The filing or reporting of false criminal accusation is criminalized in Massachusetts by G.L. c. 269, §13A. If you have been charged with filing a false police report, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you knowingly and intentionally made or caused to be made a false report of a crime to police officers. In short, you either lied, or encouraged someone else, to lie to the police that a crime had occurred.
A Massachusetts Criminal Attorney understands that individuals charged with filing a false police report have often committed a crime and accuse someone else to shift the blame; for example, a motorist who leaves the scene of an accident later informs the police that his car had been stolen. Too often, the police would have been unable to charge the individual with the actual crime, but are able to charge him with filing a false police report. Where the individual confesses to the police that he lied about the crime, the police often charge him with both the original offense and filing a false police report. In other instances, an individual falsely accuses an individual a crime in an attempt to exact revenge or to gain some advantage in civil matter; for example, a mother will falsely accuse the father of molesting their child to prevent him from exercising his visitation rights.
Making a false accusation of a crime will often make a challenging situation far more difficult. Before speaking with the police, contact a qualified Massachusetts criminal attorney.
Punishment
A conviction for filing a false police report is punishable by incarceration in the house of correction for up to one year, and a $500 fines, or both incarceration and a fine. Because false allegations can place an innocent individual at risk for criminal prosecution, if not incarceration, waste police resources, and misuse the criminal justice system, judges can be particularly harsh in sentencing defendants convicted of filing a false police report.
Contact a Massachusetts Criminal Attorney
If you have been charged with filing a false police report, contact the Mahoney Criminal Defense Group at 617-492-0055. We defend those accused of crimes in the courts of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Waltham, Malden, Woburn, and eastern Massachusetts.
