When the FBI Guys Come Knocking...

[Tim May]

On Tuesday, September 25, 2001, at 07:38 PM, Meyer Wolfsheim wrote:

> On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Matthew Gaylor wrote:
>
>> I personally don't answer my door unless I recognize them.  Of course
>> I realize that I'm missing scintillating conversation with Mormons,
>> Jehovah Witnesses and the occasional vacuum cleaner salesman.
>>
>> Making yourself generally unavailable should be your first line of 
>> defense.
>
> I can't imagine that the FBI would be that easily dissuaded if they 
> really
> wished to subpoena you. What about the cases of the feds "camping out"
> outside a witness's home in order to ambush him with a subpoena? How do
> you defend against this?

Not answering the door makes them _at least_ wait until one has to leave.

Oh, and they can't wait _on_ your property, now can they? That would be 
trespassing.

See below:

> In Tim's case, I suppose he could dip in to his Y2K emergency supplies,
> and remain holed up for quite some time. But some of us have to go to
> work. Is "I'm stuck at home because I don't want to be served" a valid
> reason for taking a sick day? :)

I have about a 200-foot driveway from my house to the semi-public road 
serving our hill. They can't wait _on_ my property, without trespassing. 
This means I can get in my car and get out without being served. (There 
is no requirement that a car window be rolled down to receive papers.)

(If I see someone skulking around on my property, I would be morally 
justified in shooting them, of course. Demanding that they leave, from a 
window, and threatening to shoot is probably not actionable even in 
today's weird legal climate. Actually shooting them, while morally 
justified, is proably not wise.)

> More seriously, is it a crime to go out of your way to avoid being 
> served?
> If I'm caught crawling out my bathroom window when there's an FBI agent 
> on
> my door step, what kind of problems (in addition to whatever put the fed
> on my doorstep in the first place) would I be facing.

None. You are not obligated to make serving papers convenient. You can 
be out of the country, you can leave by limousine from an underground 
garage, you can crawl out you bathroom window. This is, as the lawyers 
say, "black letter law."

(I hope we don't get the drivel about how "Happy Fun Court is not 
amused.")

--Tim May