I was arrested for possesion of marijuana and paraphernalia... what now?

[giacamo1]

Before I explain the situation I would like to make it clear that I know my actions were illegal, and immoral. I have learned my lesson, and now I am left with the task of making this mistake impact my professional future as little as possible. I would appreciate if any advice given was followed by sources or credentials. I am a minor who was recently arrested for the possession of marijuana, and the possession of paraphernalia. I was a passenger in a car with two of my friends (both adults) when we were stopped for speeding. We had just finished smoking a small amount of marijuana and were on our way to the mall. I am quite confident that the car had no scent of marijuana as we had aired it out and used deodorant spray. The driver was polite and compliant, and provided the officers with his license, registration, and proof of insurance. None of the occupants of the car had been arrested before, nor did we have outstanding charges/warrants. The driver was asked to step out of the car to sign his ticket. On his way back to the car an officer asked if he consented to a search, to which he replied no. We were all asked to step out of the car, subsequently exposing a grinder under my leg. At this point the officers started lambasting the three of us with questions such as "whose is this?", "is there anything else in the car?", "when did you smoke up?". I choose not to speak and one of my friends (whom the grinder belonged to) admitted the grinder was his, and the other was silent. At this time the officers said your are all under arrest. I asked what we were under arrest for, and he responded "you will all three be charged for possession, and paraphernalia, because no one owned up to the stuff in the car". At this time we were driven to a Pennsylvania state police office and processed. The driver (only the driver) was read his Miranda rights preceding a field DUI test (conducted at the station, with a negative result). I am wondering if these charges will hold up in court considering that none of us were read our rights preceding the questioning which led to our arrest. Additionally no officer told us that if one person were to own up to the marijuana and paraphernalia they would be charged, instead of the entire group being charged. A final detail that may be of value, when my parents picked me up the officer explained "we asked to search the car after pulling them over for speeding because we detected a strong odor of marijuana". This is not true because while I was in the station I overheard the arresting officer say to his partner "I'm glad we went on the 50/50 with this one, look what it got us", phrasing that made it seem as if the officers had searched us by chance. What are my legal options from here? And what can I expect for consequences (how will my record look? will I do community service?).

- Important Info -
None of us had been arrested before
Me and the other passenger never had our rights read
The arresting officer was a Pennsylvania State Trooper

 

[The Occultist]

Being in the vehicle where you have access to something means you are in possession of it. Do note that ownership is NOT an element of possession, so even had somebody confessed ownership to everything, you all still could have been rightfully arrested for possession.

As far as the odor goes, as somebody that doesn't exactly hang around marijuana, let me tell you that the odor is highly noticeable to those that aren't smoking.

Miranda rights do not work the way you think they do. Miranda rights only need to be read after an arrest but before interrogation. Failure to have your rights read to you merely means that anything you said after the arrest can't be held against you, but that doesn't matter anyways: they don't need your testimony to convict you as they already have all the evidence they need, so the lack of Miranda rights being read essentially means nothing.

I'm not sure what you think you heard the officer say regarding the search, but it's mostly irrelevant. The officer played everything by the book. He asked for consent to search, he was denied, so he held off on the search. Then he saw the paraphernalia in plain sight (not a search, therefore legit), made the appropriate arrest, and, as part of his job, proceeded with a search incident to the arrest.

Assuming your record is indeed otherwise clear, it is possible that you will be offered some sort of deferred prosecution, which would likely include court fees, probation, perhaps a drug class, maybe some community service, or some other restrictions. It's possible these restrictions might be a little more harsh since you are a minor (many courts like to "scare children straight"). The best thing you can do is talk to an attorney. Local attorneys always know best what the courts want to hear, and as such present the highest potential for yielding the most favorable results. Many attorneys will offer free/cheap consultations, so you should take advantage of this and sit down with a couple to see what insight they may have to offer.