be a lot of things. The basic definition is that a reasonable person under the circumstances would feel that they are not free to leave. Then your Miranda rights have to be read to you. Now, I will tell you right now that that definition will not protect you all the time depending upon the facts and circumstance. Okay? Because for example, the police can detain you and tell you to sit somewhere simply for their own safety or they come into your house at five in the morning and start searching. Sure. And say you're free to leave, but you're standing there. Your kids are up in bed, your dog standing there, your wife's freaking out and you're standing there in your underwear. And where do you think you're free to go? Exactly, but under certain circumstances, a guess what? You're not in custody. Interesting, so the rule is very simple, the quickest into the jail house is through through your own big fat mouth, so keep it shot the police. Be Polite, be friendly, that's it. Called lawyer, don't talk. You can serve them. You can offer the police officers coffee though when they're executing the search warrant. That's perfectly nice and you know what? I think that's something that maybe we'll explore next Saturday on the rest. Arrested

with Mike Brooks and Dan conaway. We'll see you back here next Saturday morning at 8:00 AM. Thanks for listening to arrested with Mike Brooks and Atlanta criminal defense attorney Dan conaway. Well, this show provides general information. It does not constitute legal advice. The best way to get guidance on your specific legal issue is to contact a lawyer. For more information or to schedule a meeting with an attorney, please visit conway and strickler.com.