Illegally searched

amor fati

amor fati

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
1,280
Location
Denver
I was driving earlier this evening when a cop pulled me over. He comes up to my car and the conversation goes like this:

cop: where you headed
me: my girlfriends house
c: Do you know why I stopped you?
m: No sir
c: your right headlight is out.
m: oh, really? I wasn't aware of that. I will get that taken care of tomorrow.
c: Alright, i wont write you up for that.
m: thank you officer, I appreciate that.
c: have you been smoking marijuana tonight?
m: no officer, i havn't (I'm on probation and havn't smoked in 5 months)
c: Do you mind if i have a look through your car?
m: actually i do, Im in somewhat of a hurry
c: Please step out of the vehicle
m: (as i step out) what is the problem
c: I smell an odor of marijuana (again nobody has smoked in my car in 5 months)...as he tells me to put my hands on the hood of the cop car
m: I can assure you that you are mistaken
c: I've been a police officer for over 15 years, do you think I'm going to take your word?
c:(proceeds to search my car)
m: So i guess i don't have much of a choice?
c: keep quiet, and it would probably help you to lose the attitude

And it goes from there, he didn't find a single incriminating item in my car and ends up letting me go after a 5 minute lecture about how i got lucky.

Is there anything I can do to expose this cop for the crooked officer he is. There was absolutely no reason to search my car so he made one up that he thought was the most likely (I am 18 years old with semi-long hair and a phish sticker on the back of my car). I don't feel like I should just accept this because if he keeps getting away with things like this, the more cops will also do things like this, the more responsible drug users will be victim.

What does anyone recomend I do? Is there anything at all I can even do?
 
dude, i would count your lucky stars and move on. i know you didnt have anything on you and you feel violated...and shit, i would too, but fuck that cop. if you try and go above his head you can be sure you will see that pig again. there are a lot of petty cops out there that just love to fuck with ppl that have a problem with them.

this fucker sounds like a real douche bag, but i would just let it go. shit like that happens all the time...tho most times they do find something in the car. even if its a roach or some stems or seeds they will make it rough for you. so yeah, fuck that pig and forget about it. he spun the wheel and lost...most cases when the cops try and shake ppl down, they get lucky and find something.

the ol "i smell weed" line is about as played out as they get...just about as play7ed out as i saw you drift over the solid line back there, or you didnt use your turn signal, or i just observed you leaving a known drug area.

he just said u got lucky cause he knew he gambled and lost...when a cop makes a mistake he will always say some BS to try and save face...because yes, cops are infallible....try telling them that tho lol...
 
File a complaint with internal afffairs against the officer.

In the future when you get pulled over and the cop tells you to get out of the car, lock the doors and shut the door behind you.

Insist you do not consent to searches.

But I would file a complaint and also consult a lawyer about your civil rights being violated. If this cop is doing this he might not get in trouble doing it to you, but get it on his record so at least someone down the road doesnt' get fucked over by him. If he's doing this to you he is probably doing it regularly and not enough poeple report it.
 
Honestly, I don't know if you can do anything about it. You could try, but I doubt anything would come of it.
This happens to me ALL THE TIME, in fact, I'm on probation for that type of search, where I do happen to have something on me/be under the influence, but nothing even remotely close to what their random guess is to get probable cause.
 
Titus said:
In the future when you get pulled over and the cop tells you to get out of the car, lock the doors and shut the door behind you.
Click to expand...

This seems like it could result in the citizen kissing the pavement, or even getting hurt by the cop.
 
Johnny1 said:
This seems like it could result in the citizen kissing the pavement, or even getting hurt by the cop.
Click to expand...
These days that would likely get picked up by the in-dash video cam LE packs in their cruisers. If it's department policy to keep them on during traffic stops, "inexplicable gaps" could get them in trouble, but probably not as much as an unprovoked attack on a citizen.

Besides, didn't the OP know that Phish stickers constitute probable cause to search in the USA? ;)
 
Johnny1 said:
This seems like it could result in the citizen kissing the pavement, or even getting hurt by the cop.
Click to expand...

Cops, for the most part, are not stupid, at least when it comes to reading people. They can tell who they can easily mess with and get away with it, and who knows their rights and are going to assert them.

They can also tell by the kind of car your driving if you or your parents have the kind of money and/or connections to throw 5K at a lawyer to 'do something'.

Anyone can walk into the police station and file a complaint against an officer. It might not do anything at the moment but if YOU don't do it then you are hurting the next guy and helping the cop to continue to get away with it.

