Robert Phillips
- Ref # CAC00022
- March 13, 2021
For an attorney to tell a potential victim or witness to a crime committed, or to be committed, by the
CASE LAW
- P.C. § 136.1(b)(1): Dissuading a Victim or Witness from Reporting a Crime
- P.C. § 137(b): Inducing a Witness to Withhold Information
- Witness Tampering
- The Rule of Lenity
- Due Process and Notice of Criminal Conduct
RULES
A defense attorney misrepresenting himself to be a deputy district attorney, while telling a person to contact him instead of the police should she be victimized by the attorney’s client in the future, may or may not be a violation of P.C. § 136(b)(1); Dissuading a Victim or Witness from Reporting a Crime. Therefore, due to the ambiguity of whether P.C. § 136(b)(1) applies to crimes that have not yet occurred, the Rule of Lenity dictates that the defendant be given the benefit of the doubt, protecting him from being criminally charged. Such an act, however, is a crime under P.C. § 137(b); Inducing a Witness by Fraud to Withhold ....
