How Can a Driver Prove He Wasn't Aware of Drugs Inside of the Car

My question involves criminal law for the state of: SC

My husband and I live in SC with our daughter who will be 2 in March, and my disabled daughter from a previous relationship who is 19, and has several disorders, including a form of autism, that makes it impossible for her to care for herself as an average person of that age. My husband, we'll call him Mo to protect his identity, is 48 years old. He's a friendly, good guy all around and a very hard worker. He met a young woman at his former place of employment last year who he has tried to take under his wing, so to speak, and help her "get her life together". She had recently moved to the area after being released from prison and placed on probation in GA. I'm only giving this back information because it became a big part of everything later on....and this has been the most difficult situation for my family, so I apologize if I sound as scattered as I feel....

She started to back pedal and despite efforts from us, her other friends, and her family, she began to spiral back into the drug use that led her to prison in the first place, resulting in her serving 2 weeks for violating probation, and an order from the PO to immediately return to GA, no longer having permission to live in SC. While helping her to move her furniture and belongings from her apartment, she disappeared with someone else. We found her the next day in jail, along with the friend. She had only just been released from jail in GA on Friday before, and this was Wed night. Thursday she got out of jail and agreed that she needed help, needed rehab and needed to talk to her PO to tell him etc. My husband made arrangements to drive her the next morning to a treatment center. I spoke with her mother and she was relieved that we could do that since she was raising the girl's daughter, who is a minor and unaware of all of this.

Friday morning, Jo and "Jane" (we'll call her) left for a women's center near Atlanta that would provide her services that she needed. She did not decide to stay there. She told Jo to take her to her hometown, but her mom had already expressed that she would not give her shelter or have her around the child. She decided to go just north to another town where she'd stayed with friends after completing a rehab program before moving to OUR town. Long story short, she had Jo take her several places, and was unable to find a place to stay (or so she said) and she finally ended up speaking to the person she'd just been arrested with Wed night. So Jo had to turn around and make an almost 6 hour drive back home, and it was getting late, after not really accomplishing anything. About 2 hours from home, and close to 2 am(14hrs on the road at this point), he was pulled over for speeding.

Jo figured "no big deal". He recognized that he was speeding, but was not concerned about a ticket. Jane was still in the car, and she called me saying they'd been stopped and that she'd call back. 3 hours later, I get a call from Jo at the jail, they've both been arrested and were held. Charges weren't filed until another 12-13 hours later. Jo said they'd found a bag of something under her seat along with a couple pipes, and that the officers tested it and it wasn't returning results as ANY of the drugs on the panel. Jo explained the situation and told officers he had no knowledge of any illicit drugs, but they were both arrested anyway and charged, finally, with "Trafficking crack/cocaine freebase", even though it was not cocaine/crack or any other known substance (meth, heroin, etc).
Jo has a checkered past, from over 20 years ago when he was still in his early 20s and he got into some trouble. He served almost 14 yrs in prison for burglary and other related charges, and has been a model citizen since then. He has paid his debt for those mistakes, and even relocated to another state to ensure he didn't run into the same circles of friends that kept him in trouble as a teenager and into his young adult years.

The "drugs" were found under her seat and the other stuff ON her persons.

How likely is it that he can tell the truth in court and show that he had no idea about the substance under her seat? She had been in so much trouble already, and even her mother called the investigators of the case and spoke with them about the case, telling them that Jo was just doing a favor and she had no doubt her daughter was behind any fraud, drugs, or missing money. She even asked if they could consider pulling the charges from Jo and letting Jane be responsible & accept them.

What would help him with this for court? Would statements from family/friends aware of her problem be of any help with a character witness type thing?:concern::concern: We had been struggling financially just before this happened, and this is devastating any chance we MAY have had to get caught up and ahead after paying money for bail and impound/towing fees for the vehicle....My logic is, if he had over 2oz of ANYTHING on him, knowing my husband, I can't imagine he would have just kept going even a little over the speedometer if he'd known his precious freedom could have been at stake, much less end up going 93 in a 70. To me, no logical person would do that, so I felt like it aided his defense. Should he trust a public defender to handle this case or do we really need to find some way to come up with money for a hired lawyer? I'm freaking out because I don't want to see our family torn apart and forced to struggle while he has his freedom unfairly ripped away during his baby's formative years when she is much too young to understand why he just suddenly went away one day and didn't come home...what things do we need to do to prepare for court? And what do you think could happen during this trial? Does he have a leg to stand on at all or.....is this something that could take him away from us for a very long time?

PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME! I NEED ANY INFORMATION YOU CAN GIVE ME!!:wallbang: I'm just praying that the truth can be seen by the judge, but I also realize that there's a possibility that he won't even look for it....Not to mention the unidentified substance that has been labeled as multiple different drugs but not actually named yet..

We can't give your husband the kind of help he needs from here. He needs to either learn to trust his PD, or to hire an attorney.

EE is right. He very much needs a lawyer. Nothing you've said is the least bit exculpatory:

1. "It isn't mine" and "I didn't know it was there" is a lousy defense to possession charges.
2. The fact that he was speeding isn't exculpatory. People speed when carrying contraband all the time (it's how NASCAR got started).
3. Drug dealers are often in the company of drug users.

Being that Jane did not accept responsibility for the drugs at the time of the arrest, I don't think she will tell the court that the drugs were hers and not your husbands. That is the only way your husband can clean this slate and get this behind him.

How much of the drug was found? Drug addicts don't carry trafficking amounts of drugs with them, that is because when they have drugs they use them...

Maybe you don't know your husband as well as you thought you did. Drug dealers tend to have a drug addict with them while running drugs to pin the drugs on the addict if they get caught. Maybe Jane didn't follow through with your husbands plan?

I appreciate your honesty. To respond to WhosThatGuy, my husband and I have one of the most honest relationships that I think any couple could have. And, NO, I'm not just saying that to save face or to imply that he's some kind of saint. He isn't. But, considering the amount of time that we are together, and the fact that we have shared his phone, AND the fact that Jane and I were extremely close ourselves, and I speak regularly to her mother, there wouldn't be a lot that I was unaware of. Furthermore, her mother and sister have been contacted by a childhood friend of Jane's (who is a known drug dealer) and references have been made to money he is owed by Jane for drugs, as well as some very frightening references to the types of people that he deals with..but I will not elaborate here. A person is calling her family for money she owes him for drugs. Period. I can get a statement at the least from her mother.
Having said that, my husband is a maintenance man/contractor. He was not charged with anything like this EVER in his 48 years. The worst he's had was a possession charge in 1988 and that was marijuana, NOT hard drugs like cocaine/crack or meth. The charges, as they were told to me, were for crack cocaine (freebase), but Jane said that she was told crank and Jo was told methamphetamines. So, some type of stimulant in the amount of between 1 oz and just over 2 oz. I have been given 3 different weights upon speaking with them, Jane's mother was told 2 different weights, neither of which match any of the ones I've heard, and my husband was given the range listed on the charge over 28 but less than 100. So that is apparently up for debate.
Jane has used dealing as a way to support her own habit. She'd confided that to me when we first met, before she started using again. She had lived in another state and part of the reason she moved here was to be away from the people she knew that had connections to get her back into that lifestyle. She was going to a rehab center an hour or so out from her hometown so that she could be near her family and daughter, but, we didn't think about the possibility of her picking up a bag full of dope. Jo considered leaving her in GA and refusing to let her back into the car, but her mother had stated she would not pick her up or offer any help bc the daughter is in her home and can't be subjected to Jane's behavior, which I agree with. He thought he could just get her somewhere safe instead of leaving the girl in the middle of nowhere in a place she has nobody to turn to. He made a fatal mistake in that. He and I have a stable home life outside from dealing with Jane. Neither of us have anything in our past that comes even close to charges such as these. There has to be a way to show character in cases like these, right? To show that he is a hard working family oriented man who has not gotten into trouble since his release 7 years ago, and she is an unstable younger drug addicted girl with MULTIPLE charges, incarcerations in several counties/states, and several failed rehab visits in the past 7 years...wouldn't it suffice to say that she is the MORE LIKELY candidate for who actually knew about the stuff?

