I will try to make this as short as possible. A friend and his girlfriend were visiting with my boyfriend at his house one Saturday morning. The friends son called and a heated discussion took place between the two concerning a 9mm pistol that the father supposedly stole from the son's house hours earlier. I believe that the son said something about calling the police and the couple decided to leave and go try to talk to the son.
Immediately after walking out the front door, Heath police were present (even though we live in Rockwall and no Rockwall police were present). The girlfriend supposedly reached in her pocket, pulled out a small bag that supposedly contained "ice" and dropped it on the ground. The police saw this and arrested her. They searched her boyfriend, as he was the burglary suspect, and found a small amount of marijuana; naturally, he was also arrested.
The police searched their vehicles that were in my boyfriend's driveway. A couple of hours after they first arrived, they wanted to come into the house and "secure" it. They didn't have a warrant and when my boyfriend attempted to exercise his rights and not consent to a search of his home, the Special Crimes Task Force officer became beligerantly irate. They had us both in the front yard, made their sweep of the house, and found noone else to be in there which could be of any danger to them.
My boyfriend, although extremely hesitant, signed the consent, mainly due to the threats from the Special Crimes head guy. They made me sign it to although I do not live there.
Consequently, they found roughly 3 oz of meth and roughly 4 lbs of marijuana in an open safe. They never found the gun. My boyfriend was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Does everything I have stated sound kosher? Isn't there some kind of reasonable expectation of privacy? Could the threats by the officer have any substance in coercion? Did Heath police have a right to be here to begin with?
Isn't a protective sweep all that was necessary to ensure their safety?
Any type of input, positive or negative, will be greatly appreciated.
Kristi Love

