Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

All right, lawyer talk, off the record, on the air, taking comments and questions. You know, certain comments, certain questions we just have to talk about. And look, being a slimy, sleazy criminal defense lawyer, we gotta take this one on.

Troy Hendrickson [00:00:14]:

So this is from Speak Out 1999. As the police of 30 years, I can ask for you for whatever I please. This is about the asking for ID YouTube video. So whatever you give it up or not is up to you. But your slimy lawyer won't be there to help you when I rack up rack you up with additional charges instead of just complying. Never lost a court case in three decades. Lawyers fear me and beg for plea bargains outside their courtroom doors.

Steve Palmer [00:00:41]:

Okay, let's take the first half first. Because you know what, for the most part I agree with this guy.

Troy Hendrickson [00:00:46]:

He can ask whatever he wants.

Steve Palmer [00:00:48]:

This is the point I have been railing about. The side of the road, on the sidewalk, in public. When the police approach you is not the time to challenge what's going on. You're not going to win. And this cop, after his 30 years of I'm sure stellar experience is making the same point I'm making. This is the guy that you want to be protected. Look, it's only going to get worse if a police gives you a lawful order. So if our 30 year veteran here gives you a lawful order on the side of the road and you don't follow it, he's going to charge you with fair to comply or obstruction of justice or whatever.

Steve Palmer [00:01:28]:

And even if it's not a lawful order, he's still going to charge you with it and rack up the charges as he says, and drag you in in handcuffs. So as I always say, you're only making it worse. You're not talking your way out of it. So to some extent I agree with him. This, on the other hand, this is the kind of police officer, look, I don't know you, man. So I'm going to say what we want to worry about are when you take a position like that, you're putting the police off kilter a little bit because now it becomes a little bit tensed up. If you just give the ID and say, hey, how's it going today? You're going to get a better response. So this is why I've been railing about this.

Steve Palmer [00:02:15]:

Now let's take the second part of his question. He may have done everything right in his career. Hats off to you. I know of only one other perfect human being that ever walked the earth and it's not me. Right? So maybe he's done it all right. I have not done it all right. I've been hardly perfect in my life. I just strive to do the best I can.

Steve Palmer [00:02:34]:

And when I go into court against guys like this or anybody else, I don't go into court against guys like this. I go into court to defend the case and defend my client. And if there's a problem with the fourth Amendment, I raise it. If there's an issue that has to be resolved in court, I do my best to resolve it. I don't take on police officers in court. I could care less. I don't look at it like that. To me, it's not personal.

Steve Palmer [00:02:59]:

And you know, I, I, I used to coach little league football. And one of the guys I coached, my fellow coach, he was a, he was a detective. And it turned out I had a case against him. And we didn't know each other at the time. We just got introduced, like, what's your name? He goes, what's your name? He goes, what do you do for. But I got to cross examine in a courtroom. And you know what it did? It made both of us better. It made both of us better.

Steve Palmer [00:03:24]:

I called him on stuff that he had not considered. He gave me answers that kept me on my game. That's the idea, right? So I don't take it personally. I do this job professionally. I don't fear police officers. I never have. I, I treat all police officers like I try to treat all humans with a certain modicum of respect and courtesy. And that's how I think everybody should behave.

Troy Hendrickson [00:03:50]:

I did have a question about his in half. He says that I must have missed this. In criminal procedure, do you usually beg for plea bargains from cops, or is that usually something to do with the prosecutor?

Steve Palmer [00:04:01]:

Do I beg for plea bargains from cops? Sometimes. Really, a beg's not the right word. Ask or talk about. So a lot of times what happens is I'll go into a courtroom and I'll talk to the prosecutor, say, I got a DUI case. And the prosecutor's like, look, Officer Smith's in the back, go talk to him. Whatever he wants to do, I'll do. So I go talk to officer, you've seen me do this, where I talk to police officers. This is why I treat everybody with respect.

Steve Palmer [00:04:26]:

And it's not just phony. I mean, I operate in the world in a way that I try to be respectful to everybody. So would I beg this guy? I don't know if beg's the right word, but I would ask him what he wants out of the case. What are his thoughts on the case? And what he's really saying here is if my client was an asshole on the side of the road, he's gonna be less inclined to give his okay to the extent that matters for some sort of deal with the prosecutor. I agree with him. I hope that addresses your comment. Now, I guess I did not talk about whether I'm slimy or sleazy. I'll leave that to the viewer's opinion.

Steve Palmer [00:05:03]:

If you've got your own question, you got your own comment. Leave it right here at LawyerTalkpodcast in the comments, or shoot us a question on the website lawyertalkpodcast.com.