Bad Cops (legal question)

So recently i had a friend who was arrested. He has a very bad reputation in my town, mainly because he has parties at his house and is a little wild. In general, there is little to no drug use in his house (unless you consider alcohol as a drug).

So he was arrested for "having a party where controlled substances were being used." The supposed party took place 2 months ago and there is absolutely no physical evidence to support this. The cops, when asked if they had a warrant for his arrest, could not show the warrant and said, "Do you think we carry around those things?"

Also, the cops have never shown up at his house and there has never been a noise complaint.

I live in a small town and it's plausible the cops are doing something wrong here. Does anyone know if this was harassment or in some way unlwaful for the police to do this to my friend?

Thanks

Your friend should talk to his lawyer to see if he really has a case for harassment.

If there is no warrant the judge will throw this out if it gets to court.

this is a good question for FTR's very own transvestite lawyer-to-be

There is WAY too much information missing for me or anyone else to have any sort of informed opinion on the matter. You need to be way more specific.

I'm not in the crim part of my review yet, but from what I remember the cops don't need a warrant to arrest someone, all they need is probable cause.

The best advice I can give to anyone who gets arrested in a shady situation with the cops is simply to obey their commands (even if you know they're wrong) and don't say a fricking word (other than to say you are employing your right to remain silent, and that you'd like to speak to an attorney before talking to them).

Your friend also has a right to know exactly what he is being charged with - cuz although possession of controlled substances is possibly an offence in your state, having a party is not.

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Originally Posted by euphoricism

There is WAY too much information missing for me or anyone else to have any sort of informed opinion on the matter. You need to be way more specific.

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I'm leaving some things out cause a lot of the info is private and although it's anonymous i just don't feel comfortable.

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Originally Posted by chardrian

Your friend also has a right to know exactly what he is being charged with - cuz although possession of controlled substances is possibly an offence in your state, having a party is not.

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The charge was having a party where controlled substances were used, i'm pretty sure. So it just seems really bogus... especially because they also charged his girlfriend whose name isn't on the lease of the house.

Im not really sure what youre talking about here, but... If I was to *guess* what could be happening...

Your buddy had a party. People smoked pot at the party. Your buddy knew about it and did nothing to stop it. Someone got busted for something stupid and said he got the pot at the party your buddy was hosting. A warrant was issued for your buddies arrest. He was pulled over for some stupid traffic infraction, they ran his name, found he had a warrant, and was arrested. His girlfriends arrest is odd, though if she lives or has lived with him for a significant period of time so much that they could reasonably believe it wasnt "his" party it was "their" party, that would explain it. Who actually owns the home isn't particularly relevant.

All of that would be on the up and up, and not terribly uncommon.

Allowing people to do illegal things in your house is indeed a crime, and if someone comes forward as a witness / whistleblower, it's probably chargable. Pleading out of it would be a no brainer, and it probably wouldn't hold up in court. But I'd really need to know what state you're talking about to try and find the actual statute.

Eupho the cops just busted into his house and arrested him. Well, not busted, they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in.

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Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan

Eupho the cops just busted into his house and arrested him. Well, not busted, they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in.

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*sigh*

Well, that works too. Replace "pulled over for traffic offense" with "cops came to front door, homeowner says 'HOW YA DOIN? COME ON IN!!'"

Really, nothing "bad cop" goin on here. Homeowner allowed people to do illegal things in his home. Someone ratted on him. Police knocked on his door, were let in, and told him he was under arrest for aforementioned crime.

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Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan

Eupho the cops just busted into his house and arrested him. Well, not busted, they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in.

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lol they were not let in. We're not retarded.

the real problem is the ridiculousness of our drug policy.

^^^^^

bingo

I'm high on life.

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Originally Posted by stupid cop

What don't you understand about being arrested?

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this is actually what they said after being asked what he was under arrest for.

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Originally Posted by Massimo

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Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan

Eupho the cops just busted into his house and arrested him. Well, not busted, they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in.

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lol they were not let in. We're not retarded.

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THEN HOW THE FUCK DID THEY ARREST HIM?

Especially since two posts before this you wrote " they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in."

Lol at this thread - are you sure this is a "friend", Max ;)

Oh my god it really isnt that complicated. the pigs knocked on the door. we cracked the blind to see who it was. we told the owners of the house that the cops were there. they came down and talked to them on the porch, and were arrested for hosting a house where illegal drugs are taken or something like that (although they didn't say that at the time). and also there were no illegal drugs in the house or any being done at the time of arrest.

Analysis: we live in a town of 12,000 and the cops obv have nothing better to do than bust party houses. the cops really want to bust this house because they have at least 3 parties there that last through the night on a given week. however the cops can never do anything about because the neighbors are very chill. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: the cops hate them because of it and they want to arrest them for anything, but they couldn't, so it seems blatant to me that they picked some stupid charge that wont hold up (although im sure they would like it to) to send a message to them.

It doesn't matter if there was nothing illicit going on at the time the cops showed up (if that were the case the cops would have to show up at the time every crime were being committed to make an arrest). All the cops need is probable cause to make an arrest. The cops could have gotten probable cause from numerous sources (an actual investigation, a snitch, a narc, whatever). Problem is, you don't know what the coppers got on you. That is why you need to shut up if/when you are ever arrested. Because the beauty of our system (at least the beautiful part for defendants) is that the state has to tell you what they have on you at some relatively soon future point, so you can just shut up until they tell you, and then figure out what your best plan of action is.

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Originally Posted by euphoricism

Especially since two posts before this you wrote " they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in."

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Originally Posted by ISF

Eupho the cops just busted into his house and arrested him. Well, not busted, they knocked on the door and i guess were eventually let in.

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no i didn't.

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Originally Posted by chardrian

It doesn't matter if there was nothing illicit going on at the time the cops showed up (if that were the case the cops would have to show up at the time every crime were being committed to make an arrest). All the cops need is probable cause to make an arrest. The cops could have gotten probable cause from numerous sources (an actual investigation, a snitch, a narc, whatever). Problem is, you don't know what the coppers got on you. That is why you need to shut up if/when you are ever arrested. Because the beauty of our system (at least the beautiful part for defendants) is that the state has to tell you what they have on you at some relatively soon future point, so you can just shut up until they tell you, and then figure out what your best plan of action is.

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this was pretty much the advice the lawyer gave him.

Char we seriously need like an ask char a legal question thread.

I want to see the look on the face of the first person to ask Char a legal question when they get an invoice for $400.

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Originally Posted by wufwugy

I'm high on jesus.

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FYP

Jesus IS life, ducy?