Confidential Informants

An article in the New York Times discussed a strange case in New York where the authorities concocted a story to avoid disclosing the identity of a confidential informant. Naturally that did not go over we'll with the judge. Confidential informants are often used though if they remain anonymous their hearsay testimony can only be admitted for limited purposes such as showing how the investigation began. There is legal standard to test their reliability in suppression motions, but if the existence of the confidential informant is hidden by a concocted story the system does not work.

 The Law Office of Kurt T. Koehler, 308 1/2 S. State Street Ann Arbor, Michigan (MI) 48198 (Washtenaw County); Copyright 2012 by Kurt Koehler