street legal, "i want my lawyer"

[Gary&Joy 18]

routine traffic stop across the street from a police station with my wife of 18 days.. officer states he is on the task force of human trafficking.. wants papers on my young Filipina wife.. he doesn't know immigration law, so no clue what the k-1 visa in her passport is about.. we explain we are married.. he believes I may be kidnapping her.. he requests to speak with her privately,, I strongly object.. instead he suggests I leave my vehicle and go to his station.. I stupidly thought it was reasonable.. I tell my wife to wait in our vehicle, and she doesn't have to talk to anyone, no matter who asks her questions.. I go out to check on her and another cop is asking her questions.. I should have known at that point it was a set-up.. but I trust the cop again and go back to the station after telling the cop that she doesn't want to answer questions.. nearly an hour later the paperwork is done and I return to my wife.. find out that many cops surrounded our vehicle and shook it, beating on the windows till she allowed them to speak to her.. they asked if she was kidnapped, if she has communication to her family, if I harm her, if they could have her number or if she would take their number, all the while she says "I don't want to talk to you" she requests only my return.. warning to all that read this; it was probably not mandatory that I go with the cop, I think it was a divide and conquer tactic,, and the simple phrase "I want my lawyer" probably would have stopped them all cold.. this was the longest my wife and I had ever been apart from each other once we were in the same country.. it makes me sick that even tho we are married, they treat us as if we are in need of chaperones.. my wife was very disturbed about the incident,, she had a head ache and rapid pulse,, she couldn't sleep till hours after bedtime.. and of course I feel so stupid for trusting cops, and as if I let my wife completely down.. friends tell me a formal complaint would be in order, but I think these cops are trained to rip people apart and try to make an arrest,, keep the courts full..

open season on me or my situation.. suggestions, berating, viewpoints all welcome..

we are mostly healed, but it was a severe loss of our honeymoon magic and still lingers..

will read all thoughts

[Ontarkie 14,133]

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry you both had such an ordeal.

I think you may want to talk to a lawyer.

[TBoneTX 44,658]

1. all the while she says "I don't want to talk to you"

2. the simple phrase "I want my lawyer" probably would have stopped them all cold

1. Excellent, and add "I wish to leave now. Am I free to go?" Or, "I wish to leave now. Are you officially detaining me, or am I free to go?" This forces the cop to decide. Once you've expressed your firm desire to leave, the clock on "unreasonable detention" begins ticking.

2. Excellent.

See/read these as a couple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA

http://www.aclu.org/files/kyr/kyr_english.pdf

Edited January 16, 2016 by TBoneTX

[Gary&Joy 18]

thanx folks, please remember the phrase "I want my lawyer" to make then stop their interrogation, as nothing else worked and I tried a buncha stuff.. especially if they also list other vehicular violations, so we knew we couldn't simply leave.. bad cops that interrupt a honeymoon, or as we were only 18 days married, should be hung from the nearest tree.. too bad we are in the great plains...

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

bad cops that interrupt a honeymoon, or as we were only 18 days married, should be hung from the nearest tree.. .

Um, no.

[Darnell 8,478]

what city was this?

if it's a task force, it has a director. find the name, get the name.

then write a certified letter, using postal mail, into that human. Cite the lack of training present in that officer, unaware of visa types and the I-94. Cite how this lack of training was the impetus for a quick escalation followed by harrassment by a group of officers.

did you get names of officers, or no ?

I wonder, if your spouse mentioned to them " I am on K-1 visa and we just got married, my I-94 is current, call your boss and check it out" would have made any difference ?

Edited January 20, 2016 by Darnell

[MacUK 983]

Am I the only one thinking that if you have nothing to hide then what was wrong with them talking to you or your wife.

I'd say your evasiveness made them suspicious.

But that's just my opinion.

[Gary&Joy 18]

very honored to hear from Darnell

i was so disgusted by these cops i did not do more than repeat that they are barking up the wrong tree, and that they are wrong in their assumptions, and you are right - they didnt know anything about the immigration forms or processes..

to the others, you may be very happy to allow Law Enforcement access to all your personal information and wife, but i do not.. this male figure assumed authority and immediately began telling my wife to put on more clothes and prepare to go with him.. i completely object to that line of thought.. he had taken absolutely Zero time to observe us as a couple, and simply assumed he was doing what he was trained for as a Human Trafficking Cop.. that has nothing to do with my day or my marriage, and as we both stated we are married recently, should have nothing more to say..

it is the attitude of blindly giving yourself to the whims of others that will offer the many crooked cops access to your life, and i offer no access to the life i have proudly built for myself..

Darnell, i will contemplate all you said, tho it is daunting to go up against the blue wall and think i am doing more than wasting my time..

i like those suggestions..

GnJ

[DJ6372 111]

Am I the only one thinking that if you have nothing to hide then what was wrong with them talking to you or your wife.

I'd say your evasiveness made them suspicious.

But that's just my opinion.

Nope

[belinda63 3,020]

To answer Mac first: because cops lie (don't you read the news?) and they use the pretext of "you cooperating" to conduct illegal searches. Or they can lie or twist what you say. Who are you going to believe a person standing in handcuffs or a person in a police uniform Read about field drug tests showing illegal drugs when used on candy, or grass (as in from the lawn) being called marijuana.

Simple answer: Am I free to go? Am I being detained? Most cops will simply refuse to answer either of these questions. So then the magical "I do not wish to say anything" comes into play. Then the cops say, oh you aren't under arrest I just want to talk to you, followed by you saying "am I free to go"....anyway you get the point. There is NO requirement to speak to the police at any time either when you are free or when you are being detained.

