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  1. #1

    Default Possesion of Handgun under Exile Law

    Hi,

    My boyfriend was arrested for possession of a handgun. He is a convicted one time non-violent felon. The gun in question was planted on him by a crooked police officer that had arrested him in a previous charge but was thrown out do to racial profiling and illegal search and seizure. With this current charge of possesion he falls under Maryland's Exile Law which was recently adapted about 3 years ago.

    His attorney is telling him that if he gets the courts to drop the case; the FEDS might pick it up! The state has postponned the case since February 17, 2007 to the current. I believe they don't have enough evidence or probable cause for the charge itself. In the statement of charges the police officers said that he was grabbing at his waist was the reason for the original stop. But what i dont understand is he was walking into a residential area; he could of been retrieving keys or even trying to access his cell phone. Do you think this was probable cause enough to stop someone? In my opinion they stopped him because they knew him and that he fit the profile of a drug dealer by the clothes that he was wearing. (White teeshirt and baggy jeans)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    5,437

    Default Re: Possesion of Handgun under Exile Law

    Q: Do you think this was probable cause enough to stop someone?

    A: Yes.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: Possesion of Handgun under Exile Law

    This reminds me of a conversation I was a party to, primarily between older police officers waiting to transfer prisoners from the court back to jail, in which one commented, "Back when I started if we wanted to send somebody to prison for a long time, somebody would plant a gun on him. Now everybody carries guns." The argument that the police planted a gun on somebody is as hard to prove as ever, but the officer is correct - it's a lot less likely than in the past, because most of the bad actors the police really want to get off of the street are armed when they are arrested.

    I can see how an officer, seeing an individual grab at the waist of their baggy jeans, would consider that the person might be adjusting a handgun that was slipping down through the waistband, and how that could be deemed sufficient cause to do a Terry stop and weapons frisk. You generally would carry keys or a cell phone in your pocket, not your waistband.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Possesion of Handgun under Exile Law

    Well i can see what you mean as far as keys being in the pocket. But optimistically speaking some people do have car keys clipped to their belt loop. But cell phones are widely being carried on the waist in clips or little pouches that connect to the belt around the waist. But none the less; this could be considered probable cause; what would could be suggested that the defendant do in a situation like this?

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