akolgan

Im a college student and got busted for pot (1/4 sac), two pipes, and alcohol. Me and some friends went to my apartment. We smoked a joint in the bathrrom and about 10 mins later me and a friend went outside to smoke a cigarette. Right at the end of my last drag, an officer comes up with a flashlight and says, "Howdy."

I left my apartment door a couple of inches open because it
automatically locks from the inside. The officer says there
was a call that some roomates were smoking inside the bathroom. He would shine his light inside and look inside the apartment occassionally. I told him that me, my friend, and my girlfriend were just outside to smoke a cigarette. Eventually he called for another officer and over the course of a good 10-15 minutes they just kept asking which roomate (or if it was us) who had "the dope."

During that 15 minute period he asked who lived in the apt.
and I, of course, admitted that I did. During this time he
repeatedly asked for my permission to be let in the apartment.
I repeatedly told him that to my knowledge there was only one
other roomate (a total of four living there) who was in the house
and he was asleep. Actually, however, a third roomate was in the
apartment and his girlfirend is the one who called the police.
I kept on telling the officer that I wouldnt not let him in my
apartment. I had been drinking my third Corona after about a
period of two hours and I knew he would have found that as well
if he were to enter.

Eventually, he kept threatening us with jail and that when he
entered the apartment that if he "even found a paper" that we
would all go to jail. My main point comes now.. which I consider
to be a violation of rights..The officer then opened my door half
way and stepped inside and turned around and looked right at me and said: "If you dont let me in now, Im going to call your roomates and Im going to get one of them to let me in." (Even though he was already in the apartment!) He then continued with, "So tell me what illegal is in here because if you dont, your punishment will be more severe when I find it. So are you going to let me in or not?"

After that he scared the **** out of me and I told him he could go in. But my *main* question is this .. he DID enter before I gave him a right to, or any other of the owners for that matter. So is that not an illegal searchand siezure? I told him I had two pipes in my drawer once he was already inside.He came back with them and asked if there was any pot in the house.
He had went in the bathroom and could obviously smell the
previously-smoked marijuana. I told him he could search me and the house because there was no marijuana there. Well I was frisked by the other officer and it wasnt a good frisk.. I could have easily had the pot in my shoe.. I even asked him if I needed to take off my shoes but he just told me to be still.

Basically, I thought I would be alright because truthfully I
didnt remember any pot being in the house, and none was on me. But, I forgot about my friend. At the time I was certain we smoked some pot from another friend that had just left about 5 mins before the officer arrived. Well, the officer then frisked my friend and felt the bag in his left pocket. He tells him to pull it out of his pocket and my friend slowly did. I just watched it in slow motion.As soon as they saw the bag they told me to stand up and for my friend to turn around and we were arrested. Right after the first officer says, "Go search his car too let's see what we can find in there."
I wont go into too much more detail after that.. sorry if it was
too long, but I have just a couple of questions.

1) Does an officer not have to have the right of one of the owners of the apartment before he is allowed to enter? Even if there was a call made? I would think so because he didnt until I gave him permission, but technically he had both feet in my apartment before I did give him permission.

2) My three charges were posession of a controlled substance, minor in posession, and posession of drug paraphanalia. I told him the pipes and alcohol were mine, but he slammed me with a controlled substance charge too? I never had any pot on me - it was on my friend.

If the officer did have to have permission or a warrant to enter
my home, then legally can I not get my tickets overturned in court? Im afraid the officer will lie and tell them that he never actually did enter until there was consent - it would be their word against ours.

However, my girlfriend was with me and is a key witness I would think. She was not charged with anything. But would me, her, and my friend's word be enough? Everyone at the apt complex was watching the incident. I would think that is my best stroke of luck, because they could be witnesses too. I would have a total of seven witnesses, five of those not convicted of any crime,
that were in close eyesight and could hear everything that happened. But would seven people be enough to prove they had an illegal search?

The whole scenario was poorly operated by the officers. On my three tickets, the officer never even signed his name at the bottom of one. He did, however, have his badge number down there. On another one of my tickets he had my BIRTHDAY wrong; on the other two it was correct. If I remember correctly when I was being cited, they spelled my first name wrong on the police report. They didnt have a side-shot of me, only a front picture. They couldnt even get my fingerprints right, I had to do it a total of eight times. One of the officers said, "Man the FBI isnt going to be happy with me." Is any of this important or will the judge just overlook it?

Im so scared because Im on financial aid and I dont want to lose it. Im on my first year of college and I have straight A's in all my
classes. Even if my friend accepts the controlled substance charge, I still have a paraphanalia charge which Im sure will still make me lose financial aid. If our lawyer can get us on drug probation (we both have clean records and it's our first drug offense) is that technically a drug conviction where I'll lose my financial aid?

Any advice?