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a7xer

I go to college and live in a suite style dorm room with a common room and 3 branching 2 person rooms. About a month ago, my roommate had 6 friends over and they were all drinking 2 cases of beers and a handle of vodka in our common room with music playing in the room we share. I had been out for most of the day and came back to the room to find all these people drinking in the room. I didn't really have a chance at trying to get them to leave so I didn't try and surely enough within a few minutes after I got to the room before I could even change and leave, our RAs came to the room and asked to come in. My roommate, drunk, handled the situation poorly and the result was that the RAs called the police because of his refusal to throw out the alcohol in their presence. All of his friends took the beers and vodka into the room we share in an attempt to hide from the RAs and cops but to no avail. The cops came into our common room and then into our room and asked who lived there. We both answered that we did and I began cleaning up the empties (I was stone sober), realizing the seriousness of the situation. At this point I was alone in the room with one officer while the door to the common room was open with everyone else inside. The officer indicated to my closet, asking if he could search it to see if anyone had hidden cans in there. My response was simply "All the cans that were taken in here are already out in the room" and then I left with a full bag of empty cans to throw out. Upon my return, the officer asked me to come into the room and told me that he knew why I was so hesitant to let him search. He had opened my closet and found my roommates bubbler piece in one of my shoes (my closet is closer to the window of our room and my roommate had smoked with a friend the night before). I told the officer that the piece was not mine and walked back into the common room where he came out and asked the rest of the group if the bowl belonged to anyone. No one claimed it. Then the officer asked my roommate if he could search through the room because he suspected he would find marijuana. Knowing there was nothing in his stuff, my roommate consented to a search and the officer began searching. During the search, I was sitting on a couch in our common room but when I stood up to see what was going on, the cop was searching through my desk as well without ever asking me if he could search. He found about .3 of grinded bud and a grinder in my desk and had them out on top of the desk, he then proceeded to turn on my computer and search it as well. I was later given a court summons for possession of marijuana. My court date has not come yet but I feel as though something is not right in this situation. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I could do? My university does NOT have a policy where they can search the rooms because the furniture belongs to them.

 

peace n love

askalawyer.com is probably your best bet for good advice.

BartSimpson

So what are we here, chopped liver?

There are hundreds of similar threads right here in this very forum with good advice.

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a7xer

There's good advice on the forums but I haven't been able to find anything specific to this situation. I suspect that the search the cop did was an illegal one and would result in the nullification of any evidence found during the search but I'm not sure. Also I don't know how I could prove that he didn't get my consent if he says that he had it. I know there's no probable cause because he was called for an alcohol violation

BartSimpson

You are wrong about the probable cause, but you are not dealing with specific constitutional issues as the dorm room is likely under implied consent. Just because he asked does not mean that he needed your consent.

The folly of youth is thinking that police so routinely screw up the constitutional-rights thingy that you are going to get off.

 

a7xer

I don't think that the police "routinely screw up" and I made it very clear that my university functions under the same policy as any other piece of property. Also, what is his probable cause? He was called to the room for alcohol.

This isn't an attack on you, I was asking a question in search of an answer, not making a statement of some kind of entitlement.

phuzz01

If you or your roomate are underaged, then the police had probable cause to search for alcohol in your dorm room. Just because they don't have probable cause for marijuana, doesn't mean that any marijuana found is suppressed. If the police have probable cause to search for one thing (such as alcohol), and while searching they find another thing (such as drugs), that is perfectly legal.

As far as consent to search the room, there is some very recent case law on this. If one occupant of the room consents and the other occupant is not there, then the consent is valid. If one occupant consents and the other occupant is there and objects, then they cannot search under consent. However, if you were there and you did not specifically object to them searching, and your roomate consented, then that is valid consent to search. Also, as someone else mentioned, just because the police ask for consent does not mean that they do not have enough cause to search without your consent.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that there aren't any potential suppression issues in your situation. There are several things that you mentioned that could possibly be a constitutional or suppression issue. However, it is just not as simple as you think. You should get a copy of the police report and then talk to a lawyer.

peace n love

no harm meant, i know this place is full of useful information, i only said he's better off talking to a lawyer to get all the specifics down and get all that lawyer talk in, that way he can see what chances he has of leading a successful fight in court. alot of people on here could just bullshit around and not even know a thing about this and give him the completely wrong information.

BartSimpson

Stand-by for Threadjack:
We fight very hard here, the regulars on the Legal Forum, to prevent this exactly. Try and get some bullshit past Buzzby, or TM42, Darque Pervert, Trocrisp ("at least spell my name right, troll"). I cannot fairly name all the members who keep this one of the BEST places to get legal information on MJ, but few of them are lawyers. Everyone of the members I did name have found fault with something I wrote, and I am glad for their correction.

It seems to me that a man ought to get his attorney's advice eyeball-to-eyeball.

a7xer

Very true, in the end what matters is what you discuss with your lawyer and what happens on the court date it would seem.