Need Professional Input

[curiousinaz]

What is the name of your state? Arizona

To all sharp, experienced criminal attorneys, please read
my post and weigh in on it with yout professional
opinion(s).

Ok, this situation is rather complex and involves
complex(at least as far as i see it) constitutional as well
as tribal law.

That being said, here is what happened:

I was at a wal mart store which is located in scottsdale,
az—and unknown to me at the time—is on tribal indian land.
The relevance of this fact will soon be evident as i
explain.

I, being the sociopathic fool that i was up until this
incedent, chose to shoplift from this wal mart which
happened to not only be on indian land, but also happened
to have an off duty tribal officer shopping at it.

As i made my way out the door or the garden center, i was
queried by the the little old lady at the door as to
whether or not i had a receipt, to which i responded, "I'm
sorry but I really don't have time."

In typical wal mart little old lady at the door fashion she
became increasingly louder and more insistant, "SIR! SIR!
PLEASE, I NEED TO SEE YOUR RECEIPT!" I completely ignored
her cries and proceeded outside, where several other wal
mart employees(who appeared to be on break) decided to
assist the door lady in demanding that I show them my
receipt, to the point of one of them actually commandeering
the shopping cart I was pushing.

At this point I conceded by abandoning control of said cart
and continuing to walk toward my vehicle. It was shortly
after that I heard an authorative "STOP! GET ON THE GROUND
OR I'LL SHOOT!" which I could see in my perephial vision
was coming from an armed indian police officer.

Initially, this only heightened my sense of urgency as I
began to walk as fast as i could around to the door of my
vehicle. I managed to open the door, seat myself and
attempted to turn the key, before the very large, very
scary looking and VERY ARMED OFF DUTY officer strguggled
with me to remove the key from the ignition while pointing
his gun directly at me, again reminding me that he intended
to shoot me if I didnt comply.

Naturally, not wanting to be shot point blank, and having
lost control of the key(he had taken it at this point) I
stopped resisting. He then radioed in for "back-up" [i use
the quotes to remind you that he was not indeed on duty,
which I feel has some significance] and sat there gun
pointing at me until they arrived.

When I saw the police cruiser pulling into the parking lot,
I said to the off duty cop, that I was sorry for resisting
and that I fully intended to comply with himself as well as
the other officers (at this point I didnt realize that he
was really in effect making a citizens arrest due to the
fact that he was off duty)

Anyways, as I exited the vehicle, leaving my wallet and
other personal effects behind(I grabbed just my license) I
attempted to lock and shut the door of my vehicle, but was
forcibly intercepted by the off duty cop, and i believe he
said something to the effect of "WE will handle this, and
you are REALLY screwed now buddy."

Meanwhile the actual on duty cops had parked and were
exiting their vehicles, I was already standing completely
away from my vehicle when they exited theirs, talked to the
off duty cop (who turned out to be their superior officer)
and subsequently placed me in handcuffs, read me my rights
and then put me in the back seat off their car.

Now, this is where the majority of my questions arise:

The arresting officer(the one who had just arrived) spoke
to me from thru the window in the car and he advised me
that he would be searching my vehicle, and wanted to know
if he would find anything illegal inside—emphasising the
fact that "this could get ugly if I find something inside
that is illegal, like drugs or whatever, and that I would
be wise to let him know what he would find before he
started searching"

To this, I basically did not respond, he asked me again if
I wanted to tell him anything before he searched, and i
said "NO."

Watching from the back of the squad car i saw that he would
definitely find the variety of felonies that I had in the
vehicle. (also to be noted, tho i dont know if this is
significant, but none of these said felonious items were in
plain sight.

At this point i panicked and yelled at him that he would
indeed find a stolen ink cartridge in the black bag in the
vehicle. He came over to the window of the car and told me,
really, ok well i also found this[holds up meth pipe] and
this[baggie] and I'm sure I'm going to find other things
too. you had your chance buddy. [note that the only thing i
consented to him searching for was the ink cartridge, and i
did not admit to ownership of anything else he subsequently
discovered]

Anyways, long story short, he advised me that he was
charging me with at least 7 felonies[all of which were
incedent to the search of my vehicle] as well as the
original misdemeanor charge of shoplifting, AND that since
I was on tribal land and had drugs in my vehicle that they
would be seizing my vehicle.

Now, jump forward about a week in time up to yestarday.

I went to my initial arraignment hearing in superior court
and they informed me that the county attorney has decided
to 'scratch' my charges.

So, after doing some in-depth constitutional law research,
I have come to the conclusion that the exclusionary rule
applies to this case and that is why the county attorney
likely dropped my case.

WHEW, THIS IS COMPLEX LIKE I SAID, BUT NONETHELESS HERE ARE
MY QUESTIONS:

1) Am I even remotely correct in my conclusion as to why
they scratched my charges ?

2) Does the tribe that seized my vehicle have to give me
back my vehicle now that the charges have been dropped ?

3) Any other input on this whole messy situation that I
hadn't considered would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!

thank you in advance for any repsonse(s) you might have.