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I am 43 and have never been in any serious trouble before. In the problem that I describe below I made a bad decision in a very rare, corrupt, frightening and hopeless situation. I was simply trying to get a polygraph test with the police department in order to prove, at least to the police, that a complaint that I filed was true and the whole story and took it too far as I realize now. If I were not able to take this polygraph test, I would have been representing myself in court against a police report filed by a rogue police officer that was completely untrue. The officer filed a report that was untrue to cover up an abuse that took place. This situation took place in Colorado.
I made a big mistake in trying to get this polygraph test as you will read more about below and now I am facing a much worse problem than the original one. The original charges have been dropped because they were baseless.
BRIEF HISTORY
I was in the back of a bar working on a laptop computer in order to give my roommate that I was staying with temporarily some privacy. Several nights prior to this one of the bar owners had indicated to me indirectly that he was suspicious that I was hanging out in the bar spying on it, which I should have taken more seriously. For some reason, all of the bars in town were watching for people coming in and spying on bar operations. Evidently, there has been a problem with this in Leadville in the past.
At around 9pm the bar owner came up behind me and said: “We’re getting busy. You need to leave NOW!” He yelled “now” very loudly and I’m sure people turned and looked. I said: “If you are going to come off like that about it, not only will I leave, but I’ll never come back to this place again. Why are you being so rude? I told you an hour ago that I would leave if it started getting busy.”
He turned his back to me and called the police on his cell phone saying: “I have someone at my bar who is refusing to leave.” I was shocked at that point and asked him what he was doing, but he just walked away smiling. While I was saving many files that I was working on a police officer got there right away and demanded that I leave now. I requested numerous times: “Please, just let me save my work and shut my computer down properly so I don’t damage it” It was a brand new laptop and I was still protective of it. While I was letting my operating system shut down and then packing up my belongings from the table, which took about three minutes I got arrested and incarcerated.
Later, when I received a copy of the police report, I noticed that every single sentence in the police report was a lie. The officer had added many, many things, which had not occurred in order to hide the way that she handled the situation. She said I drug out leaving for 10 minutes while arguing. I never argued about anything, but asked several times to just have a chance to get my computer and data out of the bar safely and got arrested after only 3 minutes.
I hand delivered a formal complaint to the police chief and explained to him what had actually happened. I told him at that time that I was trying to contact someone who had said that they witnessed what happened to me, which was true. He asked if I were willing to take polygraph test and I said that I was going to request one if he didn’t ask.
Upon a later visit to the police chief, he said that since I spoke with him last he had taken that police officer off of the street and put her in a desk job because of another problem that he had with her. He told me at that time that he had not even filled out the paperwork for the investigation and would not let me take a polygraph test unless I could produce a witness, because a polygraph test cost the police department $250. It was becoming clear to me at that time that he did not want to follow through with my complaint probably because he didn’t want a lawsuit.
I could not find the witness that had seen what happened and because of this made a big mistake that caused the problem that I need help with now. I had been worrying excessively about the two charges that I was facing, because of this false police report. The two charges were Failure To Obey a Police Officer and Criminal Trespassing. Because the police officer was going to lie in Municipal Court along with the bar owner and I couldn’t afford an attorney so I would have been representing myself, which I know next to nothing about, I felt that my situation was very frightening and hopeless. Because of the two false charges, I was facing up to two years in jail and up to $2,000 in fines for something that I honestly did not do.
After thinking about this for months I began to panic excessively at night loosing allot of sleep. Eventually, I asked a friend to tell the police chief that he saw what happened in the bar so that the police chief would let me have a polygraph test. This was a terrible mistake.
Part of the reason that I wanted to take this polygraph test so desperately was because I wanted the frivolous charges dropped, because I did not have the ability to defend myself against a bar owner and police officer that were lying. Secondly, I knew that if my complaint wasn’t taken seriously that what happened to me would certainly happen to someone else at the hands of that police officer.
The day after this friend had sent a letter in the mail to the police chief he told me that he wanted money from me for doing this. I told him that I didn’t even want to discuss paying him, because any such agreement between us would most likely come out in the polygraph test. He then said: “How would you like it if I went to the police and told them that you made this whole thing up?” Unfortunately, I didn’t think he would do it, but did decide after this conversation that the whole idea of him bearing false witness was a bad idea that could get the both of us in allot of trouble and decided against going through with it
Several days later he went to the police and told the police chief that I had ask him to bear false witness. He also told the police chief many things that weren’t true. What he told the police chief that wasn’t true was that I had offered him a bribe, threatened him and that I intended to sue the city. He never told the police chief that I asked him to simply help me get the polygraph test.
