Hey fellas, I just joined the forum and have a question for any of you legal savvy people out there. Let's say, hypothetically of course, that a friend of mine got busted for possession at this apartment and the cops pretty much fandangled my friend into letting them search her car (she gave them permission for some reason)that contained my backpack in the back seat. The cop went ahead and did the search and also searched through my backpack without being present and of course not with my consent and found my stash. They arrested both of us. She was formally charged and was released and I spent the night in jail waiting for an arraignment the next morning. When the morning came I was released without any explanation. It's now been over five months and I haven't heard anything about it and I'm starting to wonder if they realized they didn't have a case against me due to a botched arrest. When they confronted me about the back pack I asked them if they had the legal authority to search it and they kinda looked at each other and quickly told me yes. My conclusion at this point is they either dropped the case or my stash is still being tested in the crime lab. Anybody got any knowledge to drop on me to help me clear things up?
Never consent to searches and never leave your stash on or in a persons property who would consent to search
Yep 5 months since the arrest. And it was MDMA, weed, and a pipe so I'm looking at a felony and 2 misdemeanors which is why it's possible it might still be sitting in line at a crime lab. Haha well being a member of NORML I try to educate my friends to the best of my knowledge but apparently the cop pulled the classic "well we have the right to search your car so... Can we search your car?" Routine and she fell for it... I was pretty disappointed in her. As for the closed backpack, to my knowledge the cops need a home search warrant or at least drug dogs to be able to go through it since we weren't in the car at the time when the cops showed up. Does anybody know anything about that? This was in Kansas by the way, not that that would negate my constitutional rights but thought I would throw that in the mix.
From my experience, if the person consents to search anything found inside the vehicle could be used as evidence whether or not the owner of the backpack consented. If no one else claimed ownership the charge would go to the owner of the car. The only case I could think of that would be any different is with shared housing. One tenant can consent to search but they can't use anything found in bedrooms occupied by anyone who didn't consent. They can open the door but they can't use anything as evidence unless the person who's room they're in consents to search. But if something is in plain sight when they open the bedroom door then that's grounds for a warrant and you'll be charged whether you consent or not.