According to the Washington Post, in October 2015, Warren Demesme was brought in for questioning by the New Orleans police after two underage girls accused him of sexually assaulting them. This was the second time Demesme had been interrogated over these allegations, and he had denied them outright repeatedly. Court records supposedly show that he was getting frustrated, and finally simply said:
“This is how I feel, if y’all think I did it, I know that I didn’t do it so why don’t you just give me a lawyer, dog ’cause this is not what’s up.”
The thing is, the moment a suspect asks for a lawyer during an interrogation, police must stop questioning the suspect. But the Louisiana court did not see Demesme’s “just give me a lawyer, dog” as legitimate. It can only be assumed that the Louisiana court’s argument is that Demesme was literally asking for a dog who is a lawyer. Seriously.
The legal implications are dire, since all the statements he made after asking for a lawyer will be used as evidence in his upcoming trial. Prosecutors claim that Demesme later admitted to the crime and he has been charged with aggravated rape and indecent behavior with a juvenile.
The public defender for Orleans Parish, Derwyn D. Bunton, decided to take on Demesme’s case by filing a motion to suppress Demesme’s statement. He stressed that “Mr. Demesme unequivocally and unambiguously asserted his right to counsel,” but the police officers did not stop their questioning. But Bunton was unsuccessful.
Firstly, Orleans Parish Assistant District Attorney Kyle Daly argued that the way Demesme asked for a lawyer negated his right to counsel. “A reasonable officer under the circumstances would have understood, as [the detectives] did, that the defendant only might be invoking his right to counsel,” he wrote.
The case then went to the Louisnia Supreme Court, but the case denied the appeal. “In my view, the defendant’s ambiguous and equivocal reference to a ‘lawyer dog’ does not constitute an invocation of counsel that warrants termination of the interview,” Justice Crichton wrote.
