Passenger has drugs on them, driver clean...what happens?

Subdivisions

Bluelighter
Joined
May 2, 2010
Messages
50
I have a question that has always bugged me.
Let’s say I am driving my car, and my passenger has weed, or some other illicit substance on him, and I am not aware of it (seriously not aware of it).
I get pulled over and for whatever the cop decides to pat us both down. I am clean, but the cop finds the weed on the passenger.
Would I be charged as well? Assuming they CANNOT prove I knew about it.
What would happen?
 
If it's in his pocket, then you can't go to jail unless both of you are like "oh it's both of ours", which would be incredibly retarded. If he throws it somewhere in your car when you get stopped, and then says it's not his, both of you could possibly take a ride for it.
 
I have a question that has always bugged me.
Let’s say I am driving my car, and my passenger has weed, or some other illicit substance on him, and I am not aware of it (seriously not aware of it).
I get pulled over and for whatever the cop decides to pat us both down. I am clean, but the cop finds the weed on the passenger.
Would I be charged as well? Assuming they CANNOT prove I knew about it.
What would happen?

It's at the Cops discression on whether he believes ya didn't know or not, I always ask people when they get in my ride, "Are you dirty"? If they say no then if something like that happens that's what I tell the cop.:)
 
If it's in his pocket, then you can't go to jail unless both of you are like "oh it's both of ours", which would be incredibly retarded. If he throws it somewhere in your car when you get stopped, and then says it's not his, both of you could possibly take a ride for it.

buddy of mine was dealing cocaine across a parkinglot( i was waiting for him, in my truck, and i randomly get arrested, no drugs on me or in my truck, being charged with the sames things as he is.
 
The burden of proof would be on you to prove that you knew nothing about what he was doing.

99% of the time the clean passenger is arrested as well. Charges will be dropped if your buddy is nice enough to tell the authorities you had nothing to do with it. But they always assume everyone in the car is in on it, so you have to prove otherwise.
 
doctordre- I think the burden of proof is on the courts to prove that the driver knew about it, not the other way around.
 
99% of the time the clean passenger is arrested as well. Charges will be dropped if your buddy is nice enough to tell the authorities you had nothing to do with it. But they always assume everyone in the car is in on it, so you have to prove otherwise.


I don't know if it does make much of a difference if your "friend" (no friend of mine would put me in that position) cops to it. And of course everyone in the car is in on it. Why else would someone ask you to pull into a dark parking lot to meet someone you don't know? You may not be directly profiting from the arrangement, but you can't be that dumb.
 
I don't know if it does make much of a difference if your "friend" (no friend of mine would put me in that position) cops to it. And of course everyone in the car is in on it. Why else would someone ask you to pull into a dark parking lot to meet someone you don't know? You may not be directly profiting from the arrangement, but you can't be that dumb.

The you is a rhetorical you and not directed at anyone here.
 
"innocent until proven guilty in the court of law" You may be cited but chances are if you peald not guilty then you will come out clean after just 3 court dates. That kinda f*s up a persons daily now doesn't it. Before my wife and I were married this actually happend to us. We got pulled over by a pair of piggies and were seperated. I had a pipe, my wifey had weed. Neither of us knew of the other. We were both charged seperately me with paraphenalia, her with posession. The worst part. I did 5 days county. She paid a $50 fine.
 
Logic would say "of course not they cant arrest you if HE has the drugs on him and says they are his, how could you know? Are you suppose to do a strip search on every person who gets into your car?" But the sad fact is that they can definately arrest you for your passengers drugs. I dont know how it is in other places, but in New Jersey, there is a charge called "possession of CDS in motor vehicle." Thats the thing they charge the driver with when the passenger has drugs. Im sure there is other charges they use, but that one in particular is one that I am familiar with personally, my man got hit with that charge once when his friend had the drugs on him in his car, and he was charged with possession once when I had the drugs on me in his car. he had no drugs or nothing on him, but they hit him with possession for the shit that i had on me, since i was in his car.

If your passenger has somethin on them, you are responsible for it.

Even if you dont know....Even if they swear they aint got shit. Even if you ask them direclty before you let them in your car and they say no, and then it turns out they had somethin on them....you can get charged.

I seen it happen many times, and its pretty common....Cops can use their discretion and choose not to charge you...but they usually will.

Think about it...If it was that easy to get off something like that, nobody would ever get charged for being the driver when the passenger copped drugs, etc...."My friend asked me to drive him to so and so corner, he didnt tell me it was for DRUGS! He just told me we were goin to white castle!" how do THEY know if you GENUINELY didnt know about the drugs he had on him or not? Its only your word , and that has NEVER been sometin that cops trust before, so i dont know why youd think they would start now.

It seems really stupid and unfair that cops can act like this, but think about how many cops minds work. if your friend has drugs why wouldnt you be a druggie too? A "good kid" wouldnt hang out with a "druggie", so he cant be innocent. Dumb shit like that. they are gonna see you as guilty, and legally they can charge you. "innocent until proven guilty" got nothin to do with this...you guilty cuz your friends guilty in your car, basically.

Its really up to them, whether to give you the benefit of the doubt or not, but most of the time , the idea that the driver is responsible for anything in the car, is the overwhelming conclusion that they come to.

So...to make a long story short....Yes, you can get arrested, and charged with the drugs your passenger has, even if they are on him and he says they are only his and not yours.
 
So if it's a cab driver and the passenger has drugs, would the cab driver be arrested as well?
 
Becuz the cab driver is working as a driver and by definition he dont know his passengers. It aint reasonable to assume that he would know anything his customers might be carrying and it takes away some of the responsiblity. Ive heard cops say that the driver is responsible for anything in their car before...you choose who you let in your car, its people you know 99% of the time, you got more of an ability to control wat goes in your car than you would as a cab driver , at least IMO. The driver can "choose" yea, but it aint the same, he aint able to make a decision based on knowing a person like you do when you let a person in your car as a passenger.

I dont think that people who are drivers for hire , are seen the same way legally as a person who is just carrying a passenger in a private vehicle. Id be willing to bet there is a legal difference between the 2 situations.

the exception would be when the cops can prove that the driver is workin in conspiracy with the passenger. I think that standard of proving that they got some kind of relationship and were working together, is higher than it is with regular people tho.

Ima see if i can find out some answers to that tho, becuz its a good question and Id like to be able to answer it officialy.
 
In order for a person to constructively possess a controlled substance, they must have knowledge of the controlled substance and be able to exercise dominion and control over the same. A non-exclusive occupant of a motor vehicle may be convicted of possession, given there is evidence of both knowledge and the ability to exercise dominion and control.
 
Also, Subdivisions is correct, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to prove knowledge. A defendant in a criminal case never has the burden to prove anything that relates to guilt or innocence.
 
Also, Subdivisions is correct, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to prove knowledge. A defendant in a criminal case never has the burden to prove anything that relates to guilt or innocence.

I'd recommend you clarify which courts that applies to in case we have any French "lumiere de bleu" in here or some medieval serfs.
 
^

yeah..its suppose to work such that the burden lays on the crown, but often seems to end up the defense trying to disprove the crown and the police.
 
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