What Can We Do?

What is the name of your state? PA
My boyfriend was arrested for drug sales this past Sept. He did not do it! He owns a store and an employee sold to an informant although the employee swears it's not true and that he was set up. Supposedly, the informant told police that my bf was also involved so they obtained a warrant and searched his store, our house and his cars. They found nothing, but still arrested him. Since then, they have failed to be prepared at three preliminary hearings and have been running harrassments against him. They had his building owner evict his business because they threatened the owner due to an arrest on his property. They have threatened the owner of our apartment, who lives in another state, with seizure of the property if she does not evict us from the apartment. She told us a state judge said she has to evict us.

I always thought that you were innocent until proven guilty. No drugs were found and there has not even been a preliminary hearing, let alone a conviction. They are holding his truck, his car, my computer, cash of mine they found in the apartment, and even the title to MY car, even though I am not involved and the car is in MY name. What's going on here??? His lawyer said he needs to go through the process first, meaning the preliminary, before anything can be done. How can we keep ourselves from being thrown out on the street in a situation where they did not even find any drugs????

Please help.

Boy Mandy, thats a lot of "seizure" I'm not sure what can be done. For many people just the "fear" of loss causes them to proceed with strong actions your landlord for example and you BF business landlord.

I'm not sure you have any remedy at this point.

"I always thought that you were innocent until proven guilty. "

Welcome to the New America. Political dissent equals traitor. Osama Bin Ladin equals Iraq. Nuclear threat equals Iraq minus North Korea. Guilty as charged upon arrest.

It is my belief that unless you are living in a housing complex that receives federal or state funding, a judge cannot order a landlord to evict you. Your lawyer should at least have a copy of that order, if it exists, and he should have argued against it.

What the cops are doing is borderline harassment. Conceivably they can investigate and arrest the landlord for "allowing" the illegal activity to take place on his property but I'm willing to bet that they have no intention of doing that. They are simply pressuring you. Legal? Probably. As I said, they can always claim to be simply investigating if the landlord was involved.

Talk to your lawyer. He's your lawyer.

A lawyer is supposed to vigorously defend his client. That's what the professional ethics demand of him and thats what you pay him to do.

Ask him what his strategy is. Perhaps he is doing nothing. Perhaps he is doing something but hasn't told you.

Good luck.

My 2 Cents

Mandybear said:

My boyfriend was arrested for drug sales ..... He did not do it! .... even though I am not involved ........they did not even find any drugs

Please help.

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Reading between the lines, something don't sound right.

For one thing. How do you get arrested for drug sales if you don't sell drugs? I could be wrong, but it don't sound right to me.

It was based on a "confidential informant" who said my boyfriend's employee told HIM. They found nothing in the businees, the apartment, or the car.

And they have not been ready for the preliminary three times now. The first time, they said they couldn't find the "confidential informant". The second time they the Asst. DA involved said he couldn't "find the aressting officer". This last time, one of the officers showed up and said he couldn't do it by himself. He wanted another officer there with him. I don't know what is going on with it all other than the lawyer keeps saying to play it out for a civil suit. The prosecution gets only one more postponement and then they have to drop the case. I think they are just holding out to harrass because they thought it was a big deal case and they came up with nothing, not even an amount of money that would show big drug sales.

I'm still just trying to figure out how they can take things away from someone who has not even been convicted. I understand that you can lose things used in a crime, but you have to be convicted first.

Mom, I think it IS the fear of loss. It has frightened me beyond belief that someone can point a finger at you, false or not, and you lose everything you have without even a conviction. Once you are vindicated, you have to start your life all over again even if you did not do anything wrong in the first place. The only thing he did wrong was giving a job to the wrong person and trusting him.

We have moved the business and opened it up under my name and his sister's name, but other than that we start all over and face being evicted. The bank account was frozen so we have no money to move.

Even notice how everybody here is innocent? DRN, I thought you would have realized this by now.