My question involves police conduct in the State of: Georgia
My husband was the driver and I was the passenger in his car owned by his mother with a trailer with tools on it being pulled behind. His right taillight had been smashed just that day and the pieces were actually sitting in the car. We were coming into town around 1:00 am and my husband was smoking a cigarette with the window down when a city cop pulled us over. As he walked up to the car he said "I pulled you over for the broken taillight." Then started asking if we had marijuana or pills in the car and asks if he can search it and of course we said NO. He took both of our IDs and went to his car for a while. My husband has had a DUI in the past and is on probation in another county. He is often profiled in our home county. After about 10 minutes, a K-9 unit shows up. He asked us to get out of the car and said he was going to search our persons. My husband said he consented to a terry pat only. They called a female officer for me. The dog walked around the car, the cops opened our car doors while pointing at things to sniff, and the dog did not indicate. After the dog was done and walking away, my husband said "your dog didn't hit on sh**" and one of the cops said (to cover their a**es) "well we have probable cause because we smell marijana!" and proceeded to search our vehicle. A pipe with resin in it was found in my bag. Neither of us owned up to the pipe. NO drugs were found in the car. Then we see them taking a bag out of the car and my husband thought they were planting something so he said "hold that in front of the camera!" and they said it was a swab kit and that they had swabbed the console and it tested positive for marijuana and gave my husband a citation and then we were free to go.
The next weekday (Monday) we filed an open records request at the city level and the county and it got them riled up. My husband said while walking out "I can't wait to sue your f*** town" and some cop left a voicemail on his phone later saying that he was not allowed to act like that and now they are charging him with disorderly conduct.
Now here are my questions:
1) Was that a legal search? The K-9 did not hit on anything and we were detained for well over an hour.
2) He could have given a ticket for paraphernalia but he did not. He gave the ticket for possession. How is that possible when there were no drugs, just this supposed "swab" that neither I nor my husband saw the results of.
3) Could they amend the ticket to paraphernalia if they so chose? OR did they call it possession because technically the pipe had marijuana resin in it?
4) The ticket said "must appear: NO" at the bottom and the cop at the city hall said he definitely did have to appear. If the cop who wrote the citation made that mistake, what other mistakes did he make?
5) The Chief of Police has called my husband three times today because he is scared. What do you think the chances are of this case being dropped before the court date?
6) If I have a lawyer review the evidence and write a letter to the mayor and Chief threatening a lawsuit, would that help or hurt?
7) Is it best to just escalate it to State court and plead not guilty? NOTE: The car was used when my husband bought it, it is not registered in his name, and also we had a parrot in his cage in the car that the dog could have smelled.
8) Why do they think they can voilate his First Amendment rights by charging him for cursing? He did not act violent, he was walking out the door when he made the comment
Thank you so much for any insight. I truly believe my Fourth Amendment rights were violated, I have friends that are lawyers and they think I have a good case. (Well, my husband, that is)
My husband was the driver and I was the passenger in his car owned by his mother with a trailer with tools on it being pulled behind. His right taillight had been smashed just that day and the pieces were actually sitting in the car. We were coming into town around 1:00 am and my husband was smoking a cigarette with the window down when a city cop pulled us over. As he walked up to the car he said "I pulled you over for the broken taillight." Then started asking if we had marijuana or pills in the car and asks if he can search it and of course we said NO. He took both of our IDs and went to his car for a while. My husband has had a DUI in the past and is on probation in another county. He is often profiled in our home county. After about 10 minutes, a K-9 unit shows up. He asked us to get out of the car and said he was going to search our persons. My husband said he consented to a terry pat only. They called a female officer for me. The dog walked around the car, the cops opened our car doors while pointing at things to sniff, and the dog did not indicate. After the dog was done and walking away, my husband said "your dog didn't hit on sh**" and one of the cops said (to cover their a**es) "well we have probable cause because we smell marijana!" and proceeded to search our vehicle. A pipe with resin in it was found in my bag. Neither of us owned up to the pipe. NO drugs were found in the car. Then we see them taking a bag out of the car and my husband thought they were planting something so he said "hold that in front of the camera!" and they said it was a swab kit and that they had swabbed the console and it tested positive for marijuana and gave my husband a citation and then we were free to go.
The next weekday (Monday) we filed an open records request at the city level and the county and it got them riled up. My husband said while walking out "I can't wait to sue your f*** town" and some cop left a voicemail on his phone later saying that he was not allowed to act like that and now they are charging him with disorderly conduct.
Now here are my questions:
1) Was that a legal search? The K-9 did not hit on anything and we were detained for well over an hour.
2) He could have given a ticket for paraphernalia but he did not. He gave the ticket for possession. How is that possible when there were no drugs, just this supposed "swab" that neither I nor my husband saw the results of.
3) Could they amend the ticket to paraphernalia if they so chose? OR did they call it possession because technically the pipe had marijuana resin in it?
4) The ticket said "must appear: NO" at the bottom and the cop at the city hall said he definitely did have to appear. If the cop who wrote the citation made that mistake, what other mistakes did he make?
5) The Chief of Police has called my husband three times today because he is scared. What do you think the chances are of this case being dropped before the court date?
6) If I have a lawyer review the evidence and write a letter to the mayor and Chief threatening a lawsuit, would that help or hurt?
7) Is it best to just escalate it to State court and plead not guilty? NOTE: The car was used when my husband bought it, it is not registered in his name, and also we had a parrot in his cage in the car that the dog could have smelled.
8) Why do they think they can voilate his First Amendment rights by charging him for cursing? He did not act violent, he was walking out the door when he made the comment
Thank you so much for any insight. I truly believe my Fourth Amendment rights were violated, I have friends that are lawyers and they think I have a good case. (Well, my husband, that is)
Criminal Investigations: Pulled Over for Broken Taillight, Ended Up Cited for Possession Though No Drugs
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