Does anyone know what the legal significance of that is?
Is there any law that enables the police to force you to stay in a city? If so, does it have to be the city of your primary residence? What if you have two residences in two diff cities?
I have never encountered any kind of statute law that empowers the police to restrict people from moving from once city to another.
As well, I have never encountered any kind of case law either that does that. So, what gives?
I tend to think that the police may not really have any power to force you to either leave town or stay in town. They might try to somehow tie your leaving town to some kind of “obstruction of justice” or “obstruct the police” in some way. But my first guess would be it is just bullshit. I would guess they have no such right at all.
In any event, I’d really like to know if anyone here (especially a lawyer) has any experience with this kind of thing and who knows just what kind of law the police depend on when they do this. Alternatively, perhaps someone would know that there is no such law. But I’d really like to know what the truth is in this situation. I’m asking because on the last episode of Fargo, the police person (Molly) tells Lester not to leave town and I’m guessing this is really just a polite request for his co-operation and not an “order” of some kind backed up by law. If he was to just ignore her, could he be charged with any kind of crime?
If a police person tells an innocent citizen to not leave town, how should that citizen respond? Would they get into any kind of trouble if they said, “OK” and then left town? Or should they just say, “I understand” and then leave town if they want.
It would probably be a real bad idea to say, “You have no legal authority to make me stay in this town and I will leave if I want to.” Wouldn’t it?
IANAL, this is not legal advice, yada yada - this sounds like a repeat of a previous thread.
You are either under arrest or not. There are very few restraints unless you have gone through a legal process.
Obviously, you can’t leave town legally if you are on probation or on bail and that’s a condition (typically those have travel and reporting restrictions). If you have been served with a subpoena to appear in court, you can leave town but you must return for the appearance. Ditto for a summons.
The typical Hollywood application - is of course, pure BS. It just makes the tough, hard-bitten detective sound cool. In some jurisdictions, flight can be presented as evidence of guilt. But… it’s hard to qualify a trip to Tahiti in a vacation spa as evidence of guilt, so it depends on the circumstances.
OP are you saying you have encountered this in real life? Because I’ve been in law enforcement for a while now and I’ve never heard it. Seen it on tv of course. Your movements can be restricted as a condition of bail or parole but that of course is an entirely different situation.
In TV, it’s a warning to the suspect that he is under suspicion. If he leaves town, that would increase the suspicion.
Can they stop him? No. But they can track him down and the first question they’d ask is “Why did you leave town when we told you not to?” Any excuse will be checked out.
Former prosecutor and current magistrate here. I have never heard of a police officer advising a suspect not to leave town IRL. Maybe it happens if the cop has watched too many movies. A court may place pretrial limits on a suspect’s movements, or even seize his or her passport, but it is relatively rarely done.
Come to think of it, it just happened in the FX miniseries Fargo (which was very good, but unrealistic in lots of ways). A small-town Minnesota cop, investigating several homicides, didn’t order the suspect not to leave town, but said something to the effect of, “I’m gonna ask you not to leave town; I may have some more questions for you.”
But again… that would be after charges are laid, as a bail condition. (What is bailed called if the suspect is released on their own recognizance or simply ordered to appear for trial?)
IANAL - Unless you are under arrest you can simply thank the officer for his time and book a ticket to Moscow via Hong Kong and there’s nothing the state can do about it. Even under arrest, they have to haul you in front of a judge (within 48 hours?) and show that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial (at which point bail applies), or drop the charges and you are free to start travelling.
“Don’t leave town” is code for “I have no evidence to charge you, but I’m going to ignore all other leads and concentrate on you.” there’s usually a car chase or shoot-out 4 scenes later.
Speaking of Fargo: this is maybe a little OT, but in the movie Fargo, when Mr Lundegaard “fled the interview”, did he break any laws? This was when he was being questioned in his office.
No need to apologise - I didn’t mean to shut you down - the first question (does this ever happen in the real world) is interesting enough - and if the answer is yes, then the second question is also worth exploring.
From my quick-and-dirty review of the Minnesota Statutes and Codes, could be. Definitely not guilty of escape from custody (he wasn’t actually in custody), or fleeing [a] police officer (he left on foot and then got in his car, which the statute doesn’t seem to prohibit), but perhaps obstructing legal process (which dings anyone who “…intentionally …obstructs, resists, or interferes with a peace officer while the officer is engaged in the performance of official duties”).
What about the “innocent bystander” so to speak? A sort of Material Witness Warrant? Can you be required to “stay available” rather than have the court drag you back from where-ever once it comes to trial?
However, one can “stay available” without needing to restrict your movements to a single jurisdiction. E.g. “Hey, Officer Jones? Remember you wanted me to stay available regarding that Memphis bank case? I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be in Hawaii for the next two weeks - you can reach me at 333-555-4543 or contact my hotel at 432-555-6442.”
I’ve never seen a material witness warrant. They are very rare. However if someone ignores a subpoena they can be held in contempt. But like all the other legal restrictions on your freedom of movement that have been mentioned, that comes from a judge and not from the police.
In reality prosecutors don’t want to deal with uncooperative witnesses because it rarely turns out well for them.