I signed to become an informant. What now?

[bebop88]

Swim was pulled over a few days ago, long story short he had his car searched and everyone in the vehicle did not fess up to what was theirs. swim was concerned he would face many legal charges considering he recently became a legal adult in the US. Swim said he was presented with an offer to introduce an undercover and work for a detective regarding the people he was in the car with and all his charges would be dropped. without a doubt swim signed the papers. swim did not think he would get in this deep. Is what they are telling swim the truth and does anybody have any experience within the issue to comfort swim? Swim is thinking of doing something stupid to harm himself because he is feeling so depressed over the matter.

swim doesn't want to deal with this as he is only a recreational weed smoker and didn't know he was dealing with people of this level.

[old hippie 56]

Never had no experience being a informant, had a few where they was used against cowboy. One saved his life once by tipping him off to a rip-off from some really bad guys with guns. Be careful if swiy decides to go through with being a informant. Rather serve time than rat out cowboy buddies.

[Spare Chaynge]

Seriously this is just a speed bump in swiys life. Do not think harmful thoughts. The best thing swiy can do is just get a lawyer. swiys relative had one and it helped a lot. Oh by the way, get a lawyer to look over that paper you signed and the entire case. And only listen to him.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good advice.

[bebop88]

swim says he could careless about the people involved as he only knew them a week and didn't know they were these type of people. if it wasnt for them emptying there pockets of paraphernalia on his car floor he wouldn't be in this mess. as for a lawyer swim has no one to pay for one and doesn't really feel like coming clean to his parents about the whole ordeal he says. swim said they already know he signed papers to be an informant. any advice is helpful to swim or any words of comfort as well he says.

[=SKA=]

Originally Posted by bebop88

swim says he could careless about the people involved as he only knew them a week and didn't know they were these type of people. if it wasnt for them emptying there pockets of paraphernalia on his car floor he wouldn't be in this mess. as for a lawyer swim has no one to pay for one and doesn't really feel like coming clean to his parents about the whole ordeal he says. swim said they already know he signed papers to be an informant. any advice is helpful to swim or any words of comfort as well he says.

If they are really violent people that will cut SWIY's balls off and force him to swallow them; then serving jailtime or paying great fines, or getting a great lawyer to slither SWIY's way out of this seem to be the best option.

However if these people are no people to fear: Rat them out and be charge-free. SWIM knows he sure wouldn't mind ratting out people that GOT him into trouble with THEIR stupidity and then go on to not confess what drugs and paraphernalia are their's so SWIM take the fall for it all. FUCK them. Rat them out. Getting revenge and becomming free of charge at the same time. What is SWIY waiting for? Go for it.

Just rat THEM out though: don't let any cops or justicial scum trick you into ratting out any more people than just them; They don't care about SWIY's safety and they would easily ask SWIY to rat out some SERIOUSLY dangerious people.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Really unhelpful scaremongering. Leave the "swallowing your own testicles" speculation out of this. They might...

[Spare Chaynge]

Hmmm. swiy will be surprised how cheap a shitty lawyer is, better a shitty one then none at all.

does swiy have a copy of the paper that he signed

[terrapinzflyer]

So- whats the real story here? SWIY is saying they had paraphanelia in the pockets- which sounds like the same charges any "recreational" pot smoker could face. What is SWIY really talking about here??
Swims turtles advice is get a lawyer- and do whatever swiy has to do to NOT become an informant. It is something SWIY will have to live with for the rest of their life, and may well place SWIY in danger.

But really- more (honest and complete) info is needed before help can be offered.

[nomud]

Swim recently went through stuff involving hand writting "expert" heh heh.It's more art than science.Based on opinion of so called expert.Expert said that was swim's signature,when swim knows swim didn't sign.Later carbon copy shows up and didn't match original paper signature.Hand writting "expert" is wrong,original and carbon copy signatures didn't match,someone forged swim's signature.Deny you signed anything.All they'll get is opinion of expert,which could be wrong.If your finger prints on paper say they handed paper to you and you gave it back w/o signing.

[sweettea]

If there is a law school in your area swiyou can sometimes get legal advice very cheaply or even for free. Also, many attorneys that are just getting established will have cheaper rates and work with swiyou on a payment plan. It's worth looking into eh?

