What would you do?

Your partner of more than ten years - the person you live with and with whom you have built a life - tells you that a mutual friend has been found dead. He says that he had been with him earlier in the day but that the friend was alive when he left him at two o'clock. He tells you that the friend's neighbors had heard an argument around four o'clock in the afternoon but he was gone by then. He tells you that he thinks the cops will question him because they had been together at a restaurant earlier in the day and a lot of people saw them. He swears he had nothing to do with the friend's death but he is very afraid that he will be implicated. He asks you to lie and tell the cops that he was with you at four o'clock. You were alone at home and, in all likelihood, you will get away with the lie. Would you do it?

• Are you writing a spec script or something?

• You do not have to speak with anyone unless you are properly subpoened to either a Grand Jury as a witness or to a trial as a witness. No one can make anyone speak to anyone. Not to the police. Not to a prosecutor. No one can subpoena you to their office either for a little sit down chat BEFORE you go into a GJ for which you have been properly subpoened. That has been found to be an abuse of the subpoena process. If after consultation with a lawyer someone decides to voluntarily speak to law enforcement then they should never lie. Don't guess, don't exaggerate, don't speculate, don't let them take you on any kind of hypothetical. Either you know something for a fact because you saw it or someone told you something then you do not know it. Do not ever lie to law enforcement or under oath. Do not ever provide a false alibi for someone. It is so easy to track where people are at any given time. Your boyfriend needs to speak with a criminal attorney asap. He seems to have 5th Amendment privilege and he needs a lawyer to argue that for him so he won't have to testify - though the final decision on whether he actually has a 5th privilege is up to a judge. Do not play games with this. If it's a real case.

• Do not lie, OP. Do you really think that there won't be a camera somewhere that captured who came and went to your place and that captured your partner wherever he was? And I suggest that you end the relationship.

• You in danger, gurl!

• What time DID you see him that afternoon/evening?

• There are a lot of details missing from this scenario. The friend was "found dead." Has it been determined that he was murdered? Why does the boyfriend think the friend was killed at four o'clock? Where was the boyfriend after he left the restaurant? Where was the boyfriend at 4 o'clock? Why is the boyfriend so afraid he'll be implicated? Does the friend have a significant other? You really have to flesh out those details before it becomes a decent mystery.

  Dick%20Wolf

• It is not a real case. It is a hypothetical debate my friends and I are having.

  OP

• How big is the BF's cock?

• SUSPENSEFUL.

• Ok. I ask again. Was the "boyfriend" seen at home at 4:25 or 6:30PM?

• I would ask my partner where the hell he was at 4:00 and why does he need me to lie for him. Did you do any of that, OP?

• First thing, OP: No more Gillian Flynn novels.

• It's obvious that YOU were the one that killed him!

  Horatio

• Call Perry Mason!

• Never lie to the police, but, equally, never talk to them at all unless you absolutely have to.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Di8z7NC5sgik

• OP, your partner was hanging out with Arpad Miklos, wasn't he?

• [quote] It is not a real case. It is a hypothetical debate my friends and I are having. Keep it as a discussion with your friends, OP. And stop wasting the time of kind and helpful people on DataLounge.

• Was your partner wearing the same clothes he left the house in earlier in the day? Could he have left any of his belongings at the dead friend's house? Did anyone see him come or go from the friend's house? Who told him that the friend was dead?

• If you live in a condo or apartment building then your BF is screwed. The police need only to review the security camera footage from the main entrance to know whether he was with you at 4.

  Case%20closed

• It's never a good idea to lie in such circumstances. And the BF asking you to lie is highly suspicious behavior, and an even better reason to not lie (would you want to be an accessory if he were actually guilty?)

• Trust doesn't come into it. I wouldn't risk lying and the possible consequences of doing so.

• Not sure why you and your friends are debating this OP. No you shouldn't lie about something like that.

• [quote]I would ask my partner where the hell he was at 4:00 and why does he need me to lie for him. What r11 said. Or better still I'd ask him where he was for the entire 2 missing hours because unless he vanished into thin air during that time he'd certainly have been picked up on a security cam somewhere, have a store receipt, been seen by neighbors or coworkers or any number of things that could establish his whereabouts without you having to lie for him.

• YOU'RE LIVING WITH A MURDERER!!! OMG! OMG!

  Hysterical%20DL%20Troll

• I think your basic concern is for your own safety OP. If I tell, will my bf kill me? Will he even find out? That would be the direction to go. I'd tell though because I don't do well with secrets.

• What r22 said. Unless that person has something to hide

• Thanks, R2, for posting such good advice.

• We would have this debate in law school. The only person I would lie for to save was my mother. I would have gladly perjured myself, been disbarred and gone to jail if it saved my mother from jail or execution. And I would have sat in jail with a smile on my face. Do not ever ask anyone if they committed a crime. Unless you are legally married to them and your state has not abandoned the marital privilege (as some states in some circumstances have done) you can be forced to reveal what you were told. The less you know the better. Trust me.

  R2