The gentleman became very upset when the officer asked to do three of the tests. And so he refused to do the third test. Now you have evidence of two tests where the person failed. You have evidence that the person refused to do the third test.
But there’s not going to be mentioned in the police report that the officer said “You only have to do two of these three tests.” I only have my client’s word that happened.
Interviewer: The police are allowed to lie to or mislead you by law? What about in court? If you’re questioning them, are they legally allowed to lie to you?
Brian: They are not allowed to lie or mislead in court. In court an officer takes the same oath as anyone else at that time. They have to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That’s not to say that they don’t actually lie, they don’t make up testimony, or they don’t say that they remember something that they truly don’t.
Under oath they are supposed to tell the whole truth, which they quite honestly rarely do. It’s up to prosecutors to decide whether to bring perjury charges. I’ve never heard of a prosecutor bringing a perjury charge against an officer.
I’ve personally had only one officer take the stand where I will say that that officer was absolutely lying. Basically it was because the officer was under oath. During the entire trial, all he would ever say was, “I don’t remember, I don’t remember, I don’t remember.” The judge allowed the officer to basically read through his police report.
Then there came a time where there was some evidence that was missing. There was a break in the chain of custody, and the officer said, “I do remember that happening.” Now this was some tiny insignificant detail that the officer had no reason to remember.
But he did remember because evidence was about to be suppressed. That’s the only time I can say with absolute certainly that the officer did lie on the stand, and nothing happened to him.