Or one might have to seek the help of the parents, presumably any unpleasantness with them would be better than going down a path that clearly swiyou don't want to be on.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very helpful advice

[seven7seven]

SWIM says SWIY made a huge mistake!!! NEVER COPERATE WITH POLICE!!! They do not have SWIY's interests in mind! They lied to SWIY (scare tactics) about the situation. A good lawyer would solve SWIY's problems. The police have also put SWIY if in a very dangerous situation. Some cats have nothing better to do than kill people like SWIY, espicially in a jail/prison enviroment (which the police don't really care if SWIY goes to or not). The cops are using SWIY as a pawn. The less info cops have the better off SWIY is in court, and SWIY's friends. By working with police the situation only gets worse for everyone involved. SWIM would say cease any/all police involvment immediately and get a good lawyer. This is a situation that could haunt SWIY for the rest of SWIY's life (which could likely be shortened). There are lots of ways SWIM's could discover SWIY involvement with police........Consequences resulting from such research is swift and harse (no mercy)!!!

Reputation Comments on this post:

Perceptive anaylisis

[techhnyne]

i hate snitches

and if someone had drugs in my car and wouldnt confess i would ask the cops for a moment alone and i will slap everyone in the car until someone takes responsibility for the stuff

Reputation Comments on this post:

	This adds nothing. There is no useful comment at all written here.
	while SWIM agrees with not liking rats this still gives no answer to the post

[myocardial infarction]

Yeah I hate to say it but if SWIY rats on those ppl that were there at the time and whoever else the cops ask about SWIY will definitely get what's coming, someday. Not only will swiy's life be fucked with but the others will have just as shitty of a time as swiy and no one deserves to be arrested and pay fines and all that bull shit just for some fucking bud. Swim has 4 friends right now that are either on probation or in jail because of a rat and they are very vengeful.
Swims good friend had to opportunity to rat ppl out when he was arrested but told the cop to fuck himself so he got to spend 6 months in jail and 1 year on probation but if he would've ratted on ppl his sentence would've been a lot less. But that's how my cat can tell if someone is true or not. No one likes a rat, swiy has pretty much sold your soul

myocardial infarction added 6 Minutes and 20 Seconds later...

Originally Posted by bebop88

swim says he could careless about the people involved as he only knew them a week and didn't know they were these type of people. if it wasnt for them emptying there pockets of paraphernalia on his car floor he wouldn't be in this mess. as for a lawyer swim has no one to pay for one and doesn't really feel like coming clean to his parents about the whole ordeal he says. swim said they already know he signed papers to be an informant. any advice is helpful to swim or any words of comfort as well he says.

It really doesn't matter if swiy has only known them a week, if someone is ratted out they become very vengeful. Follow everyone elses advice and get a lawyer and If swim was swiy I would definitely tell my parents if swim thought they would be able to help in any way. This is a horrible situation for anyone to be in but becoming an informant will only make matters worse.

[Raoul duke420]

Ever hear of keeping your mouth shut and not snitching on others to get yourself off?? What ever happened to that?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Needless, unhelpful, and confrontational.
	and this helps how?
	Your of a rare breed, people may disapprove of your comment but this is the best way for the benifit of the criminal wor...

[cob_ob]

OK,here.s a few pieces of advice,and read carefully..
I know many people who this has happened too.
I can give you all sorts of advice but in the end the decision rests with you.
Firstly do not harm yourself more than you have already done!
This may seem like a major problem with no way out?
There is a way out, you have got to make the choice YOUR most comfortable with.
To me it seems like your pretty young,but you,ve made a mistake and have got to learn how to pick the pieces up to move on.
The way I see it is if you become an informant,especially an unpaid one,what do you stand to gain?
Firstly,you cannot even comprehend how much danger those police will place you in,I,m not saying the guys you were with are dangerous.
But I am sure somewhere up the drugs supply food chain there definately is.
This is were you would be heading once you start to successfully get those cops arresting people..
I have never none one person not to swear revenge of some description on the rat who landed them in jail.
You can walk away now,tell the police you exposed yourself accidently as an informant in front of those people when you were drunk,tell the cops that these guys became suspicious, and asked you why you were not charged with any offences arrising from the car incident,they began questioning you and threatened to have you seen to.
Tell the cops you have sought the advice of a lawyer to have the agreement you signed made null and void because as a direct result of what the police force have asked you to do via duress,they have placed your life in danger,as they the police have encouraged you to become an agent provocater,tell them the that you don,t wish to procede with the lawyers advice,you just want to forget this whole mess.
Tell them to go find someone else and that they won,t be seeing you again.
This will only work once.
If you get nailed again,you won,t get the offer of a free ticket out on someone elses back...
I am not being judgemental,but the opinion is that no one likes a rat...
I could go on and on..but I won,t..
I doubt they will even procede with A few petty charges that can be explained,everyone makes a mistake once?
Best of luck,I hope you make the correct decision!

