Yeah, I'm calling the ACLU on monday and hopefully they will be able to help me out. Hopefully they can do all these things for me.
Okay, this can be construed as legal advice. I went pro pur in superior court twice, and won.
First, are you ORed or did you bail out? If you're ORed then it's the least of the statute your charged with.
Secondly, ensiting a riot is a real hard charge to prove. Most of my friends who have been charged with it initially have ended up with a disturbing the peace or a drunk in public.
Now, I'm going to ask you a question in a way that you can answer about your case, that will tell me a whole shitload about it.
Did the actions by the cops who lied on their reports, or the people who actually did this who go away and the cops just grabbed somebody so they could charge somebody (that somebody being you), Did the results of the lying cops actions or the unknown people that actually did this result in either injury or property damage? You can answer it, because you're not affirming any guilt and you're actually affirming that the cops lied and it was actually other people.
If the answer of the question is "no" that there was no great bodily injury or major property damage, (i.e. if somebody stubbed their toe or a leg got broke off of a chair, these are not sufficient amounts of injury or property damage to be concerned about).
If what I'm saying is true to the case, don't worry about it. They'll drop it down. See, they like to play this game. It's called "time". They charge you with something. It winds its way through the court. And while it's doing that they try to build a case. At least 50% of the time they can't build a case whatsoever. And then they come back at the person with what they were actually doing; drunk in public, disorderly conduct, stupid stuff like that.
Personally I could care less about a drunk and disorderly charge on my record. Disturbing the peace, sure, I'll take one of them. Also, another game you can play if you get fined for these above offenses, make them spend more money collecting the fine then they will actually get. Ask for a payment plan if you get a fine. Then every two months ask to be put on the court docket to talk to the judge to modify your payment plan. A $300 fine can end up costing the system $10,000 if you play the game right. It's called monkey wrenching.
I've been to prison. It's not that bad. But I don't think you're headed there for this silly shit.
Oh, and when you see the police report and stuff, how that happens is your lawyer asks for "discovery". That means the DA must turn in copies of all evidence to be used against you for you and your attorney to review and to give you a chance to refudicate it. It wouldn't do any good to ask for a discovery now because the DA would have all of the paperwork together. It takes at least 90 days.
If you want to talk to me about it cool. PM me. I can give you my number, I you can give me yours. I have unlimited long distance.
I know it's a scary experience when you're dealing with the system for the first time, dealing with a felony. I know the Richmond cops, and they are really not that good at their job. But call me and I'll give you the basic steps of all of this, how it works, etc. I've been though it and won.
Just remember one thing. Cops are fucking stupid for the most part. Most of them write on an eighth grade level. I think the minimum IQ for a cop is 89 and the max is like 120, and that's (120) is blandly average. You wouldn't believe what mine, my wife's and my kids are.
Anyways, have a good day. Good luck. Give me a call.
Logan
