Arrest, Search, Seizure, Warrant False arrest,illegally detained

[Rar69]

Jurisdiction

California

It was around 1 am in the morning when I left my girlfriends house when I got to the end of the road I stopped and made a left turn. As I made the left turn I saw headlights coming from the other direction, I couldn't tell what kind of ca it was. I kept driviving for over a mile and realized it was a Sonoma county sheriff. He pulled me over because he " had difficulty reading my license plate cause there was a small 5" crease on the plate". I told him there was nothing wrong with my dads truck. I sat there for more than 30 min. Then out of know where he opens my door grabs my arm and starts pulling me out of the vehicle. As he's doing this I told him I don't consent to searches and wtf! He then searches me found a pipe and meth, then searches my truck where he found a unloaded gun in a box buried under the seat. So, charges are possession of a fire arm while addicted to drugs with a prior possession of meth a 2002 felony. I wasn't under the influence, on probation,parole, driving erratic, never read my Miranda rights. The gun was a family heirloom that was giving to me and I can get an affidavit for that. I'm fighting it taking it to trial. I have a court appointed attorney who I believe is fraudulently misrepresenting me hasn't given me paperwork I requested. Like a copy of the complaint and other documents. They suggested I use prop 47 to get the 2002 felony reduced to a misdemeanor. I don't know if they're trying to set me up. This is SONOMA county were talking about!. Out on bail. Need some insight please

 

[zddoodah]

You didn't ask a question, so the purpose of your post is unclear.

charges are possession of a fire arm while addicted to drugs

There's no such charge. It may be that you'll get charged with some sort of enhanced offense because of your possession of both the drugs and the firearm.

never read my Miranda rights.

Nothing you posted suggests this matters.

They suggested I use prop 47 to get the 2002 felony reduced to a misdemeanor. I don't know if they're trying to set me up.

Who are "they"?

 

[Highwayman]

It was around 1 am in the morning

You mean as opposed to 1 am in the afternoon?

I
...he found a unloaded gun in a box buried under the seat.

The gun was a family heirloom

Really? It was such an "heirloom" that you keep it "buried" in a box under the seat of a truck?

 

[Highwayman]

I...never read my Miranda rights.

You watch too much television. You don't have to be read your Miranda rights when you are arrested unless you are interrogated while in custody. It sounds like they had no need to interrogate you - the evidence spoke for itself.

You don't need an Internet forum - you need an attorney.

 

[mightymoose]

He pulled me over because he " had difficulty reading my license plate cause there was a small 5" crease on the plate".

If the license plate was damaged and could not be read clearly then it was a legitimate stop. I believe the Vehicle Code requires that it be readable from 50 feet.
It is also possible that the deputy could read the plate clearly and used the crease as justification for the stop, but you would never be able to prove this.

Then out of know where he opens my door grabs my arm and starts pulling me out of the vehicle.

This is a critical piece of information to discuss with your attorney. The officer is allowed to conduct a limited pat search for weapons if he can articulate reason to believe you may have one. Doing this 30 minutes into the contact suggests the officer may not have had reasonable suspicion of weapons to justify this search. Typically this would be done immediately upon contact.
The search of your truck is legitimate based upon finding contraband on you, but if you can prove the search of your person was unreasonable then the search of the truck would then also become unreasonable.

I wasn't under the influence

Were you accused of being under the influence? Did the deputy conduct any tests or collect a blood or urine sample? If you had recently used you could have exhibited symptoms without realizing it. If this is not alleged then it is not important.

never read my Miranda rights.

As mentioned above, nothing you said indicates Miranda was required. It is common misconception that you must be read your rights when you see arrested. It is not required until certain conditions exist.

The gun was a family heirloom that was giving to me and I can get an affidavit for that.

Unless it is alleged you stole the gun that is useless. The problem here is your possession of it in the vehicle apparently without a concealed carry permit. Also, few people are going to believe you carry this heirloom under the seat of the truck with no intent to use it.

They suggested I use prop 47 to get the 2002 felony reduced to a misdemeanor.

There isn't a good reason to not do that.

Need some insight please

Discuss the search of your person upon being removed from the vehicle with your attorney. Try to determine what could have given the officer reason to believe you may be armed which would allow him to do the pat search. If the contraband was somewhere a pat search would not typically detect then even better for you... but pipes are pretty easy to identify through pockets, so it is the deputy's suspicion that needs to be looked at closely. Show that he acted unreasonably and the ready could crumble.
Don't get your hopes up- you got caught plain and simple, but you do have a possible angle to work.

If you are not satisfied with your representing then either hire your own or let the court know you are not receiving adequate counsel when you next appear. Just know you are not the only person that public defender is working for and his obligations to you are likely not what you think they are. YOU can get the documents you are requesting as easily as the attorney can.

 

[mightymoose]

Also, to be clear, this is not a "false arrest" or illegal detention.

The arrest is legitimate. What you have, if anything, is a possible cause to suppress the evidence that would be used against you.

 

[army judge]

Triple dip, riding/driving dirty, hat trick.

 

[Highwayman]

I sat there for more than 30 min.

I don't why traffic stops seem to be like time warps. That's why I am extremely skeptical about this 30 minute time period.

I have had plenty of people over the years claim that I had them stopped for 30 or 45 minutes when, in fact, the stop was 10 or 15 minutes at the most.

It always seems like an eternity when you're in trouble I guess.

 

[Rar69]

I don't why traffic stops seem to be like time warps. That's why I am extremely skeptical about this 30 minute time period.

I have had plenty of people over the years claim that I had them stopped for 30 or 45 minutes when, in fact, the stop was 10 or 15 minutes at the most.

It always seems like an eternity when you're in trouble I guess.

