If you are being charged with resisting arrest, it is important to know what sort of consequences you may be facing. Under California Penal Code Section 148, it is a crime for someone to willfully resist, delay or obstruct any public officer, peace officer, or an emergency medical technician… in the discharge or attempt to discharge any duty of their office of employment. (P.C. § 148)
If you are convicted for resisting arrest you may face a misdemeanor charge, resulting in a possible sentence of up to one year in county jail, a thousand dollar fine, or both.
It is important to note that you can be accused of resisting arrest without having taken any physical action such as running away or resisting being placed into handcuffs. You can be accused of this crime if you falsely identify yourself during an investigation or refusing to disclose your identity during the booking process.
For the prosecution to convict you of resisting arrest they must show that:
- You resisted, delayed, or obstructed (physically and/or verbally) AND
- You knew or reasonably should have known that you were dealing with a public officer, peace offer or emergency medical technician AND
- You acted willfully when you committed an act willingly or on purpose AND
- The officer was engaged in the performance of their duties
It is very common for law enforcement officers to add the charge of resisting arrest to other charges when they do not like a person they have arrested. Since it does not take much evidence to bring such a charge we often find that this charge has been added to other more serious charges. However, very often our law firm is able to have the prosecution drop this charge when we bring to their attention that there is not sufficient evidence to convince a jury of our client’s guilt.
The best advice we can give you is if you are being arrested by a police officer you should COOPERATE and not RESIST in any way. You have nothing to gain by offering resistance and you may have a lot to lose. We are often told by clients that once they offered the most minor resistance law enforcement officers physically assaulted them and often will apply handcuffs so tightly that it leaves welts on our client’s wrists. However, keep in mind that “cooperating” with the arrest DOES NOT MEAN you should ever agree to speak to the police officers other than to provide them with the required identifying information. You should never agree to speak to law enforcement about the facts of the case.
Due to the possibility of facing serious consequences it is important to hire an experienced criminal defense attorney to aggressively defend you. A Wallin & Klarich attorney may be able to argue: that the arrest was unlawful, that you were acting in self-defense, there were false allegations, there was police misconduct, and many other possible defenses..
Wallin & Klarich has successfully defended hundreds of resisting arrest cases with positive results for our clients.. If you or a loved one is charged with resisting arrest, contact Wallin & Klarich so our attorneys will use their knowledge of the law to provide you with the best possible defense. Wallin & Klarich attorneys will aggressively defend you to ensure the judge takes into account all of the available options in your case. Contact the experienced Southern California criminal defense attorneys at Wallin & Klarich today at 1-888-749-0034 or visit www.wklaw.com for more valuable information. We will be there when you call.
