AN ARREST DOES NOT MEAN A CRIME WAS COMMITTED - OFFICERS NEED BETTER TRAINING!

Recently I have had a number of cases where clients were charged with crimes, one even arrested and jailed overnight, when no crime occurred. Fortunately we were able to convince the prosecutor of that and they dismissed the cases. In one case, client was arrested for "Unlawful Sexual Contact" for kissing another person on the neck. This clearly does NOT meet the definition for "Unlawful Sexual Contact" in the statute - and in a later report even the police officer indicated there was no evidence of that crime, but rather the crime was "Harassment". However, there was no evidence supporting that offense either - the police officer merely failed to read or understand the elements of the crime he charged the client with (and jailed him!). Pretty outrageous really. The prosecutor dismissed the case once I pointed this out to him. In another, the client was charged with felony DUI (it would have been his 7th). He was contacted sitting in his car listening to the radio - drinking. Prosecutor finally realized there was no way to prove he was "driving" (since, in fact, he wasn't) so dismissed the case. I am afraid it seems more and more like law enforcement is just arresting and charging people and letting the prosecutor sort it out later. Maybe we need better training for law enforcement officers?