What is the name of your state? New Jersey
I was looking for advice on how to handle this case. Obviously I need a lawyer. Here's the situation. Me and my friend get pulled over for speeding. However, the officer does not mention this charge at all until after we are arrested and inside our holding cells. I personally didn't find out about it until after my friend got out and showed me the ticket. With that in mind he immediately began badgering us on what that smell was and told me to step outside the car. I was searched and found clean and was told to sit on the guard rail. Several times they told me to take my hands out of my pockets and show them the inside when I was trying to keep warm in the freezing rain. The same type of search was done on my friend. Then the officer said "I better not find anything in here". Again he never asked for permission to search nor was he givin it by us. The officers only found a pipe which constitutes the paraphenelia charge but since they only told my friend about this part he said they claimed the resin inside counted for possession. My question is was it even legal to go right into searching and detaining us before the arrest without even mentioning the traffic violation? I would think you can't get pulled over for anything besides a traffic violation so it has to be addressed. Anyway the pipe was found in the center console box so it was not in plain view. They also found my friend with $950 and a scale, but none of those were charged to anything. Is it possible in anyway to get this competely cleared or possibly a conditional discharge? This is both our first arrest so neither of us ever have been charged or had a criminal record before. The court date is set on January 26, 2006 in municipal court and we are co-defendants. Thanks for any help.
I was looking for advice on how to handle this case. Obviously I need a lawyer. Here's the situation. Me and my friend get pulled over for speeding. However, the officer does not mention this charge at all until after we are arrested and inside our holding cells. I personally didn't find out about it until after my friend got out and showed me the ticket. With that in mind he immediately began badgering us on what that smell was and told me to step outside the car. I was searched and found clean and was told to sit on the guard rail. Several times they told me to take my hands out of my pockets and show them the inside when I was trying to keep warm in the freezing rain. The same type of search was done on my friend. Then the officer said "I better not find anything in here". Again he never asked for permission to search nor was he givin it by us. The officers only found a pipe which constitutes the paraphenelia charge but since they only told my friend about this part he said they claimed the resin inside counted for possession. My question is was it even legal to go right into searching and detaining us before the arrest without even mentioning the traffic violation? I would think you can't get pulled over for anything besides a traffic violation so it has to be addressed. Anyway the pipe was found in the center console box so it was not in plain view. They also found my friend with $950 and a scale, but none of those were charged to anything. Is it possible in anyway to get this competely cleared or possibly a conditional discharge? This is both our first arrest so neither of us ever have been charged or had a criminal record before. The court date is set on January 26, 2006 in municipal court and we are co-defendants. Thanks for any help.