alright GC i need some help and fast.... Me and my boys went down the city to get a quap right. So were smoking on the way down to the city, and we call the guy up with the trees. We get the trees blah blah blah, and were on the way home and a police officer pulls us over. Now we have the following in the front seat.... - 1 Honey dutch - 1 glass bowl - quarter of middies Put it under the seat and hoped the cop doesnt find it.... By the way the quap is in the trunk along with 2 scales, a baggie and some pills. So the cop asks Coop for his license registration all that. He tells coop to get out of the car, and he does. Then he tells us to get out next, so i do. Now all three of us sitting on a curb, while he searches the car without even asking. He finds the quarter, bowl, dutch and all that. He comes over to the other cop and asks who was in the passenger side. The other cop pointed to me and immeditely put me in cuffs. He didnt' read me my rights or anything. The only thing the cop said to me was, " Have you ever been aressted?" I replied, "No" and he put me in the back of the cop car. So I am the only one in custody right now, while my other 2 boys are sitting on the curb. They ask coop to search the trunk, and for some reason he allowed them. They found the quap, 2 scales, baggies, pills and put coop in cuffs. (I am not sure if they read HIM his rights) So this whole time, Im sitting in the back of the car, and they didnt read me my rights or tell me why im aressted, and they didnt say one word to me. Okay so then the cop tells the kid in the back seat, to try to snitch on us and hell give him money and shit. He refused and was immediately put in cuffs. So now we were taken to the station, and put into a holding cell. STILL not read my rights or am i knowledable why I am being arressted. So we get in the cell and were just chilling, whatever its like 9:30. So were chilling till like 1:00AM and im like fuck this im going to bed. I go to bed and wake up by the guard opening my cell. He opens the cell and says to me and the kid in the back seat, "This officer is going to drive you home" I am not going to argue with that so i take the ride home. The whole time i was still never read my rights or known why i was in a holding cell. So the cop gets to my house and drops me off and says tell your parents... Yea ok imma tell my parents, Im 18 I dont need too. So now me and the kid in the back seat are out, while as the driver coop was sent to county prison. Hes got a 10,000 dollar bail with 10%. My question is am I going to get in trouble f i have to go to court. This was my first offense and what would they give me anyway. Can they get me because the quarter and bowl were under where I was sitting? And most importantly THEY NEVER READ ME MY RIGHTS OR TOLD ME WHY I WAS BEING PUT IN HAND CUFFS AND IN A CELL FOR 5 AND 1/2 HOURS. Thanks in advance.
First of all, it's not nessecary for a cop to read you your rights if you are just being "detained" (i.e. put in cuffs or even detained in a cell at the station). If he never formally charged you with anything, then the Writ of Habeas Corpus was upheld and you were released lawfully within 24 hours without charges. This is not to say that a citation or a summons to court won't be issued. Now I don't know your state laws, but many states have a law called "The Controllable Area" law which states that in a car, house, etc. that is not yours, you can still be charged with possession of a weapon, drugs, paraphernalia, or whatever if it is within your controllable area (under your seat, in this case). If you are charged, you will definitely get at least one charge of possession of marijuana (for the weed, bowl, or both together as one charge) and they may also give you a seperate charge for possession of drug paraphernalia (for just the bowl). All things considered, it was your friend's car and they found a quap in the trunk. I'm not completely sure, but this may sway them to charge him with everything in the car. Situations like this are hard to guage. If you ARE charged with anything via summons/citation, you should be able to easily get the charges dropped on the grounds that you were never read your rights. The fact that you were never read your rights may also dissuade the arresting officer from pressing charges, because an officer would rather let a stoner go than be caught breaking procedure by not reading you your rights, plus having to show up to court just for your case to be dismissed. bottom line: Your friend is pretty fucked, I don't know if they'll charge you, there's a chance they won't, and if they do you should be straight in court on the grounds that you were not granted due process of law.
I believe if you were going to be charged with a crime, you would have known it by now. They only crime I could see them charging you with would have been possession of marijuana, which isn't an arrestable offense (in my state). But in this instance, the police officer will give you paperwork showing your citation. Since it doesn't sound like you were given any paperwork or released on your O.R., and not read the miranda rights, I seriously doubt you will face any criminal charges. Congrats.... .....but your friend is in a world of shit! With the scales and how much they found, they'll definitely charge him with possession for sale. Not good.
