Question about whether a state trooper has a case against me

So me and my friend are on our way to arbys today and toking a bowl on our way(mistakes were made.) My friend that was driving flys past a statie and we see him put his turn signal on so we booked out of there but he ended up speeding down a road that ran parallel(had to have been going at least 90 to catch us) and pulling us over.


He gets out of the car and is at the window in about 1 second and asks my friend for liscense and registration and before he can even respond he orders him out of the car and actually opens the door for him and grabs his arm and for some reason the weed was in the compartment on the driver side door so he found that right away. So he puts my friend and I in his car while stating that we were being put under arrest, which didn't make sense being that I live in New York and it's decriminalized there with 25 grams being a misdemeanor, 28 grams being a felony and anything less being a minor offense with just a fine and a court date. In our case we had about 1.8 in the bag so of course we speak up that we can't be arrested for such a small amount but he insists he can arrest us. That being said the two of us were never read our Miranda rights after being told we were under arrest. I know that is grounds for a case to be dropped but the thing is he never took us anywhere in the car so my question is does simply being put in the back of the car mean you are "under arrest" and do I have a case against him?

I also wanted to share with you guys the sloppy extremely unprofessional way the stop was conducted. First of all when we started saying he couldn't arrest us he hesitated for a moment unsure of himself. He had fucking xm radio in his cruiser and he was rollin' playing Ozzy osbourne and Metallica, his ringtone was Quagmire from Family guy saying giggity, he had to consult a pocket hand book for terms about bigger quantities and he scaled out the bag with a brand new scale because he honestly thought our little 20 bag was more than an ounce. He had no idea how much was in an ounce, and he was telling all of us this stuff he got straight from a handbook like we were totally clueless about any of it. Not to mention the entire time we were in his car he was nonchalantly humming and complaining to himself about random shit. When he first pulled us over he was a total asshole too then once he was in control of the situation and could feel safe he totally let his guard down and acted like a moron. On top of that, he spelled marijuana "Marihuana" on the tickets he wrote out for us. The only reason it took an hour is because he was so horrible at spelling and typing shit he actually asked us how to spell a few words. Honestly the only thing I could do when I got back in the car was laugh about the entire experience.

I'm really glad that a large fraction of our taxpayer dollars is going towards bullshit charges and officers like this. You know something is wrong if citizens who pay to be protected by the police get treated as a threat to society when really they have infringed on nobody's rights. If this is where the administration that promised leniency and reform in extremely costly drug programs is going, I guess I will see you all in Amsterdam:sifone:

 

A cop sped to catch you? Are you asking if its illegal for a cop to speed?

 

lol

 

Sorry accidentally hit enter before I was done typing lol

 

You don't have a case.. It's New York.. its probably typical procedure to put suspects in the back of the vehicle while he continues his business.. it IS new york.. im sure cops get shot all the time for what they believe is a routine pullover...

"I guess I will see you in Amsterdam"

this makes me LOL.. .1) you won't be going to amsterdam.. 2) unlike the US.. countries don't just take in whatever trash wants to move to their country... 3) It's only a matter of time before Amsterdam is a thing of the past.. Crooked law enforcement and changes in politics has had the decriminalization of marijuana in their country on the teeter of being completely illegal for the past couple years now

So here is my advice.. suck it up.. and deal with your consequences.. it's YOUR FAULT.. the cop didn't plant the weed on you.. and your shitty driver had it right in the driver side door.. the first fucking door that gets open and eyed up by the cop.. you two are fucking idiots and are now dealing with the outcome of your own stupidity.. Hell go ahead and try and make a court case out of it and look like even bigger jackoffs for all that i care

 

you were smoking dope in a moving vehicle. Obey the fucking LAW !! Dont drive under the influence and certainly dont drive when burning dope. And dont reconfirm your friend was driving either .. I can read!!

 

your friend was speeding and driving high,
and also evaded arrest

possession is the least of your worries

my advice is that you never try to flee from the cops in a car, especially when you are high. if you killed or injured someone in the process, you'd be fucked

if you don't speed in general, don't drive high, and don't run from the cops, you won't have any serious legal worries

 

you do know that tourists are now barred from coffee/hash houses in over there?..and tourists are being arrested for possession?...you are better off in nyc...good luck with the popo....your friend is screwed..you shouldnt have a problem

 

next time lock your doors as you exit the car or better yet when pulled over, open only the windows, if the cops asks why say its your right to lock your property. and if they say something like "I'm going to search you/your car", tell them you do not consent to any searches. No matter how much they press you or claim that it don't matter and he can, trust me it really does. If he could, he would have just done it rather then telling you he could. He needs you to verbally give up your rights, when he makes the statement I am going to search your ok waves your rights, you have now given consent to the officer to as they please. They hope you dont understand and say yes.