You're right, flyingron. Those very points are what we've been talking at home about. He feels trapped in many ways by the charges, and he knows what his chances are of proving anything with her not claiming the stuff. She is saying (from what we've been told) that she doesn't know what the substance is. It still has not been identified.
The speeding, you have a point about as well, but he was going 93 in a 70 (or 65) and it just seems to me that speeding is one thing, but not paying enough attention to notice THAT rate of speed while you're carrying illegal substances seems to me to be rather stupid. Especially for a man who is nearing 50, and has spent time in prison before so is very aware of what he'd be giving up if he were to be pulled over. A man who has a baby at home that he absolutely adores, and a wife that he loves dearly and who relies on him in so many ways. He's the type of man who would do ANYTHING for his family, and that comes first to him. Would it be a stretch to say that by proving those characteristics about him may show that it wouldn't be in his character to put all of that on the line and speed recklessly with illicit substances in the car?

Yeah, people who do and sell dopd DO some very stupid things while holding dope. Just two nights ago, there was a guy smoking weed in a hospital restroom while holding meth for sale ... and then there was the guy who was driving a car without license plates while carrying bricks of hashish in the trunk of his car.

The point is, the fact that he was breaking the law by speeding is hardly proof that he was not consciously transporting controlled substances.

"Character" witnesses might be good for sentencing, but they are rarely able to brought into play as part of a criminal prosecution unless these folks are also direct witnesses to some element of the offense alleged.

Either there is more to this tale than you are aware, or your husband is a gullible fellow who allowed himself to be used by a drug addict who saw someone she could manipulate to do as she wished. In any event, he needs to engage and listen to his attorney and avoid talking about the matter to anyone else but his attorney.

Your husband needs a very good lawyer;

I didn't see what state he was actually arrested in

Georgia

Quote:

---

A) If the quantity of the cocaine or the mixture involved is 28 grams or more, but less than 200 grams, the person shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of ten years and shall pay a fine of $200,000.00;

---

for South Carolina:

Quote:

---

(2) twenty-eight grams or more, but less than one hundred grams:

---

Quote:

---

(a) for a first offense, a term of imprisonment of not less than seven years nor more than twenty-five years, no part of which may be suspended nor probation granted, and a fine of fifty thousand dollars;

---

2 ounces is a tad over 56 grams. Notice the MANDATORY minimum time of 10 years AND a fine of $200,000.00 in Georgia and the 7 years and $50,000. That's some serious penalties.


But if this is a South Carolina issue, why was he bringing her back to South Carolina when she was not allowed to leave Georgia? That alone could be a serious argument against Mo/Jo as it appears he really didn't have intent of delivering the girl to Georgia. All the driving around is surely suspicious as well. Nice is nice but driving hours upon hours to see if she could stay with whomever was at the other end of the journey? Seriously? And never leaving her anywhere in Georgia? If this doesn't sounds like a salesmans delivery route I don't what would.

Quote:

---

Quoting syykkogrl

---

The speeding, you have a point about as well, but he was going 93 in a 70 (or 65) and it just seems to me that speeding is one thing, but not paying enough attention to notice THAT rate of speed while you're carrying illegal substances seems to me to be rather stupid. Especially for a man who is nearing 50, and has spent time in prison before so is very aware of what he'd be giving up if he were to be pulled over. A man who has a baby at home that he absolutely adores, and a wife that he loves dearly and who relies on him in so many ways. He's the type of man who would do ANYTHING for his family, and that comes first to him. Would it be a stretch to say that by proving those characteristics about him may show that it wouldn't be in his character to put all of that on the line and speed recklessly with illicit substances in the car?

---

If he was in Georgia, the Super Speeder law also applies.

Your husband was making stoopid decisions all over the place. :hopelessness:

Quote:

---

Quoting syykkogrl

---

The speeding, you have a point about as well, but he was going 93 in a 70 (or 65) and it just seems to me that speeding is one thing, but not paying enough attention to notice THAT rate of speed while you're carrying illegal substances seems to me to be rather stupid.

---

As previously mentioned, speeding is not unheard of in these situations.

Quote:

---

Quoting syykkogrl

---

He's the type of man who would do ANYTHING for his family, and that comes first to him.

---

Sounds like someone I know. He was trying to provide for his new family and wound up running some drugs to make extra money. He wound up doing a nickel in state prison when he got caught, then 10 more on parole. Oh, this was in GA too by the way.

Quote:

---

Quoting syykkogrl

---

Would it be a stretch to say that by proving those characteristics about him may show that it wouldn't be in his character to put all of that on the line and speed recklessly with illicit substances in the car?

---

As you can see from my story above, even those with wonderful character can go astray.

I'm going to answer your question, can he prove that he didn't know about the drugs in the car, in one word; no. He cannot prove it.