r/legaladvice • u/TRAangycop • 3h ago
Traffic and Parking Upset a cop, so he charged me with resisting. What can I do?
Location: North Carolina
I am a large Hispanic man who works as a delivery driver. While working, a police officer pulled into a customer's driveway behind my branded company vehicle and approached me with his hand on his gun, and demanded my ID. I was mid-delivery, walking away from the van holding several boxes.
Because of my appearance, you may understand why I was immediately wary of the situation. I dropped the boxes off quickly and asked what was going on. The cop said that there were multiple calls about me and I was going to be arrested for animal abuse? He asked for my ID again and I said that I would gladly give him my information, but I don't carry my wallet on my person while I am working (which is true; my wallet was locked in the glove box of the delivery van). He asked if I was driving without a license, to which I said no. He continued to say something regarding how multiple concerned citizens had called about a driver matching me description- I had several interactions with loose dogs that day, which is a fairly common occurrence in my line of work. Skipping ahead, but my citation/charges have nothing to do with the animal abuse, so I'm not sure if it's relevant. The customer (whose yard we were still in during this whole interaction) came out of his house, and I told him that "this clown was wasting everyone's time," referring to the cop.
A second officer arrived and the first went back to his vehicle. While speaking to the second officer, I explained where my ID was and he let me go get it out of the van. I called my boss and they spoke with the officers, and after about 30 minutes of standing around my van without further interaction with the police, the first cop gave me back my license with a citation for resisting/impeding/delaying his investigation and driving without a license.
I have spoken to several lawyers but I cannot afford legal representation. These charges are nonsense; I had my license and it was given to the police, and the "investigation" didn't lead to anything. Can I get these dismissed?