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good, helpful advice
	Sounds like fantastic advice to me!

[sirmoonie]

Originally Posted by cob_ob

You can walk away now,tell the police you exposed yourself accidently as an informant in front of those people when you were drunk,tell the cops that these guys became suspicious, and asked you why you were not charged with any offences arrising from the car incident,they began questioning you and threatened to have you seen to.
Tell the cops you have sought the advice of a lawyer to have the agreement you signed made null and void because as a direct result of what the police force have asked you to do via duress,they have placed your life in danger,as they the police have encouraged you to become an agent provocater,tell them the that you don,t wish to procede with the lawyers advice,you just want to forget this whole mess.
Tell them to go find someone else and that they won,t be seeing you again.

Absolutely awful advice. He should contact the police and lie to the them about drunken conversations with co-defendants that he never had? Then debate contract law with the police while disclosing a fictitious attorney-client privileged conversation he never had? What the hell are you on?

Dude/OP - SWIM needs to get a lawyer, and SWIM should never say another word to the police about any charges EVER again in SWIM's life. If the police contact SWIM (NOT the other way around), he should say he's not talking to them and they can contact his lawyer. If SWIM is idiotic and decides he won't hire a lawyer, same advice applies - NEVER talk to the police about anything EVER, especially this narc/informant mess SWIM created. It's amazing SWIM even needs to be told that.

[cra$h]

Originally Posted by Raoul duke420

Ever hear of keeping your mouth shut and not snitching on others to get yourself off?? What ever happened to that?

True that brother, respect has been long lost. Has been since the 80's. It's ashame really.

As for being an informant, GET THE HELL OUT OF IT! It doesn't matter how. Listen to Fnord. By snitchin people out, you'll RUIN PEOPLE'S LIVES. There was an article in Rolling Stone or something like that, there's a tread on it here, and it was a stoner who rarely bought a small quantity of coke, sounds like maybe around a gram or two at a time, nothing big. He met another kid who pushed and pushed and pushed to get a massive amount, over an ounce for months on end. Finally the stoner gave in, and introduced the informant a dealer. He left for spring break and when he came back he was greeted by the police and charged with shit like conspiracy and a couple other things, worth 25 years in federal prison. He's only 18, not even out of high school. Take the fall for everyone else. It was you're car, your responsibility. Take the blame you pussy.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Don't resort to name calling and flaming. You should know better than that
	Utterly the wrong tone. Knee-jerk response. Why should he take responsibility for those who left him in the shit? It's n...
	Not fair on the poor kid - read the OP's post properly before responding

[anonuser30500]

You should have denied having anything to do with the paraphernalia - you would take the rap IF you were involved in anything perhaps, but that would have been agreed beforehand.

If this was your home, you'd be at fault, mainly because you've neglected to assess the guests. In Swims pond, informing on who owned what would be a lot more trouble that just denying it and going to court.

If the paraphernalia is coke or heroin, then informing means you'll be in effect, a pawn being played by the cops.

But the reality is that almost all those caught with big amounts are ratting each other out - and the crime world itself is likely riddled with informants.

As it stands, at worse, you'll take the rap for a few idiots. But, you've got to accept that you were an idiot also, because its up to you to make sure your not compromised by reckless idiots who will throw all sorts of gear into your car just because of a pull.

You really do need legal advice bro.

Think about it, who fancies wearing a recorder when your little dealer gets a visit off his cousin who is connected to the sort of people who might just frisk you because your acting nervous.

For parephanalia, what do you think is the max trouble you can actually get into?

Even if it was needles with traces of coke and heroin, I doubt the fine would be more than a few hundred dollars. As long as your DNA is not there - your in a good position. Dress up in a nice suit and tie, look humble and outline the fact your young, naive and this led to you offering lifts to persons unknown who have at some point, seemingly used your car as a needle dump.

As for signing for informant - claim you panicked, which is not a lie, is it?

Good luck.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Excellent advice, nicely puts things in perspective
	More solid advice.

[dadrone]

What charges is SWIY facing?

SWIM was once busted for selling pot, preceeded by an informant who did it to save himself a marijuana possession charge (i.e. 1 fucking day in jail).

Shame on you - do the crime, do the time.

Reputation Comments on this post:

He didn't do the crime. The other people dumped their crap in his car and left him to clean up the mess. Aweful post.