If a cop says step out of the car there is nothing wrong with clicking the door lock (make sure u have your key) and stepping out in a fashion so that the door doesn't swing wide open, kinda slinking out the door, and then shutting it behind you. [Banquo: I would strongly recommend NOT doing this.]

If he said he was gonna search before this then I wouldn't recommend doing this.

File a report. After 10 people file improper search reprorts on the guy he is gonna start getting slammed in court when he faces a defendant who has enough money to hire a good lawyer.

Slamming you to the pavement is excessive force if he just asked you to step out of the car and you simply lock your door and shut it behind you before doing so.

At this point all he has a right to do is a terry search.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
People that think you have much in the way of "rights" in any sort of low level court probably have not had first hand experience with how the system works for drug offenses.

Assuming you are in the US, you have to understand the practicalities of the US lower level judicial system. There is a lot of disparity between the principles of "Constitutional Rights" and the practical manner in which the lower judicial systems operate for drug cases.

The lower courts exercise considerable leeway in sentencing. That translates to considerable leverage in terms of your rights.

Because they have such wide range of latitude in sentencing, a person is generally given a couple of basic options. One you can "work with the system" - in this case that means take a plea deal. Or, you can insist on a trial, in which case the prosecutor will tell you in no uncertain terms he will play hardball in terms of recommending an active sentence. Why? Because a term of practically all plea deals is you waive your right to appeal. If you agree to a plea, the legality, and for even that matter the basic circumstances of your arrest become immaterial.

Very few people are willing to take that chance of walking into court knowing only that the prosecutor has promised them he will try to slam them and a judge will probably agree. Even worse, in jurisdictions where a jury is allowed to decide both your case and your sentence, a prosecutor may threaten you with a jury trial rather than a bench trial. You have the right to a trial by jury. But no one facing a drug charge wants a jury trial. And you don't have the right to rescind the prosecutor's corresponding right to request a jury trial.

It is one thing if you are facing a third strike, or major felony sentence where you might as well go for it. Look at almost any case that reaches a State appeals court, much less Federal appeals court for a decision on a search and seizure and I gaurantee you will be looking at a case that involved serious time.

But in most situations, most people are going to take a plea, even if they feel they have a valid case. Maybe it is a first offense on a relatively minor charge. You might be offered deferred conviction/probation. Why take any chances if you can start over again? Thats a no-brainer. If that is not the case, you are probably looking at a more serious charge. If you have a job, are in school, i.e. any sort of participant in society who has plans for their life, a conviction is not a good thing, but the possible if not probable alternative - a conviction and an active sentence is basically tantamount to destroying your life.

Given the dice that are typically handed to the defendent almost no one actually ever rolls them.

It is not a perfect system. It's not even judicial. It is possibly one of the better systems that money can buy. If you are in the lower rungs of society, unable to afford an attorney, you don't get much in the way of options. If you can afford an attorney, what you are really buying in almost all situations is not even remotely related to due process - it's simple brokering of negotiations. It's a system subject to all the usual non-judicial pressures. Your money buys you more in non-election years than it does in an election year where incumbents "Hard on crime" records are more a focus of public scrutiny, etc, etc.

But whether you view it as good or bard, the bottom line is that the system is based on the assumption that plea bargaining administration of jurisprudence is the standard. That system is largely immune from appeals, and therefore more than less free of much oversight by higher, possibly more "judicial" courts.

When the judges and prosecutors know most of their convictions will not ever be examined, much less overturned, the police similarly operate with equal latitude.

What you describe is not an anomaly, not a rogue officer, it's not even unusual. Just standard operating procedure of law enforcement involved in drug interdiction at the community level.
 
Stop putting bumper stickers like that on your car, stop making yourself look like a likely carrier of drugs.

Assert your rights, stop acting like a guilty druggie and accepting this bullshit.
You should pray to god the officer beats you to the pavement and breaks your windows, all recorded on his dash cam. If he forgot to turn it on and you are beat up the media will love it and you will have grounds to sue the department.
 
^^^^^ [retired chemist]

excellent post this man speaks the truth. I fought the law on a blatanty illegal search involving the police going through my unlocked car when no one was present. You know what happens fucker comes to court and lies saying m door was open wide open in a public place. Fucking obviose bullshit. Motion to supress denied. at sentencing judge tells me wouldent it be nice if the police told the truth!!!! I have no faith in the constitution or this fucking country guilty till proven fucked.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
tobala said:
Besides, didn't the OP know that Phish stickers constitute probable cause to search in the USA? ;)
Click to expand...

the first time i ever got caught by the cops red handed toklin up i was in a lil white GEO with a dead head, that had a phish and gratefull dead sticker in the back.
lol
 
amor fati said:
What does anyone recomend I do? Is there anything at all I can even do?
Click to expand...
Nah. In theory, you could file a complaint with your local goverment or the police chief. You could also file a civil suit against the cop, which you will most likely spend thousands of dollars on with little chance of winning.

