Category Archives: Fifth Amendment

Module II: Defenses and Privileges: The Fifth Amendment Privilege Testimony
In this video, you #39;ll learn about the various privileges and defenses that may be asserted in opposition to a summons or subpoena. The focus is on the Fifth Amendment Privilege against self-incrimi...

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Module II: Defenses and Privileges: The Fifth Amendment Privilege & Testimony - Video

Part II: Defenses and Privileges: The Fifth Amendment Privilege Testimony
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Part II: Defenses and Privileges: The Fifth Amendment Privilege & Testimony - Video

Module III: Defenses and Privileges: The Fifth Amendment Privilege Document Production/Immunity

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Module III: Defenses and Privileges: The Fifth Amendment Privilege & Document Production/Immunity - Video

CPD Officer Invokes Fifth Amendment right during Michael Brelo trial
A CPD police officer invoked his Fifth Amendment right during CPD patrol officer Michael Brelo #39;s trial Wednesday. WEWS NewsChannel5 is On Your Side with breaking news weather updates...

By: WEWS NewsChannel5

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CPD Officer Invokes Fifth Amendment right during Michael Brelo trial - Video

Michael Brelo trial: Day 3 afternoon session
NEOMG reporter Ida Lieszkovszky talks about Cleveland police officer Michael Demchak invoking the Fifth Amendment during officer Michael Brelo #39;s trial on Wednesday, April 8.

By: cleveland.com

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Michael Brelo trial: Day 3 afternoon session - Video

A Clevelandpolice officer refused to testify Wednesday during the trial of a colleague, Officer Michael Brelo, who facestwo counts of manslaughterin a case that involved a wild high-speed chase. Officer Michael Demchak invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on the witness stand after answering just a few basic questions about his identity and work history, citing advice from an attorney to not testify unless granted immunity, Cleveland.comreported.

Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty wasn't pleased with the officer's refusal to answer questions. "We need his testimony in this trial. We're asking for his testimony," McGinty said, asWEWS-TV reported."We're asking for the truth. That is his duty as a police officer."

Brelo, who was indicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter May 30, 2014, is on trial in connection with the Nov. 29, 2012, deaths ofTimothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Russell, 43, and Williams, 30, both unarmed, led police on a wild car chase that involved more than 100 officers and 60 police cars. Russell and Williams were each struck with more than 20 rounds after police fired nearly 100 shots at the 1979 Chevrolet Malibuin which the pair had been traveling.

Brelo, 31, fired 49 rounds and reportedly jumped on the hood of the car and fired about 15 rounds after the chase had concluded, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. Prosecutors argue the action was unjustifiable since the chase was over.

Investigators said Demchak fired his gun four times during the incident and prosecutors filed motions before the trial opposing police officers who might invoke the Fifth Amendment, Cleveland.com reported. McGinty reportedly told the court that police officers knew one of the fellow officers had done something wrong that night but were refusing to come forward.

The judge in the case decided to allow police officers to invoke the Fifth Amendment just as any other citizen would be allowed to do. "You're asking a witness to rely on your word that you won't charge him, but that's just not the standard," said Judge John P. O'Donnell, as Cleveland.com reported.

Prosecutors expressed frustration that Demchak's refusal to testify had set a precedent. "It won't end with this," McGinty told the court, Cleveland.com reported. "I am reluctant to start doing it here and now for fear of the future result."

Two other police officers -- the first to say he saw Brelo on the hood of the car and that officer's partner -- have been granted immunity in the case thus far. Two more police officers are expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment in the trial, Cleveland.com reported.

The trial beganMondayand is expected to last five to seven weeks.In December 2014, following an investigation that began in response to the shooting of Russell and Williams,U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder found that the Cleveland Division of Police engaged in a pattern of excessive use of deadly force.

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Michael Brelo Indicted: Fellow Cleveland Police Officer Refuses To Testify In Manslaughter Trial Over High Speed Chase

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police detective Michael Demchak invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination shortly after being called to the witness stand Wednesday to testify in the trial of fellow officer Michael Brelo. A heated argument ensued.

Demchak, who was involved in the 22-minute chase and fired some shots at the car driven by Russell, was granted his right by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John P. O'Donnell.

Prosecutor Timothy McGinty filed a motion saying he wanted to treat any Cleveland police officers that might testify during the trial as hostile witnesses. The motionargues police officers were not fully cooperative with investigators during interviews with the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Investigations and with prosecutors' efforts leading up to the trial.

Brelo is the only officer to face criminal charges in the November 2012 chase that ended with 13 officers firing 137 shots into a car fatally shooting unarmed Russell and Williams.

Brelo, who prosecutors have said fired 49 of the shots, waived his right to a jury. O'Donnell will ultimately render a verdict in the case.

