Defenses to Michigan Drug Charges

Illegal Stops

Cases involving drug possession or drug trafficking often are based on traffic stops. A police officer or state trooper pulls someone over and suspects there may be drugs in the car, performs a search, finds drugs, and that results in a criminal charge. However, a police officer has to have a reasonable suspicion that illegal activity may have occurred in order to legally stop you.

Officers aren’t supposed to just pull you over at random, and they have to be able to articulate or explain the reason for the stop in a court. That suspicion doesn’t necessarily have to involve drugs. For example, an officer could pull you over for speeding or for having an expired license plate and then perform the search that leads to the drug charge. But there has to be a valid reason for the stop — and a “gut feeling” isn’t enough. There has to be some kind of observation that leads to reasonable suspicion for the stop, such as observing you speeding or spotting that your license plate is expired.

When the officer had no reasonable suspicion for the stop, then your lawyer may be able to argue that any evidence found during the stop, such as through the search of your vehicle, should be suppressed and not used against you in court. When evidence important to the prosecution’s case is suppressed, that may lead to a dismissal, an acquittal, or a reduction in the charge or penalties.

Warrantless Searches

Most drug cases involve some kind of search, whether it’s of a home, vehicle, business, or your person. Investigators use searches to find drugs, raw materials used to make drugs, paraphernalia or equipment, or money used in drug transactions. And in most cases, when investigators want to search you or your property, they have to get a search warrant.

Under the Fourth Amendment, you have the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. It’s the Fourth Amendment that requires investigators to get a search warrant when they want to look for evidence of a crime, and that requires investigators to demonstrate probable cause that they’ll find evidence linked to criminal activity before a search warrant can be granted.

When a search is conducted without a warrant, a legal doctrine called the “Exclusionary Rule” says that your lawyer can argue to keep any evidence found during the warrantless search from being used against you in court. Your lawyer also may be able to make that argument when officers had a search warrant, but the warrant doesn’t contain all of the necessary information or there wasn’t actually probable cause to issue the warrant.

It’s important to understand that there are circumstances when police can conduct a search without first getting a warrant. A couple of those circumstances are:

• You consented to the search
• The evidence was out in the open, such as a packet of drugs sitting in plain view on the passenger seat of your car
• You were searched incident to an arrest

It’s also important to understand that when police ask to search your car, your home, or your person that you’re allowed to refuse. In that case, they’re supposed to get a warrant if they have probable cause for the search.

Illegal Surveillance or Wiretapping

The Fourth Amendment also protects you from the illegal use of surveillance or wiretapping. The basis for the protection against illegal searches and seizures in the Fourth Amendment is the idea that you have a right to a certain amount of privacy from government intrusion, and a search is an intrusion into your privacy. Likewise, surveillance or wiretapping are an intrusion and police are supposed to have a warrant before using these methods in an investigation.

If you ever watched the TV show The Wire, the police in the first season used wiretapping to investigate a Baltimore drug ring, but one of the first scenes in the show involved a detective convincing a judge to issue a warrant, and some of the plot involved the investigators navigating the restrictions and boundaries of the wiretapping warrant, such as only tapping phones listed in the warrant and having to document that the conversations they listened to were relevant to their investigation.

When police use wiretapping or surveillance without first obtaining a warrant, your lawyer may be able to get the evidence suppressed so that it can’t be used against you in court, and that may help you to fight your drug charge.

Canine Searches

Police dogs are another tool used by drug investigators to literally sniff out evidence of drug crimes. However, as with other tools, an officer has to have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity before conducting a search with a drug-sniffing dog. K9 units shouldn’t be used at random, or for evidence fishing expeditions.

If your case is based on a K9 search, your lawyer may be able to challenge whether the officer who brought in the dog had reasonable suspicion for the search. If not, the evidence obtained in the search may be suppressed.

Illegal Seizures or Arrests

Similar to when they want to search you, police need a valid reason to arrest you and can’t do it based on a gut feeling or at random. They need a reasonable suspicion that you’ve committed a crime in order to make an arrest. Police also are supposed to follow certain procedures when they arrest you, such as administering your Miranda rights — the rights you hear on TV shows that start with “You have the right to remain silent.”

When police have no reasonable suspicion to arrest you, or fail to administer your Miranda rights, your Michigan drug lawyer may be able to challenge the legality of the arrest. It’s possible that your lawyer can argue that statements you made after you were arrested or evidence obtained if you were searched incident to an arrest should be suppressed.