Keep Your Mouth Shut

This is Sunday evening. I’m looking at my schedule for next week and reviewing the events of last week. It was a busy week. It was not only busy for me.

The Federal government indicted Roger Clemens for lying to Congress. I think everybody is sorry to see that happen for a lot of reasons. Roger Clemens was a great baseball player. While accounts he seems to be a pretty nice person. He claims he never used steroids. I understand that perjury is perjury but it should only be a crime to lie to Congress when Congress stops lying to us.

A few years ago we started a witch-hunt in major league baseball about steroid use. One or two players decided to “out” other players. I am not sure what their motivation was.

I don’t know how I feel about steroid use. I know why athletes do it. As far as the adult, professional athletes I don’t object to them abusing their bodies that way if they want to. However, it puts pressure on other athletes who may not want to use steroids. In order to compete and make the millions of dollars that professional athletes make they may be forced into steroid use just to keep up.

If Roger Clemens lied to Congress, shame on him. Not shame on him because he lied to Congress. Shame on him for being so stupid. Every time I talk to a client who is considering making a statement to any Federal investigator the first thing I stress is that he or she must tell the truth under any circumstances. Once they make the decision to talk, the truth is the only way to go. I don’t know that I recommend everybody talk to the Federal government. We have a right to remain silent. I think we should use that more often.

I’m sure the Roger Clemens case will drag on for a long time. How long ago was it that Barry Bonds was indicted? He still hasn’t come to trial.

Speaking of cases that never seem to go away there is the case of the former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich. I, along with many others, was surprised by the verdict. I was surprised that he was not acquitted of all of the charges. Of course the only count he was convicted of was “lying to the Federal government.” So, there you go! If they can’t convict you of the actual crime they get you for lying about it. What is the lesson? Exercise your right to remain silent.

I am representing any number of people right now who would unquestionably not even be charged with a crime if they had just asked for an attorney minute the police started asking questions. But for some reason, a reason I will never understand, people think they can talk their way out of bad situations. They can’t. So what you have in the Blagojevich case is a man who would probably be walking free today if he would have just kept his mouth shut.

I don’t think there is any chance that Rob Blagojevich is ever going to keep his mouth shut. He is just too stupid to do that.

This really didn’t start out to be a lecture about the Fifth Amendment. But maybe it should be. It seems that Americans now really don’t appreciate the Bill of Rights. There seems to be this odd trust of the government on one hand and distrust of the government on the other. People run around and holler about high taxes but don’t think about their individual rights.

I am sincerely concerned about the future of this country. I will give you an interesting insight. The people I deal with who are most aware of our individual rights are those who have come here from other countries. I am not talking about illegal immigrants. I’m talking about legal immigrants. I’m talking about those who have waited and waited to be admitted to this country and who have become citizens. Those people know and understand the importance of the Bill of Rights. Too often, people who have been here all their lives, and who come from generations of Americans, are ignorant of the rights granted to them by the Constitution. All they want to holler about is high taxes.

Okay, I’m done for today. I hope you get something good out of this. This is going to be a busy week. I have a lot of court appearances and a lot of contested hearings. All I can hope for is that the judges before whom I will appear have the same respect for the Bill of Rights as a newly sworn-in immigrant American citizen.