anyone know a thing or two about the law?

Question

my brother just got pulled over and got busted with a weed pipe. the officer told him he was pulled over because he dident match the description of the owner of the vehicle.
the cars in his girlfreinds name. anyways ive asked a couple people if this was propable cause to pull him over in the first place and they said no. ......does anyone know if there allowed to do this?

Answer 1

The probably cause is pretty weak and if he did not have any weed, just the pipe then it is going to be hard to charge him with anything. Especially, if he brings up the point that the pipe could have belonged to his girlfriend.

If he has to go to court on this then he can get a lawyer and beat the charge because of the shaky grounds. The probably cause was weak, he can't prove a crime was committed (since there was no weed), and he can't prove who intended to use that pipe.

Answer 2

Most everyone who grows up knows a thing or two about the law or maybe a hundred things.

One rule of thumb ... sometimes the law is an .
It does not have to make sense, or be logical.
Because the legislature or Congress is constantly passing new laws, to try to show to the voters that they are earning the humongous money they get for winning the lottery of getting elected ... these various laws that they pass, do not need to make any sense, or logically blend in with earlier laws that they passed.

Has your brother always been scrupulously honest with you and your family, or does he sometimes tell a white lie to cover up when he gets in trouble. How about you ... are you always 100% honest?

If you were not in the car, you really do not know what the police officer said. You may notice in the news that from time to time someone got arrested ... they were an axe murderer, they serial raped, had 10 wives in 10 cities ... and almost every time the family and neighbors say "what a nice guy, we can't believe it" and that is because the accused person always has an innocent story.

Some people really are innocent, then we have a ton of guilty people pretending to be innocent. So maybe your brother did something wrong, and is covering it up by pretending the police officer said something crazy.

Now anyone can give permission to anyone else to drive their car.

The police are very busy ... they do not pull every car over ...unless it was a road block.

Perhaps there was a road block to check if people wearing seat belts, perhaps they thought your brother was driving recklessly, perhaps there was a busted tail light, perhaps he did not signal properly ... SOMETHING happened

you do not know what it was, if you were not in the car.

Answer 3

If his girlfriend has been pulled over before then they could have ran a license plate check on the vehicle and pulled over your bro for that reason. Now the weed pipe may not have had anything in it therefore the police wouldn't have any right to bust him for that reason in other words no drugs no bust. If the weed pipe did have drugs in it however that can be a drug crime especially if your bro had taken a hit from it and was driving while high. Or he could have been speeding or breaking some other road law, rule etc...

Answer 4

I see this a lot at my job. A defendant THINKS that the cop told him everything and usually, that's not the case. Sometimes a person (his girlfriend) has a bad license. If a cop runs that plate, HER LICENSE may pop up as the driver of the car and the cop then may have PC to make a stop. So there may be a number of factors which enabled a legitimate V&T stop and I'd strongly doubt your bro is going to get off on a technicallity, unless he takes it to trial. No one EVER takes MJ cases to trial. Not in the time I've been a prosecutor at least.

PS. If he has no priors, its likely that he may get what's called an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal if they have that in your state. Its like saying to the court, if I behave for 6 months or a year, the case will be dismissed as if it never happened.

Answer 5

It was probable cause.
If he doesn't match the description of the registered owner the police can ask him who he is, why he is driving the car, etc.
What you should be asking is why your brother is driving around with a weed pipe in the car.

Answer 6

I bet the cop just said that to see what reaction he would give. That is not probably cause to pull a vehicle over. When I have noticed that the driver does not look like the registered owner, I have looked for other driving violations to check it out.

Answer 7

Officer had (weak) reasonable suspicion to stop car for investigation of ownership. Probable cause came about at the discovery of the pipe (on his person or in the car? who admitts ownership?) resulting in a drug paraphernalia charge. Age plays a factor, most cops will stop a young person on a weak reasonable suspicion before they will mess with an older person.

Answer 8

It doesn't rise to the level of probable cause --- but last I checked, all that was required for a traffic stop was reasonable suspicion, which is a lesser standard than probable cause.

Still, his lawyer should argue (unless there is direct case law in his state to the contrary) that there wasn't even grounds for reasonable suspicion...... it's close enough (again, unless the state has already dealt with this situation) to argue.

Answer 9

Even a blind drunk judge would throw this out, AND I'M A COP. There is no case law to support this kind of stop. What if I'm driving my sister's or mother's car? This gives the police the right to stop me???? Maybe in a 3rd world but not in America. Fight the PC.

Answer 10

Mebbe he was speeding or something else that would give them cause to pull him over... Shame on him for having a weed pipe too...