[Niba]

Fuckin Rats. SWIY probably just got yourself into more trouble now. Except this time instead of maybe doing a little bit community service or paying a little fine (assuming it was just paraphernalia, or even a little pot) SWIY may very well catch a beating when people find out SWIY is a dirty snitch

You never talk to the cops. And if SWIY has not snitched yet, i HIGHLY recommend SWIY keeps there mouth shut. You need to a little more specific about what SWIY's charges were.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Please don't post this level of garbage again. Think for yourself, don't just reiterate stock lines about informants.

[bman1]

Never talk. You made the mistake, you do the time. Regardless of what these people are like and how much you dislike them. You got caught. That is BS you would even think of doind such a thing. swibs hates people who make a mistake and can not handle to ramifcations so take a easy way out. You knew what you were getting into, just because you got caught does not mean others should go down for you mistake! And I am sure it is hard to get completly off cops lie. They just want as many people as possible. Get a good lawyer and do you time. YOU GOT CAUGHT NOT THEM. YOU DO THE TIME NOT THEM.
If you can not handle the heat stay out of the kitchen!

Reputation Comments on this post:

	By this reasoning if I get arrested for murder, I should do the time even if I'm innocent. Nonsense.
	Utter nonsense.People should not dump their garbage in other people's cars.It's their responsibility.

[fnord]

Listen to the advice of everyone thats telling you to speak to a lawyer most states have free lawyers for those thagt cant aford one,contact your local court for more info on this. Snitching can lead to life long problems,causing people not to trust you or(if you were dealing with some of grandmas "friends"-->) beat you down and even kill you or your pets/family. Please read this poor girls story about how the cops caused her death,once the cops have a leash around your neck they wont let go,they will milk you for all your worth and keep wanting more and more info and not give a damn about your safety or your life. My cop friends all say that even police dont respect there snitches!

http://current.com/items/88950184_23...-informant.htm

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks for the link, useful advice

[Junkhead23]

Owning up was stupid and if it were just for paraphernalia then it's nothing and not worth SWIY life or possibly someone SWIY love's life. Don't get involved with the wrong people. It always turns out bad! He is sure SWIY could get away with a warning.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Doesn't help in one little bit. Telling a scared kid he's the next worst thing to a paedophile? Where's the compassion h...

[CrookedEye]

BE aware that if someone is an informant and someone else gets busted, the informants name will show up as the informant in the case files given to the defendant. If this person could afford bail, then that means they will be out of jail when they receive the information of who got them busted. This can be very dangerous for any informant and the cops really don't care about keeping their forced informants safe. Many of them look at snitches just as bad as any other criminal.

With a good attorney, it would be easy to fight a case of a car full of young people where no one claimed the drugs, and as stated above, the cop would rather coerce someone into helping them, than fight a case to prove the drugs belonged to only one person. Most cops will arrest the whole car of people until someone confesses or they coerce several people into claiming it was a single person in the cars. Makes their job easier, but if a lawyer is called to fight this, without anyone snitching, then the cops have an extremely hard case to pin on any one person in particular and it becomes very difficult to win the case..

Take your time, ask for help from family (SWIY just is a pot smoker who made a mistake, so surely parents will understand), earn some money, and get a lawyer. Don't play with the cops, they don't play nice..

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good advice.
	Very good information and advice.

[354bottle]

SWIY should do a little reading so SWIY better understands how the system that causes your misery works. Ignorance and fear walk hand in hand.
First thing is do not go down the road of "if SWIY only did this or that", SWIY wouldn't be in this bucket of turds. It's counter productive to the mission at hand, depresive and makes SWIY want to hurt self. To what end SWIM asks? More misery? When this is all said and done there will be some lessons learned as there arre lessons learned in all thing in life, good and bad. SWIY is young and has a future, use it. Enough preaching from SWIM.

A little reading will explain this fact to SWIY, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT, ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU.

All cops are liars, it's how they do their job. When exercising SWIY right to remain silent SWIY will be threatened with all things fearful to a youngster.
A little more reading will explain that the outcome of any arrest is decided in a court room, with a judge, a jury if needed, and your lawyer.

Understand your rights and exercise them is what SWIMs scattered mind is trying to say.
Rights are taken from all because they are not understood, let alone exercised. Sad it is.

Take your future and run with it, for what does not kill you, makes you stronger.

[ex-junkie]

i seriously doubt the OP will come back after the reception he got.

the guy made a mistake, under pressure, and was looking for a way to get out of it/do the right thing. i got the impression he hadnt actually done any "ratting" at the time he posted the thread.

props to the people who gave him sound advice, but as for the rest who flamed him, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Reputation Comments on this post:

You're right - hope the OP filtered something positive out of all the crap