(PresidentialWire.com)- While appearing on News Nation Monday night, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg was asked by a caller if Brian Laundrie’s attorney would be legally required to tell police if he knows where his client is.
The answer is self-evident, but not all callers who phone in to news shows are especially bright.
The answer is no. Nobody is legally required to tell the police if they know the whereabouts of a suspect in a manhunt.
Of course, Aronberg explained, if a person is specifically asked by law enforcement if he knows where a suspect is, and that person lies about it, that is a crime. Aronberg explained that while lawyers are bound by attorney/client privilege, there is something called a crime fraud exception. Under that, if the lawyer is actually helping Brian Laundrie evade capture – if he is destroying evidence, for example – then that lawyer would be charged with a crime.
But Laundrie’s lawyer, even if he knows where Brian is, is under no legal obligation to “affirmatively” go to law enforcement and tell them his whereabouts.
Earlier this month, Aronberg said that it was extremely likely that Brian Laundrie would face more charges. Currently, in addition to being a person of interest in Gabby Petito’s homicide, Laundrie also has an active warrant for his arrest on fraud charges related to using someone’s ATM card and PIN around the time his fiancée Petito went missing.
On September 1, Laundrie, who was on a road trip with Gabby Petito, returned to his parents’ North Port, Florida home without her.
On September 13, Brian left the house to go on a hike in Florida’s Carlton Reserve. Later that night, Brian’s father Chris Laundrie went to look for his son after he didn’t return home. The next day, Brian’s parents returned to the area again in search of their sound, and found the family’s Ford Mustang abandoned outside the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. This park acts as an entrance to the Carlton Reserve not far from the Laundrie’s home in North Port. They came back the next day to retrieve the vehicle.
Law enforcement has been searching for Brian Laundrie in the 24,565-acre Carlton Reserve. Two weeks ago, they found the remnants of a recently-used campsite.
