| I had an experience with this (on a much smaller scale. No police were involved). When I was about 13 or so, I was walking home with a kid from school and he threw a rock at a passing car. He ran off and left me to deal with the driver. I explained that it was this other kid. I called the kid later to let him know that I ratted him out and apologized, but I didn't want to be on the hook for it. The driver, my parents, and the parents of the kid who threw the rock all met with us. Talked through the details, and somewhere in there they mentioned that I had called this kid to apologize, and I said that yeah, I had called him. It wasn't until after everyone left with the agreement that I was guilty and would pay the damage that my dad told me that I had agreed that I called this kid and apologized for lying about him throwing the rock. I was totally blindsided by that interpretation. I didn't understand that anyone had even suggested that I might have lied in that situation. It never crossed my mind, I thought I was just saying that I called him. There's nuance and implications in adult conversation that never crosses the mind of a kid. |
Plus, this right there sound to me like very wishful thinking on the side of dad who don't want his kid to be guilty. It does not sound like honest evaluation of what was said. He was likely eager to interpret and twist anything just to get that result and succeeded.