He had me wait till his partner got there. You should know, tag team

 

[Rar69]

If the license plate was damaged and could not be read clearly then it was a legitimate stop. I believe the Vehicle Code requires that it be readable from 50 feet.
It is also possible that the deputy could read the plate clearly and used the crease as justification for the stop, but you would never be able to prove this.



This is a critical piece of information to discuss with your attorney. The officer is allowed to conduct a limited pat search for weapons if he can articulate reason to believe you may have one. Doing this 30 minutes into the contact suggests the officer may not have had reasonable suspicion of weapons to justify this search. Typically this would be done immediately upon contact.
The search of your truck is legitimate based upon finding contraband on you, but if you can prove the search of your person was unreasonable then the search of the truck would then also become unreasonable.



Were you accused of being under the influence? Did the deputy conduct any tests or collect a blood or urine sample? If you had recently used you could have exhibited symptoms without realizing it. If this is not alleged then it is not important.



As mentioned above, nothing you said indicates Miranda was required. It is common misconception that you must be read your rights when you see arrested. It is not required until certain conditions exist.



Unless it is alleged you stole the gun that is useless. The problem here is your possession of it in the vehicle apparently without a concealed carry permit. Also, few people are going to believe you carry this heirloom under the seat of the truck with no intent to use it.



There isn't a good reason to not do that.



Discuss the search of your person upon being removed from the vehicle with your attorney. Try to determine what could have given the officer reason to believe you may be armed which would allow him to do the pat search. If the contraband was somewhere a pat search would not typically detect then even better for you... but pipes are pretty easy to identify through pockets, so it is the deputy's suspicion that needs to be looked at closely. Show that he acted unreasonably and the ready could crumble.
Don't get your hopes up- you got caught plain and simple, but you do have a possible angle to work.

If you are not satisfied with your representing then either hire your own or let the court know you are not receiving adequate counsel when you next appear. Just know you are not the only person that public defender is working for and his obligations to you are likely not what you think they are. YOU can get the documents you are requesting as easily as the attorney can.

No I was not under the influence
He conducted a test ,I'm not being charged with under the influence. The license plate is not really damaged at all. It's a tiny little crease like 4" long. Plate is totally visible at night. The sheriff could not know I had a weapon. I was driving my dads truck and I have no weapons or violent criminal records of any kind. So when he ran the plates only my dads dmv information would pop up, he's 74 years old. I had just acquired the family heirloom that day from the deceased husbands wife. It was a 22 daringer, not stolen, and the revolver doesn't even work. I can get an affidavit from the wife. It was just plain harassment. If I can figure out how to put a picture of the license plate, you'd say that was bullshit

 

[army judge]

If you want to defend against a criminal charge or traffic charge, don't give crap to law enforcement.

You can dispute the matter in court, NOT on the street.

Thank the officer, be courteous, take the dispute before the judge.

Heck, on some occasions kind words, respect, professionalism can inspire one of society's protectors to warn you and return you to the wild unharmed.

 

[mightymoose]

He had me wait till his partner got there. You should know, tag team

This is another issue to discuss with your attorney.
The officer needs to have good reason to justify detaining you that long. There is established case history on this topic. If you truly sat that long it will deflate any argument the officer makes that he believed you may be armed and he needed to do a pat search.
You need an attorney to look into these details for you.

 

[mightymoose]

I had just acquired the family heirloom that day from the deceased husbands wife. It was a 22 daringer, not stolen, and the revolver doesn't even work. I can get an affidavit from the wife.

This likely won't matter. There are strict laws regarding how weapons are transported. What you described is a clear violation that would require a concealed carry permit.
That the firearm may have not been functional is not important. It is still a firearm.

 

[flyingron]

I'm having a hard time parsing the statement, but if he has a 2002 felony conviction that's not been dropped to a misdemeanor, he's a prohibited person and he can't possess the weapon no matter what he did to transport it. This is beyond the concealed carry laws.

 

[mightymoose]

Correct... I forgot about the prior conviction. It seems the argument is being made that it is a malfunctioning heirloom, not a "gun", which is unlikely to fly. No matter how it's spun there are several legitimate violations here, but based on the description given there could be an argument to be made about their discovery from an improper search.
The delay is concerning, if it actually was a half hour.
The pat search yielding drugs and paraphernalia after 30 minutes is suspect.
If permission to search was clearly denied and only happened as a result of the pat search "for officer safety" then there is a possibility the vehicle search could be suppressed.
This all hinges on the information the officer relied on to proceed with the pat search, which may be perfectly legitimate, but definitely worth focusing on. As it is described here I see an argument to make, but I am sure the officer's report probably addresses my concerns.

 

[army judge]

As it is described here I see an argument to make, but I am sure the officer's report probably addresses my concerns.

Unless the officer has a suspect past along with several "bad" arrests, contradicting the written report and the body or dash cams is almost an insurmountable task.

I long ago learned to await discovery before offering an opinion about the status of any defenses available to the defendant.

 

[flyingron]

Nowhere does it say it was non-functional (not that this matters a great deal). He just said it was given to him as a family heirloom which doesn't change the fact that he can't possess it.

 

[mightymoose]

Nowhere does it say it was non-functional...

It was a 22 daringer, not stolen, and the revolver doesn't even work.

Correct, it is an unimportant detail as I already noted.
My intent here was to give an idea of questions to ask the attorney when the opportunity arises.

 

[flyingron]

Ah, I missed the comment in the subsequent post. I'm not sure I believe much of this anyhow.

 

[mightymoose]

I'm not sure I believe much of this anyhow.

It's a matter of perspective.
I've witnessed enough police officers operate in the gray zone that I tend to believe these stories. Too many let that piece of tin on their chest go to their head and they forget their training.