When the authorities catch up to you, you are definitely going to be treated differently if you have bags packed, tickets booked, and a bunch of books on how to evade the police versus being on your volunteer shift at the local soup kitchen. Getting caught fleeing speaks poorly to your character if you don't have a good reason or have already been told to not leave town by the cops.
If they had contacted a defense attorney, does that also speak poorly to their character and should be held against them? Certainly that's something a criminal who knew they were guilty would do.
