At least a dozen people were arrested on charges of delinquent child support payments recently after Lee County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a sting that promised tickets to the 2011 Iron Bowl, the Opelika-Auburn News reports.
Birmingham Criminal Defense Lawyers understand that law enforcement officer are constantly looking for ways to arrest people and tend to come up with unique stings to try to wrangle up as many suspects as possible. Whether it’s child support, prostitution or drug charges in Birmingham, police will attempt to make as many arrests as possible.hs
But what must be considered if arrested in some type of sting is whether or not law enforcement officers entrapped suspects. While entrapment is tricky to prove sometimes, an aggressive criminal defense attorney will explore all evidence presented by the state and seek to eliminate evidence that could be incriminating to defendants.
In this case, sheriff’s in Lee County — home of the Auburn Tigers — sent letters to 140 people who had warrants out for their arrest for allegedly being behind on child support payments. According to the article, the suspects were between $30,000 and $75,000 behind on payments.
While many of the letters were returned due to bad addresses, they promised free tickets to the Iron Bowl — the annual Alabama-Auburn football matchup — for the upcoming season. All the person had to do is return the letter with a photo ID. The location, in Opelika, was Iron Bowl-themed, with balloons and streamers and a TV playing highlights of the 2010 Iron Bowl.
But when they arrived, the people were arrested and none were given tickets to the annual football game. While many people would covet free tickets to the game — which has been played as far back as 1893 and which is led by Alabama with an all-time record of 40-34-1 — file this under the “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t” category.
Police will come up with any type of scheme to make arrests like this, but these operations typically are high trickery and low on good police work. While law enforcement agencies like to invite the media to these operations to get good press and build up good will with the public, they sometimes leave out all the details of how they got the arrests. And no one is around to do a story when the defendant is found not guilty or the charges are dismissed months later.
Entrapment is essentially when police get a person to commit a crime they would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. That’s not the case with back child support but you get the idea. Sometimes had a person not been influenced to commit the crime, they can be found not guilty. For instance, during a drug sting, if an undercover police officer calls up a defendant and asks for drugs, the person may be found not guilty because he or she was enticed into or pressured into coming to the drug sale.
Each case varies, but whether drugs, prostitution, police actions when making an arrest or a group of arrests must be scrutinized. An aggressive Birmingham Criminal Defense Attorney will look at all aspects of the case and seek the best possible resolution for the client.
Additional Resources:
Iron Bowl sting catches alleged deadbeat parents, by Donathan Prater, Opelika-Auburn News