I had told him three times that I didn’t want him to testify in court about this, but I simply needed help getting a polygraph test. The police chief had told me that if I passed the polygraph test that he would ask the city attorney to drop the charges and that the problem was due to a personnel problem, but would mention nothing about the circumstances, so I was confident that the court would never know about this friend, because myself and the police chief were both not intending to mention anything about him to the city attorney.
I was arrested and charged with False Reporting to Authorities, which I should have been. I was also charged with Bribing a Witness, which does not fit the circumstances, because I did not bribe him and this charge requires that the witness be for a formal proceeding, which he was not going to do.
I wrote a letter to the D.A. recently explaining my side of the story, which I know was a risky thing to do. Apparently she must have believed my side of the story to some degree. You would think that she would have dropped the bribery charge at that point, but instead kept the charge in tact and added an additional charge, which is Influencing A Public Official. The false reporting charge is a misdemeanor, but the bribery and influencing charges are both F4’s, which would send me to prison for 2 to 6 years and more as you know.
Again the bribery charge is not a legitimate charge, because I bribed no one and he was not to testify in a formal proceeding and the Influencing charge is not intended for this type of allegation. I’ve done much research on the Influencing A Public Official charge and only people that have, for example, bribed a politician or threatened a judge are convicted on this charge. The only instance that I can find of someone being sentenced on Influencing A Public Official in a fasle reporting situation, is the Balloon Boy’s father who reported that his son had been accidently taken away by a weather balloon as a publicity stunt. Evidently, he pleaded guilty to this charge in a plea deal, because his wife could have been deported back to Japan if charged with something serious. She was just charged with False Reporting To Authorizes.
I made arrangements to have the original charges originating from the bar situation refiled in County Court with the latest charges, but they were never refiled in County Court and have been disregarded. I suspect that they were never refiled because the police officer that caused these charges has since been taken off of active police duty and the police department probably felt that the charges were a lie and they didn’t have a case.
I know now that what I did was wrong regarding the false reporting situation and I will be charged with False Reporting. I just want to be charged reasonably considering the circumstances.
Question: Is the Influencing A Public Official a baseless charge not intended for this type of allegation?
I made a big mistake in trying to get this polygraph test as you will read more about below and now I am facing a much worse problem than the original one. The original charges have been dropped because they were baseless.
BRIEF HISTORY
I was in the back of a bar working on a laptop computer in order to give my roommate that I was staying with temporarily some privacy. Several nights prior to this one of the bar owners had indicated to me indirectly that he was suspicious that I was hanging out in the bar spying on it, which I should have taken more seriously. For some reason, all of the bars in town were watching for people coming in and spying on bar operations. Evidently, there has been a problem with this in Leadville in the past.
At around 9pm the bar owner came up behind me and said: “We’re getting busy. You need to leave NOW!” He yelled “now” very loudly and I’m sure people turned and looked. I said: “If you are going to come off like that about it, not only will I leave, but I’ll never come back to this place again. Why are you being so rude? I told you an hour ago that I would leave if it started getting busy.”
He turned his back to me and called the police on his cell phone saying: “I have someone at my bar who is refusing to leave.” I was shocked at that point and asked him what he was doing, but he just walked away smiling. While I was saving many files that I was working on a police officer got there right away and demanded that I leave now. I requested numerous times: “Please, just let me save my work and shut my computer down properly so I don’t damage it” It was a brand new laptop and I was still protective of it. While I was letting my operating system shut down and then packing up my belongings from the table, which took about three minutes I got arrested and incarcerated.
Later, when I received a copy of the police report, I noticed that every single sentence in the police report was a lie. The officer had added many, many things, which had not occurred in order to hide the way that she handled the situation. She said I drug out leaving for 10 minutes while arguing. I never argued about anything, but asked several times to just have a chance to get my computer and data out of the bar safely and got arrested after only 3 minutes.
I hand delivered a formal complaint to the police chief and explained to him what had actually happened. I told him at that time that I was trying to contact someone who had said that they witnessed what happened to me, which was true. He asked if I were willing to take polygraph test and I said that I was going to request one if he didn’t ask.
