6th Degree Misdemeanor Involving Controlled Substance

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Alaska

So I was a passenger in a vehicle driven by a friend. We got pulled over outside of city limits by state troopers for having a "defective windshield" the troopers proceeded to search our vehicle and cuff us when they found a marijuana pipe despite there being no marijuana except residue on the pipe. So then one of the troopers without showing either of us the marijuana pipe said that hey had found a "pipe" they asked us who's it was, i said it was mine. Then they issued me a citation for a 4th degree misdemeanor involving a controlled substance. I went to my arraignment and received a copy of the citation that was fully filled out and "4th" was crossed out and replaced with "6th." They offered me a deal to plead guilty, It was 1 year "suspended imposition of sentence", 500$ fine, and I believe 40 hours community service. I rejected by pleading not guilty.

So now I have a fast approaching court date and I'm not sure what to do. I'd like to defend myself in court. But I'm afraid of making things worse. Is it possible to plead guilty at this point? I want to go to a university that requires a background check and security clearance. Would the SiS misdemeanor charge still show up after the year, I've heard that they will. I will pass a drug test and have never failed one, I've had to take them periodically for jobs. Is it possible to fight this case and win? I want to defend myself by saying that I misidentified the pipe as mine since the officers never showed it to me and described it incorrectly as a "pipe" instead of a "marijuana pipe" when asking me about it. Will it be possible for me to get a jury if i go to trial with this? Should I take a jury if i have the option. Could I win? Could I claim religious association with the pipe, or get off on some other technicality. I do not mind taking the punishment for this at all. I just do not want a "drug charge" because i believe it will keep me from getting into this school i really want to go to. Aside from this my Criminal, Driving, and Credit records are clean.

It's possible to plead guilty to a criminal charge; but first see if the prosecutor's offering a plea bargain (or have a lawyer do that for you). You can expect that an arrest and criminal charge will show up on your criminal record, whatever the disposition. Your defense to the charge would be what, given that you stated that the pipe was yours? If you think there are grounds to suppress the fruits of the search, I suggest teaming up with a lawyer.

I am going to go over this step by step with you in a portrayal example of your case, which is by the way, an absolute total waste of taxpayer money
The first thing I will say is this: Dont worry about your case. They are going to drop it. The people will not prosecute you for canibus pipe residue. Something like meth or cocaine or heroin is different. Low / no weight cannibus cases are a waste of the court's time, in just about any state. We are not in Utah in 1964 anymore. Even Alaska. It's time them old hard ass boys got with the rest of the country a little more
If it was not dropped (which it will be)
The police will need to describe how they recognised that your winshield was broken. You generally will need to be pretty close to tell a windshield is broken. at night, the only thing they could say is that they saw the crack in a light reflection. There will have to be lights around from other cars or street lights then. A cross exam can easily fry them by asking where they saw the reflection middle, left, right, or cant remember, either way they are toast. What is great to follow would be a question like if they could by chance mention anything at all specific about the vehicle. Condition or markings on it as there was some profound identifiing characteristics of the vehicle. They will probably say no. So the attorney might say'so you noticed a fine 2 1/2 inch crack (holding a picture of a 2 1/2 inch cracked windshield) in the corner of the windshield, he will say yes even though he saw the reflection from the (wherever) of the windshield. The expert attorney (if they have time in the court) will say to the officer "say, you know what a smiley is right?" (they will say yes)"of course, everyone knows what a smiley is and I wont ask whether or not you like them as he holds up a picture of a large one pasted on the back windshield of a car and say "you do remember and noticed a 3 inch crack in the corner of a front windshield form behind a car but don't recall the 7 inch smiley that says have a nice day on the back windshield? Even when you were behind the vehicle?" "Did you bring a copy of the patrol unit's tape with you to court?" [(they did not) they don't bring them to court, the DA does] The attorney might flush him down the tubes by holding up both pics and say "which seems more noticable to you now?"
They would certainly never let it get that far and the DA will throw it out the moment they see even a public defender on it.

Now the most amazing part of all in the case is how this 3 inch crack leads to having reasonable cause to even ask for permission to search. Are there correllating statistics that link bad windshields to possesion of a pipe containing class 6 residue of a drug? Did he detect a smell of the residue? Were drug dogs called? If so were they barking as if they were signaling? Is not that the proper procedure? Where was the pipe located? Were the detainees allowed to visually see the officers conduct the search?
If you were held in a patrol unit, that could pretty much give them an ability to "find" (do) anything. (There is no way they can have a reasonable cause to even ask to search) no less conduct one and without it in your view of them unless you are violent. The exception would be if you just finished smoking some and it was on your breath. They will have had to say that they smell it on you. but you would have to reek from it. Even that is beatable.

These are just some examples. There is no way that they will go anywhere with this. no way. If you got a presription for it in the meantime too...forget it, not even a cold day in hell will bring this case to the box.

Go to the DA and simply ask them if they will please ever so kindly drop the case. If they say no, that is fine. Then say that's ok but can I please have your card for THE attorney. They will ask who your attorney is. Just say I'm not sure which one my dad will retain on this, but he is an attorney himself and he's making sure I learned a lesson. Be respectful. say:The officers did bully us quite a bit and he is not happy with something about searching a windshield ticket. He said we deserved it but they pushed it pretty far throwing us in the back of the police car and tearing up his car. He said it's most likely that I will be paying for that. I had an old pipe of mine in there that I forgot all about . He told me to come here and ask if you would drop the case. If they say "what if I dont?" just say please sir I dont want my dad involved with this any more than he already is. (Niether do they because essentially it is a losing case) say... I had to pay to get the interior fixed already. If they give you a hard time tell them all I have in my wallet is fifty bucks and I am willing to make a donation to the witness protection program with it to show good faith to the systembecause I don't want to take up court time.

If they dont drop this joke by then, either there is something you are not mentioning. Or you are looking at a DA that will last about 2 weeks on the job.

A traffic stop itself gives no reasonable cause to search. If during the traffic stop a reasonable cause is established, standard procedure would be for the vehicle operator to be informed that the said cause exists and a search will be conducted. Bloodshot eyes is not, nor is smoke unless the smoke is identified to create the cause.
The state's case is very weak by the information given. By what means may they prosecute? The fruits of an illegal search? Plenty Lexis-Nexis on S & S rights as this.

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Quoting worried_idealist

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Is it possible to fight this case and win? I want to defend myself by saying that I misidentified the pipe as mine since the officers never showed it to me and described it incorrectly as a "pipe" instead of a "marijuana pipe" when asking me about it.

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Won't fly. Retractions, unless proven without question, are never believable.

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Will it be possible for me to get a jury if i go to trial with this? Should I take a jury if i have the option. Could I win?

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You are entitled to a jury trial for any offense punishable by jail time. Can you win? An unanswerable Q.

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Could I claim religious association with the pipe, or get off on some other technicality.

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Religious, NO! Other, who knows.


IF you believe the search violated the 4th AM, you or your attorney can move to suppress the "fruit of the poisonous tree"!

Many elements can create PC to search. The "automobile exception" to the 4th AM permits a search without a warrant when PC exists to do so.

IF a pipe was found on a person outside the car, it is very likely it provided PC to search the passenger compartment.