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felony_1691 · Mar 4, 2011, 09:48 PM

Officers had stopped me in a traffic violation and found meth they never charged or detained me and let me leave with marjuania and pills and then came back six months later with a warrant for poss of marjuania and contol subs.2 counts meth and pills cost 2100 dollars in bond is this legal

adthern · Mar 5, 2011, 01:42 AM

It depend on where you are located and the rule of law they follow. Federal law is the most general, though many sated have chosen to provide morerights to their citizens than the federal law allows for.

So, here we are talking about essentially 4th Amendment issues (thought 5th and 6th do play into them fluidly).

The first question is was the stop lawful, to be lawful the police need only have a "reasonable suspicion" that a crime has been, is, or will be committed. Something more than a hunch but not quite probable cause either. Assuming they had a lawful reason to stop you, how did they "find" the drugs? Was the meth allegedly on your person? In the car? In the trunk?

You mentioned that the stop was for a traffic stop, what was it? Is it an arrestable offense in your jurisdiction? Did the police ask if they could searchyour car, what did you say?

At this point there are so many more questions than answers, I am afraid it is difficult to give you a straight answer.

Just to address the 6th month gap between the "find" and the search (assumably with a warrant). I would argue for drugs, the probable cause is stale and not sufficient to sustain a warrant 6 months later. I have seen the staleness argument work in many cases where drugs were the subject and the length of time was more than 2 weeks.

Hope some of this helps, I am sure your attorney will discuss this wilth you and then file motions to suppress and motion to dismiss.

Good luck,

Adam

felony_1691 · Mar 5, 2011, 12:45 PM

Plus this was in grayson county Texas

felony_1691 · Mar 5, 2011, 12:51 PM

They just said to stand at back of my car and began to search never showed or told me what they found and left behind pot and pills they said I didn't use blinker it was still blinking when I left and just because 10 yrs ago I had a charge of a joint and nothing else till now

adthern · Mar 6, 2011, 01:25 AM

Well, if what you say is the whole story, it sounds pretty simple for your lawyer to have it excluded as an unlawful search. Absent: consent, probable cause (and exigent circumstances), or a valid arrest, they lack an exception to the requirement that they obtain a search warrant prior to a search.

Talk to your lawyer, sounds like you're in good shape.