Upon a later visit to the police chief, he said that since I spoke with him last he had taken that police officer off of the street and put her in a desk job because of another problem that he had with her. He told me at that time that he had not even filled out the paperwork for the investigation and would not let me take a polygraph test unless I could produce a witness, because a polygraph test cost the police department $250. It was becoming clear to me at that time that he did not want to follow through with my complaint probably because he didn’t want a lawsuit.
I could not find the witness that had seen what happened and because of this made a big mistake that caused the problem that I need help with now. I had been worrying excessively about the two charges that I was facing, because of this false police report. The two charges were Failure To Obey a Police Officer and Criminal Trespassing. Because the police officer was going to lie in Municipal Court along with the bar owner and I couldn’t afford an attorney so I would have been representing myself, which I know next to nothing about, I felt that my situation was very frightening and hopeless. Because of the two false charges, I was facing up to two years in jail and up to $2,000 in fines for something that I honestly did not do.
After thinking about this for months I began to panic excessively at night loosing allot of sleep. Eventually, I asked a friend to tell the police chief that he saw what happened in the bar so that the police chief would let me have a polygraph test. This was a terrible mistake.
Part of the reason that I wanted to take this polygraph test so desperately was because I wanted the frivolous charges dropped, because I did not have the ability to defend myself against a bar owner and police officer that were lying. Secondly, I knew that if my complaint wasn’t taken seriously that what happened to me would certainly happen to someone else at the hands of that police officer.
The day after this friend had sent a letter in the mail to the police chief he told me that he wanted money from me for doing this. I told him that I didn’t even want to discuss paying him, because any such agreement between us would most likely come out in the polygraph test. He then said: “How would you like it if I went to the police and told them that you made this whole thing up?” Unfortunately, I didn’t think he would do it, but did decide after this conversation that the whole idea of him bearing false witness was a bad idea that could get the both of us in allot of trouble and decided against going through with it
Several days later he went to the police and told the police chief that I had ask him to bear false witness. He also told the police chief many things that weren’t true. What he told the police chief that wasn’t true was that I had offered him a bribe, threatened him and that I intended to sue the city. He never told the police chief that I asked him to simply help me get the polygraph test.
I had told him three times that I didn’t want him to testify in court about this, but I simply needed help getting a polygraph test. The police chief had told me that if I passed the polygraph test that he would ask the city attorney to drop the charges and that the problem was due to a personnel problem, but would mention nothing about the circumstances, so I was confident that the court would never know about this friend, because myself and the police chief were both not intending to mention anything about him to the city attorney.
I was arrested and charged with False Reporting to Authorities, which I should have been. I was also charged with Bribing a Witness, which does not fit the circumstances, because I did not bribe him and this charge requires that the witness be for a formal proceeding, which he was not going to do.
I wrote a letter to the D.A. recently explaining my side of the story, which I know was a risky thing to do. Apparently she must have believed my side of the story to some degree. You would think that she would have dropped the bribery charge at that point, but instead kept the charge in tact and added an additional charge, which is Influencing A Public Official. The false reporting charge is a misdemeanor, but the bribery and influencing charges are both F4’s, which would send me to prison for 2 to 6 years and more as you know.
Again the bribery charge is not a legitimate charge, because I bribed no one and he was not to testify in a formal proceeding and the Influencing charge is not intended for this type of allegation. I’ve done much research on the Influencing A Public Official charge and only people that have, for example, bribed a politician or threatened a judge are convicted on this charge. The only instance that I can find of someone being sentenced on Influencing A Public Official in a fasle reporting situation, is the Balloon Boy’s father who reported that his son had been accidently taken away by a weather balloon as a publicity stunt. Evidently, he pleaded guilty to this charge in a plea deal, because his wife could have been deported back to Japan if charged with something serious. She was just charged with False Reporting To Authorizes.
I made arrangements to have the original charges originating from the bar situation refiled in County Court with the latest charges, but they were never refiled in County Court and have been disregarded. I suspect that they were never refiled because the police officer that caused these charges has since been taken off of active police duty and the police department probably felt that the charges were a lie and they didn’t have a case.
I know now that what I did was wrong regarding the false reporting situation and I will be charged with False Reporting. I just want to be charged reasonably considering the circumstances.
Question: Is the Influencing A Public Official a baseless charge not intended for this type of allegation?
