200 person Marijuana Bust (Illegal Search?)

Odyssey Music Festival. Camp Hill, Alabama.

Here's the situation. Myself along with approximately 200 of the people attending this music festival were arrested, mostly for possession of Marijuana under 2.2 lbs. We were mostly arrested at the checkpoint to enter the stage area. The manner in which we were arrested was quite strange. The owner of the land at which the festival was held (rumored to by the county sheriff) hired private security. So at the checkpoint, the private guards, uninhibited by the legal restraint of the forth amendment search the hell out of us. Pulled out pockets, groped my special area, and then found a film container with less than a gram of marijuana in it. When the security guard found this, he put the film container in my hand and pushed me into a group of sheriffs who I hadn't even seen. They threw cuffs on my and threw me in the car. Off to the jail I go.

From the people I met in jail, who were arrested in about the same way these were the concerns: Our rights were not read to us. We were not offered a phone call. Even after heavy demands, they wouldn't let us use the phone to contact someone to post bail. MAINLY we would like to know if the search was totally legal, or if they missed a piece of they're ever so disgusting scheme.

A couple bits of interesting information: ALL of us where white middle class kids about 18-24 years old. All of us were male until the second night of the concert (when I guess they realized they had better start arresting some female to balance the mix). And most of us were out of state and traveled in for the concert.

What can we do to get past this modern day prohibition?????

[HomeGuru]

Originally posted by lliebler
Odyssey Music Festival. Camp Hill, Alabama.

Here's the situation. Myself along with approximately 200 of the people attending this music festival were arrested, mostly for possession of Marijuana under 2.2 lbs. We were mostly arrested at the checkpoint to enter the stage area. The manner in which we were arrested was quite strange. The owner of the land at which the festival was held (rumored to by the county sheriff) hired private security. So at the checkpoint, the private guards, uninhibited by the legal restraint of the forth amendment search the hell out of us. Pulled out pockets, groped my special area, and then found a film container with less than a gram of marijuana in it. When the security guard found this, he put the film container in my hand and pushed me into a group of sheriffs who I hadn't even seen. They threw cuffs on my and threw me in the car. Off to the jail I go.

From the people I met in jail, who were arrested in about the same way these were the concerns: Our rights were not read to us. We were not offered a phone call. Even after heavy demands, they wouldn't let us use the phone to contact someone to post bail. MAINLY we would like to know if the search was totally legal, or if they missed a piece of they're ever so disgusting scheme.

A couple bits of interesting information: ALL of us where white middle class kids about 18-24 years old. All of us were male until the second night of the concert (when I guess they realized they had better start arresting some female to balance the mix). And most of us were out of state and traveled in for the concert.

What can we do to get past this modern day prohibition?????

**A: what do you mean what can you do? That stuff is illegal in Alabama as well as any of the other states that you guys were from.

Well, obviously you missed the point. I think I would understand that marijuana is illegal more than you, since I’m the one that was arrested for it. What I am looking for is an answer to whether our 4th amendment rights were violated. OR if there is any other problems that would be helpful to our case such as the refusal of the phone, the fact that we didn't get our rights read to us, profiling, etc. So please, if you have some information, please reply. If not, don't try to make a point to me. I don't need scolding from random people. I could care less of what people think of me personally or the horrible atrocity that you think I have committed. I just want information. This isn’t rag on the “criminal” forum is it???
-Larry

This isn’t rag on the “criminal” forum is it???

I think you have your answer to THAT question, try this site for others...

[url]www.norml.org/[/url]

Thanks man! I'm actually already in correspondence with an attorney from their site now. I found it after I had already posted the original. That guys going to get a lot of work outta this one man...
Take it easy
-Larry