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Edited on Fri Jul-16-04 11:13 AM by GiovanniC
Strictly hypothetical.
I am friends with this guy. I know him very well; I know he is not a criminal and would never knowingly break the law.
He is an assistant manager of a small restaurant. One day, he finishes out his shift, makes his bank deposit, and goes home. The next day, one of the waitresses calls him at home and says, "The bank says you never made the deposit last night. The manager says that you stole $4500 and the police are on their way to arrest you right now."
Now, he's afraid. He knows he's innocent, but isn't sure that will help him. To add to the problem, he had recently written an anonymous story into a local mystery magazine that featured the main character stealing thousands of dollars by making off with a weekend's worth of bank deposits from a store he managed. He figured someone would find out that he wrote that, tie that in with the missing money and he'd be doing some hard time.
So he came to my house and wanted to hide out for a little while. He intended to turn himself in eventually, but he wanted to talk to me and he wanted to make a series of phone calls before he was arrested. While he was there, in my basement, the police come and ask if he's there or if I've seen him. I say no, they go on their way.
He eventually turns himself in. They ask him a series of questions. One question is, did he steal the money. He says he didn't. Another of the questions is whether he wrote the story in the mystery magazine that featured the guy stealing bank deposits. They suspect he did, but cannot prove it. Fearing that would incriminate him if he admits to writing it, he says he didn't.
A trial gets underway, and everyone in town figures the guy is guilty. He is skewered in the newspapers, gossip on the street says he stole the money. But the money has never been found. Most figure he stashed it and will retrieve it when he gets out of jail.
Two days into the trial, the bank is performing maintenance on their deposit mechanism and finds the missing deposit. My friend was telling the truth -- he was innocent.
Here's my question for you:
- Should I be arrested and found guilty of aiding and abetting (or some such crime) because I harbored him while the police were looking for him? Should I be charged and found guilty of obstuction of justice for lying when they asked if I had seen him?
AND
- Should my friend be charged and found guilty of lying to investigators and/or obstruction of justice for lying about having written that story?
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