So the other night my friend gets pulled over for doing 50 in a 25...hes had his license for about 2 months. He was pulled over by an Alexandria Cop. The cop writes him a ticket for speeding (obviously) and then says "have you been drinking son?" he replies no but his friend in the passanger seat was drunk. They tell them to step out of the car and say "Would you like to take a breathalizer or do the walking counting stuff" he picks the walking and swears he did fine. The cop states otherwise. They arrest him and throw him in the back of the car then search his car (without his permission). He is written multiple tickets. 1.) Speeding 50-25 2.) driving with open containers 3.) running a stop sign 4.) driving under the influence and 1 more i believe. When he gets down to the jail he is administered a breathalizer test which he passes. He is wondering what to do..i feel he shold live with it but suggested a lawyer. The only thing I suggested the lawyer for was unauthorized search and seizure. He was not asked they threw him in the back of the crown vic then searched his car. Is that probable cause, he said he did fine on the counting etc. and that he was never asked if they could search and no warrant was given. That my only question is whether or not the cops abused the priveledge of unauthorized search and seizure. Thanks

 

once they suspect you have been drinking, they have the right to search. like seeing as his friend had been drinking, the smell of alcohol coming from him gives them the right to search, because they have no idea who/where it was coming, not to mention the open containers.

 

he said it was his friend they tested his friend and they made my friend walk and count then they cuffed him and searched his car while he wached from the back seat of a squad car

 

Cops can pretty much search your vehicle whenever they please if you are operating on public roads, so don't think you have any rights there. As for the drinking part he's pretty much fucked - no way he can prove he was sober at the time of arrest.

 

it is illegal to have an open container in the vehicle. period.

he got a speeding ticket. which is justified.
he got an open container ticket. which is justified.
he got a running stop sign ticket. which was probly justified (no info on whether he did or not)

and an officer has just about any reason to search your car as long as there is just cause. one example: you are riding down the road, puffin a fatty, and the man pulls behind you. he sees you duck down to hide the rest of your jay under the seat. you may have been scratching your balls for all he knew, but it is just cause for a search.

he can try a lawyer, but i am willing to bet that he be fucked.

 

yea i agree the only thing that bothered me was that i would imagine a cop needs "probable cause" and i was wondering what probable cause is. I know he deserved the tickets and im not arguing for those. The only thing that I'm arguing for is that he wasn't asked for permission to search and I was wondering what probable cause is.

 

If he really wasnt drinking, he would have taken the breathalyzer then and there. Odds are he thought he was sober enough to pass a walking test.

 

All a cop has to do is say "I smell pot", and he has probable cause to tear your vehicle apart. But even if the judge didn't think the officer had probable cause there's not much you can do other than attempt to suppress evidence obtained by the search.

 

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Aprobable+cause

His friend was in the vehicle drunk. That was the basis for the probable cause.


There were open containers. There was a drunk person in the car. I don't think it needs to be spelled out where the probable cause stems from.

 

what i was trying to expalin before but got lost in traslation was, your friends passanger was drinking right? meaning that the car, contrary to peoples belief, smelt alchol, and even if it wasn't from him, it was from the open bottles/cans that were in the car, so the smell of the beer would give any officer probable cause to search the car.