Know your rights if police show up, experts advise

When police showed up at Falcon Davis' home in December, he believed he had no choice but to go with them, he testified recently.

But Mr. Davis was mistaken, according to legal experts who spoke to The Augusta Chronicle .

Last week, defense attorney Charles Lyons tried to convince a judge that Mr. Davis, accused of child molestation, was illegally arrested.

Mr. Davis, 36, testified in Richmond County Superior Court that he had no choice but to accompany a sheriff's investigator who showed up on his North Augusta doorstep just after 9 p.m. Dec. 29. But the investigator testified that Mr. Davis wasn't under arrest until after he made a statement at the Richmond County Sheriff's Office later that night.

Did Mr. Davis have the right to refuse to go with the officer? Yes, legal experts say.

The first questions to ask in such a situation is: "Am I under arrest?" said Radford University professor and former police officer Tod W. Burke. In addition to teaching criminal justice classes, Dr. Burke has written extensively on criminal justice issues and served as an expert witness in trials and as an expert for the media.

Real life police interactions are nothing like television shows, Dr. Burke said. A one-hour TV show reveals more violations of the Fourth Amendment -- the right against unwarranted search and seizure -- than an officer would experience in his entire career, he said.

If you aren't under arrest, you have the right to refuse to accompany a police officer anywhere, Dr. Burke said.

Don't expect the Miranda warning -- being advised of your rights, including the right to remain silent -- to be any indication of your status, Dr. Burke said.

An officer doesn't have to give the Miranda warning unless the suspect is in custody and is being interrogated. Even if you aren't under arrest, an officer can take you into custody for a period of time, Dr. Burke said.

But no one ever loses the right to remain silent, he said.

"There's no reason to be rude about it," but the best thing you can do for yourself is keep your mouth closed, Dr. Burke said.

Students often worry that by reading someone the Miranda rights that a suspect won't talk, he said, but that's not true.

"They're going to tell you anyway," he said, because people want to talk, to explain.

Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris agrees. The majority of people cooperate, he said.

"We've experienced a wide range of cooperation -- from full cooperation to having doors slammed in our faces," he said.

People exercise the right to remain silent every day, he said. Just because someone refuses to answer questions doesn't mean an officer will assume he is guilty, Capt. Morris said.

There are limits on when officers can stop and question someone, he said. Authorities must suspect there's been a criminal act before questioning someone, Capt. Morris said.

If someone feels he has been treated inappropriately, the department wants to hear about it, he said.

"We are human. We're not perfect," Capt. Morris said. "We want to know about those times."

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.