lawyer, Michael Becker.

And Mike, today I want to ask you

about the Nevada crime of resisting arrest.

And the term resisting arrest is kind

of a buzz word in our culture.

And I think most people think of it in the context of,

the cops are trying to arrest you and you struggle.

And you try to keep from being handcuffed,

or fight with the police.

But actually, the law here in Nevada

is even broader than that.

Is that right?

-That's correct.

It's willfully resisting or obstructing law enforcement.

So we've seen people that were charged

under this provision of the NRS statutes.

For example, pulling their hand away when the officer went

to put handcuffs on them, or the officer asked them their name

and they gave a false name.

That could be the basis for a charge of willfully obstructing

or resisting law enforcement.

-And certainly, if you struggle with the officer,

or if you get in a fight with a police officer,

then that could be resisting arrest or something even more

serious.

-That's correct.

I mean, if you run away from the police

or resist them in matters that we've spoken of previously,

that would likely lead to a misdemeanor charge

for willfully resisting or obstructing.

But if you threaten a police officer,

or if you strike a police officer,

there are more serious charges, including battery on a police

officer, which could be a felony if injury occurs.

-And that potentially could send someone

to prison for a number of years.

-That's correct.

-Have you had success in defending clients

over the years who are charged with resisting arrest?

-Yes.

If often depends on the circumstances

that led to the contact with law enforcement.

But more often than not, if you can

show that the defendant is not guilty

of the underlying conduct that gave rise to the charge,

a prosecutor and/or a court will be

a lot more likely to consider dismissing

the charge of resisting or obstructing arrest.

-And what if it's a cop that-- let's

say you have a client who contacts you and the officer is

just exaggerating, or the officer

was brutal with the client.

And we see that a lot here in Nevada.

Are there things that you could do to sort of investigate

the police officer's background and kind of help bolster

our client's story as opposed to the police officer's?

-There are.

We can, if we have a situation where the client says

that the officer was being overly

aggressive or inappropriate or using unnecessary force,

placing the handcuffs on too tightly

or pulling the arm back too abruptly.

-Which is very common, right?

-It is common.

And we can do a motion to look into the personnel records

of a police officer and determine

whether similar types of accusations

have been made against the officer in the past.

And if we can show a prosecutor and/or a judge that we're

dealing with a situation where the officer may have

a history of being very aggressive,

then they're going to be a lot more receptive to our argument

that our client wasn't resisting, but was merely

rightfully protecting their personal sanctity.

-So the take-home message to our audience

would be if you're charged with resisting arrest,

or battery on a police officer, something

similar, it's often in your interest to get a good lawyer

and to fight back, because it may be possible to get

the charges reduced or ultimately dismissed.

-That's correct.

I don't believe that a normally law-abiding person

is going to be predisposed to resisting law enforcement.

For the most part, we respect law enforcement

and we do what they tell us to do.

Often, there's a story behind the story.

So we like to sit down with our clients

and hear their side of the event so that we can go into court

and fight for an acquittal or a dismissal

of those types of charges.

I'm attorney Michael Becker with the Las Vegas Defense Group.

If you've been charged here in Nevada with resisting

an arrest, call me 702-DEFENSE, and we'll

talk about what we can do to get your charges reduced

or dismissed.