A
anoyman
Guest
I live in the State of Kentucky, and my girlfriend and I allow my younger sister and her boyfriend to stay in a spare bedroom of ours. My name is on the lease none else's. Recently my sister was charged with possesion of marijuana, and possesion of paraphanalia. The story goes like this:
A policeman stoped by our house to take a statement from my sister about an accident earlier in the day. Her boyfriend had happened to answer the door and told the policeman he would get her from her bedroom. Apparently he had not closed the door fully and when he came back to the front door, the policeman was standing in the entryway to the house with the door wide open. It is not clear whether he pushed the door open to get a better look inside or if it just opened itself. Reguarless, the policeman said that he smelled marijuana and was going to search the house.
Question 1:
Is smelling marajuana considered "plain view" and cause for search?
He told them that a police dog was on the way and that they had better bring him anyhting in the house that contained drugs or when the dog got there it would scratch at anyhting that smelled like marijuana and that the police would not be responsible for any damage the dog did to the house. Worried that the dog would destroy our house, they brought him everything they had in the house (a few pipes/bowls).
Question 2:
If just smelling marijuana would not have been enough cause for search, is it legal for the police to threaten destruction of our propery if they did not volentier the paraphanalia?
The police searched the entire house including my office and my bedroom.
Question 3:
Do the police also have a right to search through my personal areas even know I had nothing to do with it? I have read that in cases of roommates, their seprate living spaces (bedrooms, offices and other places that are not shared by everyone) would have to have seprate search warrants.
While searching through my office the police observed that I had multiple computers networked together with a high speed internet connection, and were questioning my sister as to what I needed "all of those computers" for and if I were running some kind of internet scam. (Give me a break, I'm a network consultant and have a home lab to play with new network software). And they mentioned that they may come back with a computer specialist to "check out my computers".
Question 4:
Do they have the right to search through my files and other things that would have had nothing to do with the drugs they supposedly smelled?
Last they mentioned to my sister that now that they had evidence that they (her and her boyfriend) were known marajuana users that it was probable cause to come back and search the house for drugs any time they wanted to.
Question 5:
Is this true, if you have been previously convited for drug possesion, that the police have probable cause to search your property for drugs any time they want to?
Question 6:
I have read that a search warrant must state specifically what the police are allowed to search for, but in the case of probable cause there is no search warrant, does this mean they can basically search for anything and everything and press charges on anyhting illegal that they find? For instance things that are not in "plain view" like software that may be installed on my computer that I do not have a license for or MP3 audio files that I have downloaded but do not own right to.
A policeman stoped by our house to take a statement from my sister about an accident earlier in the day. Her boyfriend had happened to answer the door and told the policeman he would get her from her bedroom. Apparently he had not closed the door fully and when he came back to the front door, the policeman was standing in the entryway to the house with the door wide open. It is not clear whether he pushed the door open to get a better look inside or if it just opened itself. Reguarless, the policeman said that he smelled marijuana and was going to search the house.
Question 1:
Is smelling marajuana considered "plain view" and cause for search?
He told them that a police dog was on the way and that they had better bring him anyhting in the house that contained drugs or when the dog got there it would scratch at anyhting that smelled like marijuana and that the police would not be responsible for any damage the dog did to the house. Worried that the dog would destroy our house, they brought him everything they had in the house (a few pipes/bowls).
Question 2:
If just smelling marijuana would not have been enough cause for search, is it legal for the police to threaten destruction of our propery if they did not volentier the paraphanalia?
The police searched the entire house including my office and my bedroom.
Question 3:
Do the police also have a right to search through my personal areas even know I had nothing to do with it? I have read that in cases of roommates, their seprate living spaces (bedrooms, offices and other places that are not shared by everyone) would have to have seprate search warrants.
While searching through my office the police observed that I had multiple computers networked together with a high speed internet connection, and were questioning my sister as to what I needed "all of those computers" for and if I were running some kind of internet scam. (Give me a break, I'm a network consultant and have a home lab to play with new network software). And they mentioned that they may come back with a computer specialist to "check out my computers".
Question 4:
Do they have the right to search through my files and other things that would have had nothing to do with the drugs they supposedly smelled?
Last they mentioned to my sister that now that they had evidence that they (her and her boyfriend) were known marajuana users that it was probable cause to come back and search the house for drugs any time they wanted to.
Question 5:
Is this true, if you have been previously convited for drug possesion, that the police have probable cause to search your property for drugs any time they want to?
Question 6:
I have read that a search warrant must state specifically what the police are allowed to search for, but in the case of probable cause there is no search warrant, does this mean they can basically search for anything and everything and press charges on anyhting illegal that they find? For instance things that are not in "plain view" like software that may be installed on my computer that I do not have a license for or MP3 audio files that I have downloaded but do not own right to.