Im pretty sure that if the cop conducts an illegal search and seisure then there is a good chance that the evidence will be thrown out in court because of this. There is an insight rule which means anything that is illegal in plain sight grants the cop the right to search ur shit. Other than that they must have your permission. You do have the right to refuse, at which point they must either get a warrant and detain you or they might not go to the trouble and just let you go. It sounds like they got a valid case because your friend gave him permission to search after the fact. But what they did, searching the car first without permission was illegal. Id say because of this and because they did not read you your rights you have a really pretty good chance of getting off clean. This movie is pretty dope and will give u confidence and knowledge to get outta these kinda situations, i reccomend watching it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NmC5wHfCdM know and exercise your rights and also remember that cops are just people too and that if u treat them with respect and cooperate without giving up your rights then they will be a lot more likely to go easy on you or let you go without suspicsion
yeah man, you're in the clear, but you friend's gonna get bent over with no lube, since the heavy shit was in the trunk, and that was searched with permission. visit him.
If the cop had probable cause then you dont have to give them permission to search...kind of a he said she said deal...all the cop has to do is say he smelled pot and they are gonna take his word especially seeing that the search resulted in finding pot. The bad thing was your friend letting him search the trunk...they would of probably searched it eventually but maybe not. Him letting them search is probably what saved you because after they found the stash in the trunk it would be easier to throw all of the charges on the driver/owner of the car. You have not been charged with anything so them not reading you your rights meant nothing...if you are later charged get a good lawyer and you should be able to get the charges dropped...DO NOT represent your self or just plead guilty...that will screw you!
I appreciate all your help... heres the other question... Im 18 and if i were to get charged with the quarter of mids, and bowl... would i get jail time, this would be my first offense also. Thanks in advance.
no you wouldnt. it's a misdemeanor, and it's your first offense. the worst thing to happen would probably be probation.
im guessin this is in the US? what state? check out http://www.norml.com/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516 and go to your state it will show you everything you need to know. good luck man.
so its my first time offender and there was a bowl and about a quarter under my seat.... what do you think ill get.... but the kid driving they found they quap in the trunk and scales, so wont they just put all the weed charges and everything on him or are we all going to get the same sentence?
I left out a big part i think.... The only thing the officer said to me the whole time were these words. Officer:Have you ever been arressted before? Me: No. *Officer puts me in the back of the squad car. Different officer: Whose weed was it? Me: i dunno. Officer:Whats this kids name? Me: Mike. *Different officer closes the door. Then they drove me to the station and put me in a holding cell never reading me my rights, or telling me why i was detained. I just remained silent the whole time. I was in a holding cell from about 9pm- 1pm and they still never told me why i was being detained or WAS just in that holding cell. AND the officer drove me home. Do you think with all that defense I will get anything, +++ its my first offense.
lol you still thinking about what you'll get when your friend got caught with a quap, that's beat. You'll probably get away with a probation while your friend is trying to figure out how long he's going to jail for. I can't believe none of you guys knew absolutely nothing about the law, not saying you're lying or anything.
im really curious. what state did this occur in? i think the worst you could get is a small fine in most states, but i'm wondering about your friend... also, how did you guys get pulled over? speeding, broken tail light? i ask this because my cat will be putting himself in a similar situation...
No, you wont get jail time for sure. I have been through the court system quite a lot unfortunately and I know. But out of curiousity what state do you live in? If for some odd reason you were to get charged (1% chance) you would be a piece of cake to get it dropped by getting a cheap ass defender and telling him that you were never read your rights or why you were being detained. This is an automatic drop in the court system
I love how everyone that gets pulled over automatically assumes their rights were trampled upon. You should have asked them if you were under arrest, if you weren't you could have walked out of there. You don't need to be arrested to be taken downtown for questioning. On the bright side, if they didn't charge you right then and there, I don't know if they'll do it all. There are statutes of limitations, and if they don't charge you for a crime by that point, they never can.
Yeah... unfortunately in the US I believe the statute of limitations last up to seven years. So that doesn't help him much.
This happened in Philly, PA by the way. Umm yea i got a letter in the mail yesterday and it turns out they DID charge me. They charged me of the following: -possession of a controlled substance -possesstion of a small amnt. of marijuana -2 counts of possession of drug paraphanalia - criminial conspiracy So am i out of this now. It turns out they did charge me and I was never read rights or told why i was detained, am i out of this?
With a good lawyer you can get out of it...I would suggest you find a good one right away... Them not reading you your rights doesnt mean jack
They only have to read you your rights if they are questioning you. From what you said, the cop only asked you 2 or 3 questions, so at best those would not be admissable. You will have to get an atty, and i'm sure they will hit you up for a plea bargain of light probation to rat on your buddy with the quap. good luck.
check out this site: http://www.erowid.org/freedom/freedom.shtml basicly tells you everything you coulda done to get off no problem and everythign that the cops did wrong. tell your buddy about this info to remind his lawyer.