Expert: Robin Sexton - 5/12/2008

Question
I live in Ohio and I had a detective call me wanting to ask me some questions. I was a little wierded out by the phone call so I let it go. A few days later he called me again threatening to go to my sons school or my house. The detective is from a different county then me. I do not know what the officer wants to ask me. However I was involved in credit card fraud about 7months ago. So I'm thinking it has something to do with that but I am not sure. Should I talk to the detective without an attorney or should I hire one on my behalf?  Also do you know of a website that can give me more info on Ohio laws and their punishments?

Answer
Angela,

You have a two choices you can tell the officer you won't talk to him or you can talk to him with an attorney.  I would suspect the attorney would advise you not to talk to the officer at all ( past experience.)  You said you were involved in a credit card fraud.  Not sure if that was resolved or not.  Another choice is you can talk to the officer and see what he is investigating.  Just because you start talking to him doesn't mean you have to answer all his questions or that you can't stop the interview at any time.
I really can't advise you on what you should do.

Here is a pretty good web site to research with.

http://www.megalaw.com/oh/top/ohcriminal.php

Please don't get mislead by the maximum penalties that would be listed they are seldom invoked.  There are a lot of variables that are considered.

Good luck
Robin