[Gary&Joy 18]

thanx Belinda, we had 2 vehicle violations discovered during the stop.. as you can imagine, things can be found on even the newest vehicles if a cop wants more time with you.. we could not consider being free to leave, but we learned after this ordeal that we never needed to comply with "requests" for us to split up and accompany one officer for paperwork.. we should simply have asked for a lawyer, stuck together, and said Nothing.. that is the message i hope to share.. there was no probable cause, there was no understanding on the part of the officer about our immigration forms.. we could very well have let him have a hissy fit all alone without us, but i (the husband) feel horrible that i complied with the request to follow him for paperwork purposes,, and hope only the galvanize those readers to stand together, "i want my lawyer, we wont be questioned without one"

you dont want to return to your spouse after they have shaken her world, telling her that they care, and suggesting atrocious acts and asking if you treat her that way. then she says "where did you go?"

you dont want that on your head..

cops just want to keep the court docket full,, it strengthens their retirement account..

and we have all heard that certain judges have accepted bribes to keep private jails full..

please keep an eye out for your rights even in the aftermath of the most elated moments of your life, your recent wedding ceremonies..

thank you every one for your thoughts, it helps me to sort thru my own

[Gary&Joy 18]

in Michigan, where this occured, i found that a state college was in charge of organising 90 different agencies into this task force,, i wrote an email to the leader, and should print and send registered mail as Darnell suggested.. the following is my message.. glad to hear the support from many of you.. stand for yourselves out there..

http://cj.msu.edu/programs/human-trafficking/

Dear Jane P. White

January 13, 2016 an officer of the Michigan State Police, Mickey Parling, observed my spouse and I in a commercial vehicle at the Ionia weigh station.. He sprung into action by pulling us over to inspect our situation.. He quickly began suggesting the wife spouse of "us" should dress warmer, and that he would split us up and question the subject of his choice.. When this was met with objection, he began trying to justify his plea with "shocking statistics" that have nothing to do with "us"..

When we stated we were not interested in answering his line of questions, except to say we are recently married, he seemed to shift gears.. He seemed to turn to the processing of our vehicle information.. This ended up being just a diversion, as he requested the husband spouse of "us" to accompany him while he completed these tasks.. Stupidly for "us", we were split up.. This represents the longest time that we had been apart since we met, nearly 2 hours.. Yet, Mickey falsified his report to appear to be only 30 minutes in length..

While one of "us" was with him, the other sat quietly in our truck and was harassed by his partner.. Soon, 4-5 other officers responded to the scene.. Together they shook and rocked the cab of our truck to convince the wife spouse of "us" that they will have their way and speak to her.. As a couple, we do look different. One tall, one short. One mature, one bubbling with energy. Clearly we hail from different nationalities and are very happy to be in each others company, always..

The wife spouse of "us" repeatedly told officers that she had no desire to talk to them, and that she only wanted her husband.. They repeatedly suggested atrocious acts and asked if she had been subjected to them by her husband.. Mind you, we are honeymooners, married 18 days at this point.. What rational and mature human trafficking task force splits up happily married couples??

When asked if Mickey understood the immigration forms that were presented to him, he replied "not really".. When asked what his cause would be that we were somehow suspicious, his reply was that the wife spouse of "us" was taking care of the trucks business on the laptop.. In other words - his suspicions were completely nonsensical..

We are a couple comprised of a US citizen and a K-1 Fiance visa holder.. We are completely within legal parameters, as we reentered the US together on Nov 14, 2015 and married Christmas Eve 2015. Our I-94 form gives "us" until Feb 11 to apply to adjust status to Conditional Permanent Resident.. Putting the Task before the Force would certainly have discovered the vetting done by departments of a much higher leveI than Mickey stood on..

The wife spouse of "us" later suffered from rapid pulse, head ache, sleeplessness and even today was still very leery to be anywhere near Police Officers.. I am certain that level headed participants in a civilized society can recognize the value in observing the public before approaching and escalating unnecessarily..

Please settle our disturbance by responding that actions will be taken to save other couples like "us" from the lack of professionalism experienced by these officers..

Thank You,

[*Snowdrop* 604]

Separating a man and woman to ask the woman if she is okay and not under duress happens in various 'official' places now.

When I went to the hospital to have my baby, as part of the check-in process, the nurse asked my husband to leave the room so that she could ask me a set of questions on the form including:

Who is the person with you?

Are you here under your own free will?

Are you suffering from any kind of abuse at home?

It was really weird, especially as I was mid contractions etc at the time.

Then once those questions were answered they let my husband back in the room and continued to check me in,

Apparently it is a standard practice at hospitals in our area. Timing was odd though. It made my husband feel very uncomfortable when he found out what it was all about.

[Darnell 8,478]

in your letter, i would add a paragraph lamenting the director's poor choice of including this officer on the task force, and lambasting the training officers for not covering the various types of visas.

[Gary&Joy 18]

Trellick, we too are cabin dwellers.. the woods make a lovely place to hole up for the winter months, but we are turning an eye towards beachfront for coming years, haha..

the State must expand and grow to remain relevent, as is the case with the economy.. once we dont need them anymore, they fall from favor.. even if they have to design new ways of letting us know we need them,, and may i assume you will never forget their caring in your moment of need..

thanx for your words

Darnell, yes, i was far too kind..

if i do not hear from this director i will add those to a paper letter and mail it as per your suggestion..

great respect to you