juvinile search

What is the name of your state? montana

My brother and his girlsfriend were recently arrested for position of pariphinalia..well it originally started out that way but has since changed to possesion of drugs, even though they just found a pipe (marijuana not crack or anything like that), anyway, they were coming out of there friends house and walking to his car when the police approach him. the police say that they asked my brother if he was "high" because he was talking funny, keep in mind this is about 20 degrees and 11:00 pm in montana in the middle of winter and his girlfriend is wearing his jacket. like a dumbass he admitted he had smoked earlier in the day, so they sjust quickly patted my brother down and proceeded to search his girlfriend they found the pipe in the jacket pocket, brother said it was his, they proceeded to arrest them both and take them down to the police station. at the police station they call there parent, they are both 17, after calling my brothers gilfriends mother the decided to give the girlfriend a body search, they didnt inform her mother that this was going to happen and niether child or parent gave consent to search or question. the search while given by a female officer was not video taped and not supervised. one of the officers told my parent, becasue he knew them, that he was very cooperative and respectful, however another officer said that he was "disoriented " and "didnt know what was going on", although i know for a fact that he would not be like that especially if he had smoked earlier in the day. anyways this comes into play becasue when they took the kids down to the station they did not cuff my brother of tell him he was being charged with anything and they did his girlfriend. the officer that said in the report that he didnt know what was going on sasid that my brother was cuffed and charged. by the end of the night the girlfriend had no charges and my brother had the pariphanilia which the next day was drugs, I just what to know what anyone thiks about this, and specifically about the girlfriends search and the laws around that keep in mind they are both juviniles but not juvinile delinquits not to they appear to look like ones. my brohter is a collage student and and his girlfriend is your typical good girl in appearence and in attitude. thanks for reading

Juveniles in custody fall under a whole different category regarding containment and search procedures, including whether or not they can be cuffed and/or at what time they can be cuffed and how they can be questioned. The police are given discretion to contain and/or secure the juvenile depending on what the juvenile did and depending on the severity of the crime. If a juvenile is arrested for a crime, the juvenile is subject to be contained by police as an adult. Regardless of arrest or no arrest, if the police are going to question the juvenile, specific policies must be followed, and again -- it gets complicated and the legalities of the police procedure used revolves around the crime and whether the juvenile understands what is going on during any questioning and/or procedure and whether or not an adult is present (not necessarily the parent).

When a juvenile is taken in, police can do nothing and release, they can do nothing and release to parents, they can take youth to parents, they can counsel the youth and the parent, they can detain, arrest, transport to youth center, etc. etc. If transport is going to be involved, the youth can be searched prior to transport and then again at the facility where a more thorough search is performed. Search procedures are extremely complicated regards juveniles in custody.

As it regards your brother and his girlfriend, the parents were notified of something (which will carry some weight regards the search). The girlfriend may have been more "oriented" (although I'm not sure from reading your post). A female ofc did the search on a female juvenile, which will carry weight. Parents were notified, which will carry weight. Drugs were involved, which will carry weight. If your brother was disoriented and didn't know what was going on, procedures for him would be totally different.

For your brother to get a thorough evaluation as to whether or not proper procedures was followed, he would definitely need to consult an attorney for the "fine lines". Police decision can be made second by second, and every circumstance would need to be evaluated to see if proper procedure was or wasn't followed regards your brother and girlfriend.



hmmbrdzz

hey thanks for the info. they are talking to a lawyer witch is good. also i wondered about the confidentiality of a juvinile record. i know that law enforcement can see them and pass them around but can they just show it to anybody. becasue they showed his girlfriend mother his file(which she coundt even believe they were doing, and she really didnt care she knows my brother and likes him). they aslo put in the report that he was trying to set his girlfriend up and say that it was hers. although we no this isnt true because the officer that was there said he told him at the time of arrest that it was his coat and his pipe. if the record states this does this help. also my brother never made a statement, mother wouldnt let him. im in florida now and there were recent cases of sexuall assault by a searching officer, so i know here there are laws regarding physical body searcher, not just the basic pat down. i was wondering if there are any federal standard to these proceeders and what they might be if any. or what they might be in montana..im sure they are all backwords since most montana law is.

one more thought, his record didnt really show anything except a minor vandelism that was never prosecuted since he was like twelve and he was righting his name in wet cement.

Hi cgguy: I'm not versed enough in "law", per se, to be able advise you of all the specific laws, federal and/or state pertaining to juvenile searches. I am somewhat familiar with the complexity of juvenile searches because I used to work for the prison system (health care) for quite a few years and filled in at the juvenile center (where searches were always a "pain", so to speak, because policy had to be followed to the T).

I can tell you that juvenile records are very protected and only under certain circumstances can the info contained in the file be shared with another (sharing with another parent would not be that circumstance). I feel safe in also saying that an attorney on behalf of your brother would look closely into the search procedure, and that your brother will benefit from an attorney. Your mother did the right thing by not consenting for him to make a statement. Perhaps some of the attorneys that frequent these boards will be able to help you more with what you've specifically requested regards the fed laws.

Gee... for writing his name in wet cement? Did he do the hand thing? All joking aside -- he looks like he may be headed for some trouble if he doesn't turn it around soon. If you're an older brother, and you've got your mess together, encourage him before he winds up in a place he won't want to be.


Good luck.

hmmbrdzz

i thought that too but wasnt sure..about the records just wasnt sure. as far as my brother goes though is that he is getting his own mess together very well, sure he wasnt getting by in school so he dropped out, but he got his ged right away, which i wasnt happy about him dropping out becasue i has my trouble in school but managed to get my "mess" together in time to graduate hight school and then go to collage and now im in a very good school, and my brother isnt far behind me. Hes going to collage now and taking the same classes as I did when i started collage, he even has many of the same teachers..so he is doing his job, he goes to school and has a good job both of which are full time..now tell me what a system would want anything to do with a kid like this for. it seems to me its counter productive,

Montana huh? Well, you're right -- it is counterproductive in some cases (in lots of cases). Hopefully school and an income from a job will grab a hold of him and keep a hold as it did you.

Keep on keeping on and teach your brother well.

Good luck.


hmmbrdzz