Drug Charges

[queenbee]

My boyfriend was taking me to work and we got stopped by the police on the highway. He said that he was stopping us because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. My boyfriend does have a valid drivers license but he didn't have it on him. The cop asked him to get out of the car. He got out and the cop issued him a seatbelt citation and advised him that he was free to go. However the officer continued to question him. He asked him if he had ever smoked marijuana and my boyfriend said no. Then he asked if it was okay if he searched the car. My boyfried told him that it wasn't his car and he would have to ask me (I'm the owner of the car). The officer then asked me if he could search the car and I gave him permission--not knowing that there were drugs in the car. The officer briefly searched over the vehicle and found a bee-bee gun and some marijuana. My boyfriend immediatly said that they belonged to him and that I wasn't aware of it being in the car, but we all got charged with handgun and possession charges. The drug charges were felony and the handgun a misdemeanor. I just want to know, if the officer advised him that he was free to go but continued to ask unneccesary questions (especially if there was no probable cause), is it a violation of his rights for the officer to continue questioning, and would that be considered an illegal search. Is it also considered profiling since we are black college students? Since I have no prior record of ANYTHING, and my boyfriend is admitting guilt, what are the chances of me still getting charged since it was my car? Our preliminary is 11/30...please help!!(Oh...and this happened in the state of MD)

[Edited by queenbee on 11-20-2000 at 02:24 PM]