Can uncooperative behavior bring additional charges during the arrest?

If you are being charged with some kind of a crime and a law enforcement officer intends to arrest you, it is best not to make any attempts to resist. Resisting arrest is a crime that is punishable by law. Your uncooperative behavior during the arrest may well lead to some genuinely unpleasant consequences.

At times, law enforcement officers themselves could provoke you to resist. Unfortunately, nearly always policemen are very harsh and aggressive and their behavior makes you want to avoid being arrested at any cost. However, it is very important not to follow your most basic instincts and stand your ground. Uncooperative behavior may lead to an additional charge of resisting arrest (PENAL CODE SECTION 142-181), which is a crime on its own. People, who were resisting arrest or demonstrated uncooperative behavior risk being sentenced to jail for up to a year and/or paying an expensive fine. One way or another, you definitely do not want to have the resisting arrest charges on your criminal records.

So how does it work? What actions could be considered as uncooperative behavior and what kind of actions may be seen as resisting arrest? In order to determine how the two are different, let us review the following examples. First of all, imagine a situation when you are driving home from a party and you are a little drunk. Unfortunately for you, you are being pulled over at a DUI checkpoint by a law enforcement officer. He has reasons to believe that you are driving under the influence of alcohol and so he asks you to step out of your vehicle in order to submit yourself to series of field sobriety tests. You know that you are drunk and you refuse to get out and you most certainly refuse to submit yourself to any kind of sobriety tests. You are not going to listen to the law enforcement officer, so he will eventually have ample reasons to arrest you and charge you with uncooperative behavior in addition to the initial DUI charges.

Now, let us imagine that you are driving home from a party and you are drunk. The law enforcement officer tries to pull you over at a DUI checkpoint, since he has noticed that you are behaving strangely. You do not react to his demands and keep on driving. The law enforcement officer is forced to engage in a pursuit. You keep on ignoring him, but eventually he catches you. You get out of the car and you punch an officer, who is trying to arrest you. Well, sure enough, for all your actions you are definitely going to be charged with resisting arrest in addition to initial DUI charges. The penalties for this are far harsher than for the first case scenario.

If you or your loved ones were charged with resisting arrest, it is very important, crucial even, not to lose any time and to get in touch with a qualified as well as genuinely experienced legal representative, who is going to know what to do next and how to proceed afterwards. Only will a good Los Angeles criminal lawyer have the necessary skills and expertise to convince the court that you are actually not a bad person and that you are worthy of giving a second chance. The attorney will provide the court with enough evidence demonstrating that you are a good man, who simply made a mistake and there is absolutely no need to ruin your whole life because of it.

It is imperative that you consult a good legal representative. During the initial consultation the attorney is going to thoroughly review the case and all the evidence against you. Afterwards, he or she is going to come up with a solid defense strategy. The primary goal is to get the case dismissed to begin with or at the very least mitigate the sentence, so you would not have to suffer all the most severe penalties in full. A professional lawyer will help you get out of this situation with minimal legal damages.

Were you resisting an arrest? Contact our law offices immediately!