Kurt Nachtman on Why Talking to Police Almost Never Helps

What happens when a law student who worked almost full time through law school clerks in the Baltimore City homicide division, gets to know the real people behind the characters in The Wire, learns what it actually takes to build a murder case from the inside, then spends five years on the prosecution side before crossing to the defense table — where 12 years and 30 jury trials later he still gets coolest when everyone else in the room is in full panic mode? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Kurt Nachtman, partner at Silverman Thompson in Baltimore, about the single most important thing to do in the first 24 hours after an arrest — shut up, be polite, and say the word lawyer — why Miranda rights are not triggered until custodial interrogation occurs and how much questioning can legally happen before you get there, and why a .09 on the breathalyzer is not the end of the case if you know where to look for sleep apnea, medical conditions, and procedural defects in how the officer read the DR-15. Kurt also walks through the ghost gun case where a firearms enthusiast who accidentally shot himself in the leg beat the charge when Kurt realized that the statute was so poorly written the state had to prove a negative — and the young prosecutor called afterward still not understanding what happened. They also discuss what happens when a professional license is on the line — why a nurse, paramedic, or daycare operator should never try to respond to a licensing board letter without a lawyer and why the complaint that brought them to your door is almost never what gets you — why insurance companies keep internal databases on which lawyers actually try cases and how that changes what they offer, the personal injury verdict that came in four times the last settlement offer after Kurt turned his client misidentifying her own injured leg into proof that she wasn't exaggerating, why the good neighbor is consistently the hardest insurance company to negotiate against and runs to the one yard line before making a reasonable offer, and what it was like as a 32-year-old newly minted private attorney to solve an unsolved suspicious death and get a family some measure of closure. Kurt Nachtman is a partner at Silverman Thompson in Baltimore, Maryland, practicing criminal defense, professional license defense, and personal injury. Connect with Kurt Nachtman: Phone: 410-385-2225 Email: [email protected] silvermanthompson.com Baltimore, Maryland Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Kurt Nachtman 00:38 What five years as a Baltimore City prosecutor did to the way he fights for defendants 01:18 Clerking in the homicide division as a law student — cell phone evidence, DNA, and the real people behind The Wire 03:20 My client just got arrested in Maryland — what are the most important decisions in the next 24 hours 03:35 Shut up — why talking to police almost never helps and why they're allowed to lie to you 05:08 But what if you're just being polite and explaining yourself 05:13 Polite but firm no — the right words out of your mouth and the right words in your text 06:40 Don't destroy evidence — why deleting text messages often makes everything worse 07:13 Miranda — when does it actually trigger and what is custodial interrogation 08:42 DUI and Miranda in Maryland — why you don't get your rights read on a traffic stop 10:00 Public defender versus private attorney — caseload, choice, and making lemonade out of lemons 11:39 When someone thinks a minor charge isn't serious — why the internet changed everything about that assumption 12:25 Expungement in Maryland and why a trespassing charge can follow you into a security clearance 15 years later 13:40 The ghost gun case — a firearms enthusiast shoots himself in the leg and beats the charge 14:00 Read the rule — how a poorly drafted statute fell apart when the state had to prove a negative 17:31 The young prosecutor called afterward and still didn't understand — how the lesson was delivered 18:32 Building a firm from two people to 11 over 12 years and then walking away to join Silverman Thompson 19:19 Trying a $2.5 million breach of contract case on two weeks notice with a hole in the calendar 20:37 The best parts of no longer running your own business — no clogged bathrooms, just trying cases 21:19 DUI — someone blows a .09 and thinks it is already over 22:07 Sleep apnea, medical defenses, and probable cause defects that most DUI attorneys miss 23:23 The teacher who had two drinks and didn't know he had sleep apnea — and how that became a half dozen cases 24:21 If you have a professional license — CDL, nursing, contractor — how does a DUI change the math 25:35 Should you refuse the breathalyzer in Maryland — and how the law changed two years ago #KurtNachtman #SilvermanThompson #TrustcastShow #CriminalDefenseMaryland #BaltimoreAttorney #DUIDefense #ProfessionalLicenseDefense #MirandaRights #GhostGun #PersonalInjuryTrial