Obstruction of Justice: Charges After Drunken Altercation With Police

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Quoting need help for brother

When the cop asked my brother for ID my brother pulled his girlfriend's brother's ID out of his wallet without looking at it and handed it to the cop.

BIG "oops"! What was he doing with the brother's false ID?

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Although my brother had already provided his correct name and was in no way trying to pass himself off as someone who looks nothing like him and immediately handed over his own ID the officer began screaming at him.

Okay. It was a dumb move by your brother.

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My brother had never met the relative or her boyfriend before so he really didn't know anything but due to our cousin's behavior the officer began screaming at him again right in his face that he was a liar, etc.

A reasonable assumption on the officer's part.

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The officer called my cousin's wife to pick him up and he is not charged with anything. My brother was arrested and charged with providing false identification(which was an accident), obstruction of justice(which he wasn't since he didn't know the person), and disorderly conduct...however they used the wrong letter code so it reads for soliciting a lewd act. When they released him the next day even the jailer crossed it off the print out and wrote the correct code on his paper. He immediately started receiving letters from legal offices offering their services for his sex crime! What recourse does he have?

If he has to go to court, we can presume he will be arraigned on the correct offenses. His recourse is to consult an attorney. If he lacks income or assets to pay for his own attorney, the court may provide one for him at the arraignment.

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Can he use defamation as leverage to get the other charges dropped?

Defamation? Against whom?? Because fo the clerical error? Highly doubtful. Even if a court were willing to entertain such a thing (and I can't imagine they would), that would be a separate issue from the charges at hand. The DA would not be involved in any defamation matter so he really wouldn't care..

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I think if the cop had kept his cool he wouldn't have charged my brother with anything and instead would have let him go like my cousin.

Probably the only charge not appropriate would have been the false ID charge (assuming he really DID provide his real name and such to the officer). However, the reason I wanted to know the code sections he is charged with is because there is a difference between presenting false ID to an officer to impersonate someone, or simply being in possession of false ID. The code sections are important. I presume the other two are PC 148(a) and PC 647(f), but not sure which the false ID section might be.

- Carl