What you are doing is requiring them to get a warrent or probable cause to search. "probable cause" varies state to state and this is no guarantee but this has saved my ass before.

 

If the cop sees the weed in the car he doesn't need a warrant to search. He already has probable cause. Same thing with smelling. If he smells weed smoke he has probable cause. It is best to lock your car when pulled out. If your driving dirty lock your keys in there too.
If he gives you a ticket then asks to search, if your clean make a deal with him to void the ticket and you'll let him search. If he wants to go fishing it will cost him.

 

Smell is not probable cause in many places. It can not be proved in court and is therefore irrelevant. It is a very subjective thing. In that cops opinion he smells weed, but who is to say it was not chicken wings? You can not bring smell to court. Some places do consider it probable cause, but a cop will never tell you this. It's best to know your state laws. I have been with people who never smoke, and when pulled over cops insist they smell drugs and threaten to get dogs and the whole 9 yards. It is just a ploy by them to make you nervous, the more nervous they make you, the more their training tells them to press on.
In my case the cop even screamed at me "that dosn't matter" (a blatent lie) when I told him I was not consenting, but it was very clear by his aroused state that I had said something right. Cops are not your friends, and they are under no obligations from their job to tell you the truth, they lie most of the time in traffic stops.

 

Whether or not the cop actually followed legal procedure in your stop is of little concern in the end unless he was stupid enough to write what he did wrong in the police report. I was stopped for speeding with a joint roach in the car, someplace where it couldn't be seen from outside of the car, but the officer simply asked me to step out of the car, put me in handcuffs because my eyes were red (completely unrelated to the weed, I hadn't smoked all day), opened the driver's door and sat down in the car to conduct his search. I thought I would have a case for unwarranted search, but lo and behold the police report stated that my "marijuana cigarettes" were on the driver's side seat of the car. Yeah, I was sitting on my joints. That makes sense, but in court unless you have some really good evidence against it, it's his word against yours, and you always lose.

 

Funniest thing I've read all month. A guy is running away from the cops and doesn't think they have the right to search his car, then when they find pot (they probably smelled it through the open window, which would be probable cause, besides evading the police) he wonders if they have a case against him. You just can't make this shit up! :2thumbsup: He actually believes he'll get away with it just because the arresting officer is an idiot!

 

I don't think it can be considered evading police if they tried to avoid the officer before he had his lights on, which is the way it seemed to me from the story. He said that when he saw the cop's blinker they turned to avoid him getting behind them, whether or not they sped off I'm not sure, but they would have gone to jail if they had been arrested for evading arrest. It didn't seem to me like they were technically evading arrest. I would say that the officer was outside of his rights by opening their car door without their consent, although I'm not certain what rights the cop has if they refuse to get out when asked, or whether or not they were asked first and refused to. That seems like it would be enough justification for the officer to use that amount of force, but there has to be some restriction against the cop searching the car, and if he hadn't opened the door without consent, just as in my situation, he very likely wouldn't have been able to see the weed in plain sight and wouldn't have had any justification to put them under arrest.

 

Refusing to get out of the car for a normal traffic stop is a issue that I'd like to see clarity about. I've heard of people refusing to get out of the car during stops. But it seems like the cop might charge you with 'disregarding a order' or something? Whats the law on that?

 

A cop can ask you to exit car when they pull you over, and if you don't he can and will yank you out. Smelling weed is proable cause to search a car in every state in the US. Even in States like NY where small amounts of weed are only a ticket, smoking in a moving car is an aresstable offence, often considered a DUI. The cop clearly knew your friend was trying to get away from him and your boy is lucky he didn,t get charged with evading. And the Miranda thing only means that they can not present as evidence any ansers to questions they asked you after you were under aresst but before they read you your rights, in court, it is not a get out of jail free card. As you said mistakes were made. First of all you should never smoke in a car for any reason, however you could have still salveged the situation by pulling over imiedataly and being polite to the cop. Cops have a lot of discretion and if you were cool about he could have given you a warning or written you a ticket and sent you on your way. All and all it sounds like he cut you friend a break by not charging him with evaision.

 

YES!


i think "smell" can be used as probable cause.

the cop wrote "marihuana" on my ticket back in 2002. it's the older way of spelling it, so they aren't AS dumb as i thought

seems like he needed the driver's permission to search, but unless he BLATANTLY said no, he probably gave consent with or without realizing it.

what is your charge? you just have to go to court?

 

smell is probable cause

 

seriously i dont cosider driving stoned to be driving under the influence i rip around on my dirt bike and when i ride im almost always stoned, actually i would rather ride stoned then straight, it seems to entertain me alot more and i rida alot harder... i am not physically impaired while high... maybe even more coordinated when stoned...