I don't believe the officer had probable cause to stop me.

State: Wisconsin

Beginning of Story
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I was leaving a legally thrown rave the other morning and just after I pulled out of the driveway (not more than 200 feet away) I used my signal and pulled off on the side of the road to:

A. Wait for a car to go by so my friends and I wouldn't get separated.

B. To remove a flyer off of my windsheild that was placed on it sometime over the night.

As the car that I had pulled over for to let it pass me got closer I noticed it was a police officer that seemed to be slowing and veering toward the side of the road, sure enough his lights went on and he pulled up behind me. My friends then pulled out of the driveway and parked a decent distance behind the police officer on the side of the road becasue some more cars were waiting to leave the drivway.

He came up to the car and the first thing he asked was "Are either of you Rolling?" a slang term used to describe someone who is using extacy. We told him "No". He then preceded to ask "May we search your vehicle?". I again told him "No, I don't belive you have probable casue to search my vehicle.". He asked for my drivers liscense and for a from of ID from my friend in the passenger seat, so we gave him the ID's and he went back to his vehicle.

By this time a police van pulled up behind my friends in the other vehicle and we couldn't really see what was going on. Then the officer driving the van came up to my car and started saying a few things to us. He then started walking around my vehicle as if he was looking for something. All of a sudden he yelled out "He has a flyer in his Windsheild, that's Obstruction of View.". The officer went back to his Van and came back with a Sony Mavica Digital camera to take a picture of the flyer on my windsheild. After he took the picture he scraped the flyer of my windsheild and handed it to me, so I told him "Thank You". He went back to his van again.

Now the officer that pulled me over came back to my car and said "Your liscense seems to be taking awhile to run, it looks like it's going to take a bit longer.". He again went back to his car. Now about 10 minutes later he came back to my car with $125.00 Obstruction of View ticket and read the normal speech to me when you get a traffic ticket, about my optional court date, ect... After that I asked him if instead of following the standard procedure of me leaving then the officers, if instead we could wait for the officers to leave, so my friends and I wouldn't be separated as originally intended. He said he would have to go back to his vehicle to see if that was ok.

Once he went back to his vehicle they waited a minute, but then him and the van drove off ahead of us. So we pulled out and were on our way, but not more than a mile up the road from where we were stopped the same two police vehicles had two more vehicles pulled over that left the Rave just before we went on our way again.

Now about 4 miles past where we were stopped we came to a gas station, so I pulled in and my friends followed. I just wanted to talk to them about what happend.

After a brief talk I learned a few interesting things, the van that pulled up behind my friends gave them the standard procedure of running their plates, etc. Then the offciers noticed that they didn't have a front liscense plate on their vehicle, which is Wisconsin Law. The officers told them that if they let them search their vehicle that they wouldn't give them a ticket for the liscense plate. My friends also didn't know that they had the right to refuse the search, so they told the officers that they could search their vehicle. Nothing was found.

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End of story...

Any help at all concering this would be great, i.e. if what the officers did was legal, if I can file law suits against them, etc...

Also the officers were bragging about how many people they busted over the night, if our rights were violated other people's rights probably were too. Is there a way we can get the names and contacts of every one else given a ticket, so we can file a class action law suit?

Thanks in Advance.
Ryan.