Expert: Robin Sexton - 6/13/2009

Question
my son was arrested for disorderly conduct ans interfering with the police.  yesterday my son and his friends were pushing an atv.and stopped at the park while my son walked to a friends house to pick up a tool to fix the broke down atv.  when 3 squads pulled up and the other kids were sitting in the park the kids walked up to the officers.and sid they were not riding the atv that it is broke. the deputy chief asked the one juvile how old he was. the juvile said seventeen.  the cop was saying to him where is  your dope where did you throw it where is the guns and so on.  he then placed him in cuffs not gently either and placed him in the squad.  my son was walking up with the tool to fix the atv and my son said whaty the hell is goin on.  the officer said we are siezing the 4 wheeler. he also said to my son "Remember me".  my son said dude why do you got to be so ignorant, is it because you dont like my stepdad who which by the way is an officer from a neighboring town. my son threw down the tool and said what the ****.  the officer then placed my son under arrest for disorderly and interfering with the police. the other two kids that were with my son ran to my house to inform me of the situation. i went up to the scence and the officer was rude to me stating my son aint right.  well they released him with my signature and gave them the tickets.  my son told the officer its good he has a job will pay the tow fee and ticket and will pick up the atv when it is realeased the next day.  the deputy chief the said to the tow driver put a two week hold on the atv per me.  i told the deputy chief why cant my son pick up his vehicle tomorrow. because my son is going into a military school in two weeks and cannot leave the school for 6 months. he got very rude with me and said looks like he wont be riding it all summer huh.  prior to all that they were making comments to my son oh look were making lots of money off the millers.. in mine and my husband who is a police officer tooopinion this is harrassment and the vehicle was illegally siezed.  we have contacted oan attorney on this issue.  any advice?


Answer
Ms. Miller,

Sorry for the difficulty your family and you are having.   This does not appear to be a one time issue.  It sounds like there has been problems in the past. Normally officers show some extra courtesy especially to a fellow officer's family. Glad you have an attorney,  next step is to make sure your attorney gets all the reports.  With out having all the information and history it is difficult to provide specific advice.  The only other avenue would be administrative within the chief deputy's department.  Your husband should have pretty good knowledge as to what steps the chief deputy and his department should have taken.
Sorry i can't be more specific but it is clear that there is additional levels to this problem that you did not provide

robin