nope theres nothing more to it. I've read my lawyers memorandum and the prosecutors. Their defense for the legality of the search was based on 2 things:
1) The smell of the burnt pot
2) The contraband on my passenger
I have several citations now to prove both of those weren't enough...
no i told him when he started walking over to search my car that "i dont give you consent to search my car." The pat down is probably legal like you said. And we were confronted because a neighbor called the cops for being concerned about us sitting around at that time of night.
But can...
I just did more research and it seems like the pat down was unconstitutional. US v Wald had a case of similar where the officer smelled drugs and frisked Wald. The court found it unconstitutional because the suspect didn't appear dangerous. A frisk is only legal when the officer feels threatened...
Ok so I got a very special case. Basically a cop came up to my car in the parking lot with reason to confront me. The car smelled of burnt marijuana. He had reason to detain and search the cab of the car as well as me and the passenger. Legally though, he did not have reason to search the trunk...