From a practical standpoint, you got out of the situation relatively unscathed. Sure, you got your rights violated. But the cop did you a favor by not busting you for the contraband, which isn't to say he acted properly. Maybe he realized it was an illegal search. Maybe he didn't want to fill out the paperwork. Maybe he liked you. It doesn't really matter, because the present result of the police encounter outweighs the cost of escalating it through a lawsuit, imo. (As always, you should check with your own attorney when you have a legal question.)

Almost ALL cops smell marijuana ALL the time. It's one of the uniform rules of cop traffic school and serves as pretext for searching your car. Regardless, the general rule still applies: BE POLITE BUT ALWAYS REFUSE TO CONSENT TO A SEARCH.
 
Last edited:
Civil suits against the police do not cost money (not saying this case is worth it), a lawyer takes it on contingency keeping 30% of the settlement.

I would file a complaint. It might serve to keep this guy in check more in the long run. Your not doing it for yourself, your doing it for the next guy. Your doing it for all of us.
 
I used to smoke weed when driving around with my friends or by myself like every day in my late teens and early 20's. At least one of us always had a bag on us at all times.

Looking back 20 years later I think that I was really dumb and that was very risky behavior.

If I were to happen to travel with drugs now they would be in the trunk inside something else like a duffle bag or what have you. The truck would have a few things in it but not be overly cluttered. I would never consent to a search and there would be no way for the officer to 'smell' anything based on the way it was packaged.

But most of all based on the car I drive I am virtually invisible to cops unless I am doing 90 MPH.
 
I think that you kids should read up on your rights and practice asking the appropriate questions and behaving politely when interacting with the police.

If I am pulled over I do this: signal and pull over safely. I then turn on my interior light, shut off my car, and take the keys and put them on the dashboard in front of me so they are clearly visible to the police. I then put my hands on 10 and 2 and keep them there.

If he asks me for my license and registration he gets them, I say nothing. If he gives me a ticket I take it and say thank you. I start my car and signal before entering the roadway.

If he ask me if I know why I was pulled over I say I am not sure. If he asks me if I know how fast I was going I say I am not sure. (after all I did not calibrate the spedomotor that morning).

If he asks me quesitons about what I am doing and where I am going or stuff like that, basically going on a fishing expidition my response if there is a simple explanation is the truth (assuming I am doing nothing wrong). If he keeps up the quesitoniing after my simple explanation or if I am doing something wrong my responses are:

Officer, what is my legal status right now?
Officer, I am in a hurry and would like to leave as soon as I am legally allowed to do so.
Officer, I do not consent to searches.

I also seek clarification for most of his comments by asking "Is that a reqeust or a command officer?"

I make it clear that I am not interested in having any discussions and am interested in leaving as soon as I am legally allowed to do so.

I"m also not a 21 year old kid with long hair and a deadhead tee shirt on so it comes across a little differently. I am always polite and respectful and thank him even if he acts like a dick at me and tried to intimidate me.

He should be out there catching purse snatchers, not harrassing me and wasting my time.

Know your rights and exercise them (also realize if your strung out and caught coming out of an alley none of the above is going to fly).

Have a story preplanned for why you are at where you are at before you go to where you are going. Don't get into converstations with cops, they try to intimidate you and put you on the defensive and dig for information which they then use as evidence to detain you, etc.

The same applies if I am walking down the street. A cop asks me a quesiton and if I think he suspects me of something my reply is "officer, what is my legal status right now, am I free to leave?" No matter what his reply is I do not get into a converstation with him. I let him know that I wish to leave as soon as I am legally allowed to do so and do not get into an answering game to his quesiton game.
 
Cops are much less likely to fuck with you if you are both polite and respectful, as well as demonstrate that you know what your rights are based on the verbalizaitons you make while interacting with them.

They would much rather just tell you to go and find someone else to fuck with. If your red eyed and your car reaks of weed the above does not apply.
 
Titus said:
Civil suits against the police do not cost money (not saying this case is worth it), a lawyer takes it on contingency keeping 30% of the settlement.
Click to expand...
this is not always true.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top