Got busted - Think search is illegal - Based on lie from police

Ulan

420 Member
Hi everybody,

I got busted with approx an ounce of weed stored in an air tight jar, three cookie cans with lids on containing approx 1/2 ounce of dried leafes and a 4*4 tent with a 600HPS dimmed to 400W and one plant 20 inch tall still vegging.

The police claimed that strong cannabis smell was the reason for the search without a court order. Three police officers went in.

However there are some huge problems with their argument:

1. They did not use dogs just humans to "detect the smell"
2. The door frames in the hallway had been painted the same day and it still smelled strong from drying paint outside my door.
3. It was the closed outside door and a passage of 8 feet and another closed door between the smelling officers and the stuff. The tent was closed with a fan and a carbon filter on and the other stash was as mentioned kept in an air tight jar (the ounce of weed) and the cookie cans with drying leaves (hardly any thc in them or smell from them) was kept under a pile of clothing in a closet with a closed door. All windows was closed.
4. Prior to checking my hallway, they checked to two other hallways in the building for over an hour. There are totally 3 hallways with 12 apartments each (2*6 floors) in the building. This leads me to the conclusion that this was a random search based on social profiling (there are mostly families and 40+ people living in the building except me and a few others)

My claim is that it is physically impossible to detect a "strong smell of cannabis" under these conditions and that the search therefore is illegal.

Looking for anyone with experience, information, advice on how/if I can prove my claim and use this to get out of legal problems!

Thnx
 
Norway, I checking into laws for searches without a court order now. Seems like there is a strict demand to probable cause to conduct such a search. I just cant find that they had any of such. Prior to this I had no criminal record ever.
 
I'm really sorry to hear of your troubles but the fact is people who smoke/vape weed can sometimes be oblivious to how much it smells. Just tending your plants covers your clothing in weed molecules that u can't smell but others can. I know you don't need lesson here but what I'm trying to get to is you won't beat this on the smell issue. Just get the best lawyer you can afford--and best wishes for a dismissed case.
 
I just watched a video of an ex DEA who quit because of all the ugly that is involved in their job. I'm sure a lot of you know about him..can't think of his name but he's from Dallas Texas and all over YouTube. It's very interesting (and sad) hearing the things that go on behind the scenes but he said, "cops lie and I lied a lot to get the job done". He said it didn't matter whether it held up in court to them because they got their credit and adrenaline rush. Damage done. Hope you got it worked out in your favor. So sorry you had to go through this.
 
In the US and other parts of the world, you are entitled to a 'discovery' process. This is basically where you request what the coppers have or used as their basis for the arrest. While you probably won't see exactly who snitched on you in discovery, often it will become clear as to what initiated the call; something like numerous calls from other tenants or strong odors reported, etc. Check your local laws.

Sage
 
I got busted with approx an ounce of weed stored in an air tight jar, three cookie cans with lids on containing approx 1/2 ounce of dried leafes

Any non-consumers smell your sealed containers? Cannabis sort of fades into the background after a while of constant sensory immersion, so the fact that YOU couldn't smell anything does not guarantee that no one could.

and a 4*4 tent with a 600HPS dimmed to 400W and one plant 20 inch tall still vegging.

What strain was it? And what kind of shape was your carbon filter setup in? An old filter, improperly-sized fan, lack of negative pressure in the grow area... any of that can cause "filter failure." And I've had small plants that reeked before.

The police claimed that strong cannabis smell was the reason for the search without a court order. Three police officers went in.

Smell is usually a valid reason for a search. In some jurisdictions, there is an intermediary step (IOW, the smell is considered to be valid grounds for a search warrant).

They did not use dogs just humans to "detect the smell"

Unless your fan/filter setup is golden, people really can detect the odor of cannabis. The smell can escape an apartment, an apartment building, a house, et cetera.

The door frames in the hallway had been painted the same day and it still smelled strong from drying paint outside my door.

So you're stating that the apartment building didn't smell like cannabis, it smelled like cannabis and paint?

Many odors are additive - you end up smelling all of them, not just the strongest.

Additionally, do you know for sure that the "smelling" happened the same day that the search did? In the United States, it is not unusual for people to get busted some time after they've been caught (at whatever they were doing). Among other reasons, if they have reason to suspect criminal activity, they can start monitoring who comes and goes, then they have more people to pay attention to.

Prior to checking my hallway, they checked to two other hallways in the building for over an hour. There are totally 3 hallways with 12 apartments each (2*6 floors) in the building. This leads me to the conclusion that this was a random search based on social profiling (there are mostly families and 40+ people living in the building except me and a few others)

That causes me to think maybe the police had received multiple complaints from one or more residents of the apartment building. At that point, they've got strong suspicion - but they have no specific address. So they start looking. Could be your neighbors... smelled you out in the past. Could be one of your other neighbors was the one and you just happened to have the dumb luck to live in the same building. Regrettably, that's just one of the downsides of choosing to live in a multi-family structure - other people live there, too. You have to worry about not only what activities of yours that they might notice, but also about the things that they, themselves, do that could cause negative attention.

Smell is a tough one to beat. It is somewhat difficult to prove a negative. The LEO, OtOH, can always say, "Yes, I smelled cannabis. Went I went inside, I discovered the cannabis that I smelled from outside." You would have to prove that he did NOT smell cannabis - which would be even more difficult than proving that the LEO did not smell YOUR cannabis, lol. You could, in theory, prove the former. Proving the latter would pretty much amount to proving that there was no cannabis in the other apartments and/or common spaces. In order to do that, every other apartment would have had to have been searched, and searched at the same time that yours was. At some point, things get so extreme that you wouldn't be allowed to continue with that line - the word "circus" comes to mind. But even if the theoretical became real and you were both given the opportunity to prove such things AND managed to do so...

...the LEO can then say, "Oh well. Someone must have smoked cannabis in the hallway outside the apartment in question prior to my arrival and the smell lingered. Wasn't it our good luck that it just happened to be outside a cannabis grow operation?" Because, again, proof that YOUR cannabis, specifically, caused the smell is not required, AfaIK.

Good luck! I hope you can get probation or a small fine. Having the charges dropped would be even better of course....
 
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