Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

I have a friend who was pulled over in his car by a sherrif and thier were no drugs found in vehicle or on him but did find paraphenalia (scales). There were two other people in car that had warrants. They wanted to search his home and told him that if he would let them search home they would not drug test him. Is that legal to search your home after pulling you over in car and finding really nothing?


Asked on 2/04/10, 5:47 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Scott Linden Scott H. Linden, Esq.

Tricky question because "legal" is a very fluid term. They can not force the search, they can not perform the search without a warrant (under the facts as you explain them).

The scale might give probable cause to search the home, but without any possibility of destruction of evidence (which is unlikely because they have the person detained) a warrant would need to be obtained. Of course, giving the police the OK to search just opens the door to them tearing anything and everything apart...never do this. They are not your "friend" they are not your "buddy" and they do not care if you are a "stand up person". They are looking for a bust...and that's it.

I'd need more facts to get into better detail about the search in the first place, I see potental problems ab initio.

Scott

MasterCriminalDefense.com

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Answered on 2/09/10, 3:34 pm


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