What Should You Do if Federal Authorities Raided Your House with a Search Warrant?
This is a common thing where the feds will get a search warrant and they'll come in and take certain property, and believe it or not, they won't arrest the person.
If you're reading this before that happens to you, which is usually not the case, it's after the fact, of course the first thing I would tell you is not to give any statement to the police.
When they come in it's scary and a lot of times what they're going to do is attempt to get you to agree to certain things and make some statements that really end up incriminating you.
Don't Make Any Statements to Law Enforcement
I'll give you a perfect example: if the feds are coming to your house because they suspect that you're involved with possessing child pornography, distributing and the like.
They will take your computers and your phones and everything, and they ask you, are you the only one that uses that computer?
And you say yes, and they find anything on there, obviously, you've helped them. The bottom line is you don't have to make any statements to them.
You can certainly cooperate with them if they have a valid search warrant, but talking to them and giving them information, answering their questions — you really don't have to do it.
It's not necessary. And I'm telling you right now, it usually ends up being used against you in a negative way.
So, what you should do if the feds have come is not talk to them. Cooperate with them, take whatever paperwork they give you, take all the agent's names and phone numbers, get to an attorney like me immediately.
We'll sit down and talk about everything and try to find out why they were at your house, what information led them to your house and what we're going to do once you retain me moving forward.
Reviewing Case With Federal Prosecutor
Once I get on the case, I can then contact the agents to see what their intentions are. A lot of times there's a prosecutor already on the case.
I can ask for the prosecutor's information, call them and let them know that I'm your attorney, and then the ball starts rolling, hopefully in the right direction.
In that example I gave above in a child pornography case, it's going to take some time for them to evaluate everything.
Once they evaluate and they find incriminating information, typically, instead of arresting you right away, they're going to have the prosecutor call your attorney.
Then, the two attorneys are going to discuss the case, figure out how to deal with it, and hopefully, that will give your attorney a head start in keeping you out of custody while the case is pending, versus you going into custody, sitting there for months while your attorney either tries to resolve it or sets the case up for trial.
So, there's a huge advantage to hiring an attorney right away if the feds have come, executed a search warrant, raided your house, taken certain property.
Retain a Federal Crime Lawyer Immediately
Hire an attorney. Come sit down with somebody like me. We'll go over all the facts and details of the case and we'll get a game plan together moving forward.
Either they've got the evidence or they don't or maybe we don't know if they're going to be able to get the evidence, so we need to talk about that and begin to make some decisions moving the case in the right direction.
That's one of the key things you want to do when it comes to a federal investigation, when it comes to a federal prosecution. Make the moves you can make to protect your rights, your freedom, your career, and obviously, everything that is important to you.
So, if you have had the federal government, either through a joint task force with local law enforcement and some feds, come to your house, raid it, and take certain things.
Federal agents will leave you with a piece of paper showing you what they took, and you're scratching your held wondering what you should do next. You need to pick up the phone. Call Ron Hedding. I stand at the ready to help you.
Hedding Law Firm is a criminal defense law firm located at 16000 Ventura Blvd #1208 Encino, CA 91436. Contact us for a free case evaluation at (213) 374-3952.
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