In my story, what happens is that a gang is recruiting a new member and they give him a 'blood in'. It's a police term for when a new potential recruit, has to spill the blood of another person to prove their worth to the gang. However, the gang is cautious and they want to make sure that they are not recruiting a new member who will turn out to be an undercover cop, or someone who cannot be trusted, or something like that. So what they do with the new member, is that they have him shoot a tied up hostage, who has a hood over her head so she cannot identify anyone's faces. They are also all wearing gloves the entire time careful not to get any prints on the scene. However, the hostage is working with the gang and is just posing as a hostage. The gun that that the new recruit will be given is a fake prop gun, so no real weapon is used. However, a cop who is on patrol in an unmarked car, spotted something suspicious about the gang members, while they were on the way to the blood in, and discretely followed them. He sees that a kidnap victim may be killed so he busts in and rescues her. He manages to arrest one of them in the process and the rest get away with the gun, as he is busy saving the victim, and handcuffing the one. So later on, the kidnap victim tells the police that it her and the other guys were role playing, acting out some twisted fantasy of theirs, and that the cop was just being over-zealous. However, the police at this point, are going to ask her, for her friend's names, so they can question them about why the resisted arrest, especially since she is not sure why. So she doesn't want to give up the others names, cause there was more to this kidnapping con, then what she wants the police to know. But if she refuses to give up her friends names, can she be charged with withholding information and have prison time, even if the police have no proof of a crime occuring, since she says it was just role playing. But there is the crime of them resisting arrest. So is it possible that she can keep the others peoples names a secret from the police and not get charged?
You asked this same question some time ago. Maybe a year. It didn't go well. I don't think it will go better this time.
Your country/state laws may differ, but in Texas "resisting arrest" basically means you got arrested, but you resisted it. It's usually when people physically resist getting handcuffed. If someone ran from the police it's then called "evading arrest/detention". Depending on exactly how the situation plays out there's probably plenty of small charges that can be put on the "kidnapped" female. Resisting arrest, failure to ID, disturbance of the peace, etc etc.
I doubt they could arrest her for refusing to give names. She could be subpoenaed later, though. If she gave a false name, sure, that would be interference. After she refuses, you could have the cops keep her under surveillance and catch her doing something that constitutes hindering an investigation. Lots of good examples here. Another option: She or someone in her family could have a criminal history or upcoming court case that the police could use as blackmail.
Oh okay, I was told that if one refuses to give up names or information, in a criminal investigation, the person could be charged with obstruction of justice. Scorpion02Tyr said 'failure to ID' is also a crime so does that count as well, when it comes to refusing to ID the others? As for charging the kidnapped female with resisting arrest, since the police assumed she was a kidnapped hostage, since she was tied up, they didn't arrest her, so they cannot charge her with resisting arrest therefore, right?