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Watch Cleveland police officer take the Fifth in Michael Brelo trial sparking heated debate (video)

The Justice Department has declined to pursue contempt of Congress charges against Lois Lerner for refusing to testify about her role at the IRS in the targeting of conservative groups.

The department announced the decision in a letter Tuesday to House Speaker John Boehner, whose Republican-controlled chamber made the request to prosecute, after holding Lerner in contempt for refusing to testify at committee hearings.

"Once again, the Obama administration has tried to sweep IRS targeting of taxpayers for their political beliefs under the rug, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told FoxNews.com.

Lerner asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege, which allows people to not testify against themselves, during a May 2013 hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and then again at a March 2014 hearing.

However, House Republicans argued Lerner waived the privilege with an opening statement she made before the committee in the May 2013 appearance. All the chambers Republican members and six Democrats officially voted in May 2014 to hold Lerner in contempt.

Ron Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in the seven-page letter that federal prosecutors concluded Lerner did not waive her privilege because she made only general claims of innocence during the opening statement.

Thus, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution would provide Ms. Lerner with an absolute defense should be prosecuted for her refusal to testify, wrote Machen, who was appointed to the U.S. attorney post by President Obama and left for private practice Wednesday, one day after sending the letter.

He also said he will not refer the case to a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute.

Lerner ran the IRSs exempt organizations unit when Tea Party and other nonprofit groups with conservative names applying for tax-exempt status were targeted for additional auditing from April 2010 to April 2012.

She was placed on administrative leave in May 2013 and retired four months later.

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Feds won't pursue contempt charges against Lerner for not testifying before House - VIDEO: DOJ: No contempt charges ...

Updated at 4:33 p.m. ET

The Justice Department will not pursue criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was at the center of a political storm over the agency's alleged targeting of conservative groups. The announcement came from Ronald Machen, the outgoing U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to House Speaker John Boehner. (The letter is embedded at the bottom of this story.)

Here's the background: Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014. But Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who headed that panel, said at the time that Lerner had waived that right by making an opening statement at a May 2013 hearing in which she proclaimed her innocence in short opening remarks.

The House voted later in 2014 to hold Lerner in criminal contempt. Machen's office was examining the case and, in the letter dated March 31, he disagreed with Issa's interpretation.

"Ms. Lerner did not waive her Fifth Amendment privilege by making general claims of innocence," his office said in a statement. "The Constitution would provide Ms. Lerner with an absolute defense if she were prosecuted for contempt."

Wednesday's announcement grants a reprieve to the former IRS official, who at the time of the controversy led the agency's division that oversees tax-exempt groups. William Taylor, her attorney, said in a statement: "We are gratified but not surprised by today's news."

But as Politico notes, she and other officials from the Internal Revenue Service are still under investigation by the FBI for the IRS' targeting of conservative groups.

As NPR's Mark Memmott reported at the time: "[A] report ... concluded some conservative groups had been 'deliberately targeted.' (Democrats have released IRS documents showing liberal groups also came in for extra scrutiny.) A political furor erupted, eventually leading to the resignation of the agency's acting director. Lerner retired from the agency later in the year."

You can read the letter in full here:

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Justice Department Won't Charge IRS' Lois Lerner With Criminal Contempt

Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner exercises her Fifth Amendment right not to speak about the IRS targeting investigation before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building March 5, 2014 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia will not seek contempt charges against former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner for her refusal to testify before Congress, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced Wednesday.

It has been nearly a year since the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt in a mostly party-line vote. At the time, the charges were referred to the local U.S. attorney. The Justice Department officially informed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, of U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen's decision in a letter sent to Boehner's office Tuesday.

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Insisting that she's "done nothing wrong," Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of the division that targeted conservative nonprofit groups fo...

"A team of experienced career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office was assigned to carefully assess the referral. After extensive analysis, the team concluded that the House Committee followed proper procedures in notifying Ms. Lerner that it had rejected her claim of a Fifth Amendment privilege and gave her an adequate opportunity to answer the Committee's questions," the Justice Department said in a statement. "However, the team also concluded that Ms. Lerner did not waive her Fifth Amendment privilege by making general claims of innocence. The Constitution would provide Ms. Lerner with an absolute defense if she were prosecuted for contempt."

Congress' contempt vote stems from Lerner's appearances before the House Oversight Committee. At the start of one hearing in 2013, Lerner made an opening statement declaring her innocence before invoking her Fifth Amendment right. Republicans charge that by delivering her opening statement, she waived her rights against self-incrimination. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and then the full House of Representatives, voted to hold Lerner in contempt for her refusal to testify on March 5, 2014.

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DOJ: No contempt charges against Lois Lerner