Passenger Busted, But It's Not His Paraphernalia - Can The Case Be Dismissed?

[haugen]

Indiana, my son (21 yrs old) was a passenger with his friend who was driving the car owned by the friend. They were pulled over for not having headlights on at night. Car was searched and found paraphernalia in the car. Officer places my son in back of squad car. Officer interrogates friend/driver/car owner. Officer lets friend/driver go and arrests my son for "reckless paraphernalia". After my son was in jail, additional charges of possession of marijuana were tacked on after "seeds and stems" were found in his wallet. We bonded him out and court date is coming up. My son has no job, so he should be entitled to a free court appointed defense lawyer. My question is, since the car was not his, and he was not the driver, and the initial finding of paraphernalia was in the car and not on his person, can the case be dropped? The seeds and stems were found in the jail, not at the arrest scene after the fact. I don't even understand why my son was arrested in the first place. His friend/driver has previous convictions of drug possession, so we are figuring he lied to avoid being arrested. Should a decent court appointed lawyer get my son off?

[Mr. Knowitall]

A car can be pulled over for driving at night with no lights. You have not explained why the car was searched, so we cannot comment on the validity of the search. Your son can discuss that with his lawyer.

Assuming the search was proper, the discovery of drug paraphernalia would give probable cause to arrest somebody (one, the other, or both) for drug paraphernalia. It further appears that the drug paraphernalia was proximate to your son, given that the officer put him in the squad car before talking to the driver. You can fill in the details if you choose. If the arrest was lawful, the subsequent search is incident to arrest and is also proper.

Your son is obviously using marijuana, and hanging out with other people who use drugs, so there should be no surprise to either of you that he ended up getting arrested for a drug offense.

His lawyer can evaluate the search, arrest, and possible plea bargains.