3 ms·
Long, long ago, in a college town far away, I was arrested in my own home, without a warrant, for possession of marijuana. The case was thrown out by a judge du
by beat 11y ago
Long, long ago, in a college town far away, I was arrested in my own home, without a warrant, for possession of marijuana. The case was thrown out by a judge due to various evidence problems, stemming from not getting a warrant.
There are a limited number of circumstances under which it is legal for police to enter and search a home without a warrant. As my lawyer casually knocked down the others, the prosecutor finally landed on "danger to the officers". The cop on the witness stand helpfully piped up, "In a drug case, there's always danger to the officers!" The judge glared at him, and said "You just told me you were outside for fifteen minutes, and they didn't even know you were there! You were not in danger!"
That was pretty much the end of the case.
- misiti3780 11y agoim confused - who was outside for 15 minutes ?
- Jtsummers 11y agoThe officer(s) before entering GP's home. Based on witnessing things like this and other reports, probably waiting for backup or perhaps authorization (legal or not, perhaps just a nod from a higher-up).
- dalke 11y ago"The cop on the witness stand"
- beat 11y agoThe cops. There were three of them outside our house. They came on a noise complaint - we were having band practice, and didn't hear them knocking. They looked through the window and saw pot on the coffee table (AFTER I had already gone through once and cleaned it up and yelled at stupid careless musicians to not do that, in case the police were called about the noise, sigh). They had plenty of opportunity to get a warrant, but were just too lazy to do so. When I finally answered the door, they asked if they could come in, I said no, and the sergeant in charge said "Oh yes we can!" and forcibly shoved me out of the way. After gathering us all up, they separated me and asked me privately who it belonged to - me and my roommate, or our three guests? The implication was that they'd arrest the two of us, or arrest everyone. I lied and said it was all ours, so the other three were released. Judge ruled the confession was coerced. I wasn't "under arrest" officially, so I hadn't been read my rights, but I was not free to go, and they intended to arrest me, and it was clear that was the intent. And he ruled the evidence from the search inadmissible due to lack of a warrant. What's irritating is how cocky they all were. My roommate's lawyer advised a guilty plea. Luckily, mine wanted to fight. If we had lost, I would have had to pay for the public defender (since we won, the state paid). In today's environment, an unreasonably high bail would have been required instead of our own recognizance, and a guilty plea offered as a bargain at the bail hearing. It's a shitty system.
- misiti3780 11y agothanks!