Not as titillating as my question on whether or not it is illegal to ask a female panhandler to show her breasts for money but I’ll try my best.
I’m rich and I punch a guy in a bar. I’m not worried about a civil suit but I really don’t want to be arrested and face a criminal charge. Is it legal to:
A) Pay him to not file a complaint with the police?
B) Pay him to not testify if I end up getting charged? I’m thinking something like pleading the 5th if he is called.
C) If either or both of these is legal, can it be written up as a contract so that he needs to pay ME if he violates the contract.
You could try simply apologizing and buy him some drinks.
But first maybe you should frequent different types of bars: I don’t think the people who frequent working class bars want to get involved with the police over a bar fight even though someone instigated it–unlike the average middle/upper-middle class Straight Dope poster.
It certainly could be obstruction of justice in my jurisdiction.
However, where its not at all uncommon for (minor) personal injury and assualt cases for police to not take the matter forward if the parties come to a settlement; however the discretion to file Criminal charges generally remains with the appropriate bodies, the fact they often are not inclined to go forward, does not mean that they lack jurisdiction to do so.
Remember a crime is not committed at law against the victim, the crime is committed against the sovereign, thats what differs a crime from a civil wrong.
Sovereign does not mean a monarch. It means the the entity that has ultimate power which it exercises, through its agents. So a King/Queen, the State, the Federation, the People, etc can and all are sovereign.
As I understand it, like a lot of things, offering to bribe the guy some money in person yourself is illegal.
Get a lawyer to do the same thing, through a couple of loopholes, is legal. (and even if it isn’t legal, you aren’t on the hook, the lawyer is). Kind of convenient how you have to pay a lawyer to protect yourself from other lawyers (the DA in this case).
I think in this case the loophole would be that your lawyer would agree to a confidential settlement with the victim of the punch. Part of the settlement agreement includes the victim doesn’t tell anyone, and I think telling the cops/testifying in court would void the agreement.
De facto, it’s money paid to for someone to shut up. And the legal system enforces it, no?
To put it another way: If there isn’t a figurehead, the sovereign is the people as a whole, as represented by some duly-elected government which enacts and enforces policy on their behalf. In a modern country with a figurehead, the people are de facto sovereigns, under the same arrangement, but don’t tell them that.
OK, Happy Fun Hypothetical Time. I know champerty and maintenance are [del]things you can eat at a Traditional British Pub What Has The Odd Name[/del] very bad things at Common Law, such that you aren’t allowed to encourage, pay for, egg on, or otherwise profit from a civil case you have no real part in. However, is it similarly dirty pool to give someone money if they agree to help prosecute a criminal case against that yellow bastard? For example, if someone were on the fence about filing charges and possibly testifying, would it be wrong to encourage them off the fence as long as you never implied by word or deed that they should perjure themselves?
Of course, the requirement to testify in criminal court, to tell the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth, overrides any private deal to be quiet.
However, if the person does not want to press charges - if you suspect your star witness will “not remember” or outright lie or appear unreliable on the stand - unless you have a lot of backup evidence, there’s probably no point in prosecuting.
Probably also depends on the seriousness of the offence.
Not quite. I once lost my job for refusing to do something unethical and possibly illegal (along with my boss and six of my colleagues, corporate version of the Watergate Saturday night massacre). The severance agreement had non-disclosure and confidentiality clauses with rather scary language. We had a lawyer review it, and he said that in any criminal investigation we could talk freely, keep the money and be immune from any civil claim from the company.
There was a subsequent criminal investigation. We were subpoenaed, we talked, half a dozen people went to prison. Even though we had done nothing wrong, we each spent tens of thousands on legal fees to make sure we didn’t end up taking the fall.
You cannot contract to do something illegal - such a contract is not enforceable. Therefore, a contract which requires you to obstruct justice or commit contempt of court by refusing to testify - is unenforceable at least.
Absolutely not. Like md2000 and TheMightyAtlas explained, illegal contracts are not enforceable in court. Adding a lawyer to the picture does not change things – in fact, lawyers can face sanctions or disbarment for assisting a client in conduct that is illegal. A lawyer can advise the client of the consequences of engaging in such conduct, but to counsel or assist the client in the carrying out the activity is prohibited by most (if not all) state bar professionalism rules.
How did Michael Jackson stay out of jail, then? As I understand it, there were lots of kids who confidential settlements were reached with. Yes, he eventually faced a trial, but the previous kids didn’t get him prosecuted after they were paid.
Lots of people commit criminal acts without getting criminally charged. Even when a case gets the attention of a prosecutor (usually through a victim’s complaint to the county Sheriff), there needs to be enough evidence to convince the prosecutor to formally bring charges in court.
In any case, when Michael Jackson was eventually formally charged with sexual abuse, the proseuction did in fact call for the testimony of a witness who had previously signed a confidential settlement with Jackson. It was only because the witness left to country (to avoid testifying) that this did not happen.
How many cases have you heard of where a bar fight is settled by the aggressor agreeing to pay the dental bill of his victim? Sometimes it’s even encouraged by police officers, as a way to deal with a minor assault civilly, rather than going thru with a criminal arrest, jail, and trial.
Or minor fender-bender accidents, settled by one driver agreeing to pay the damage to the others’ vehicle? (Usually with “let’s not tell our insurance companies about this”.) One driver ran a stop sign or some other illegal action, but they aren’t prosecuted for that, because they settled with the other driver.
I think the majority of minor crimes are handled by such “civil settlements”, without involving criminal charges. Otherwise our court system would be way more overloaded. But it’s usually only used for minor things. (And the definition for ‘minor’ can change over time. This used to be a common procedure for dealing with domestic violence; now many jurisdictions absolutely require police to arrest someone on every such call.)
