Double Trouble

In California, a defense attorney can file a Pitchess Motion to get relevant complaints by other people against the police officer involved in your criminal case. A large number of the people who have taken the time to file complaints against the police are people with lengthly criminal histories. A multiple felon might not be all that helpful to your case, except when the details of their case just too kawinkadinkally match your case. Another segment of the hits are likely to be the mentally ill. The reason: both these groups are easy targets for the police. What makes these witnesses' complaints more believeable also makes them less believeable, if you can follow what I'm trying to say. Who ya gonna believe -- the police or the crazy cat lady? the police or the five time felon? This is where third party witnesses come in handy (a law-abiding neighbor who happened to look out the window), etc.

Once the complainers' names are handed over by the judge, the investigator goes out to locate and interview the people about the nature of their complaint (or at least makes a diligent effort to find them so the attorney can go back to court and get the actual description of the complaint). Some times third party witnesses are listed on the complaint.

Once I telephoned a witness who had moved out of the area. When I asked him about his complaint, he informed me that he had not made a complaint. He said that it must have been his double. He explained that at that time he had a double living in our city and also one in Denver. The witness clarified that he himself was living in a third city at the time. Efforts on my part to break through this scenario were unsuccessful, and were only met with further details about the challenges of living in a world with your double. I would imagine a double could do a real number on your credit score, not to mention the social stigma.

When we got this person's actual complaint from the court in order to "refresh his memory," it detailed how his double had been sitting at the table eating cereal when the police came into his house after a call from his mother about the double threatening to kill himself. The police proceeded to overeact to the situation by grabbing the double and beating him up. Although I could never find the double, the double's mother (quite mentally ill herself) ended up being a useable witness.