Liberty4All
05-01-2007, 11:27 AM
Recently I had a disturbing -- yet revealing -- conversation with a police officer who charged my client with possessing marijuana.
This case was in Virginia, where my client faced up to thirty days in jail for the marijuana possession charge. As I waited for our case to be called for trial, the arresting officer agreed to speak with me so long as the prosecutor was present. He proceeded to tell me that he stopped my client for speeding. He said he patted down my client down for his own safety, which he said he routinely does. Yow! The Supreme Court limits patdowns to situations where a police officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion to believe that the patdown will find contraband, ordinarily a weapon. This police officer was running afoul of this Terry decision...
See the rest of this article here: Cop says he routinely pats down people. - UNDERDOG BLOG - by M&K's Criminal Defense and Individual Rights Lawyers (http://markskatz.com/justiceblog/archives/90-Cop-says-he-routinely-pats-down-people..html) .
This case was in Virginia, where my client faced up to thirty days in jail for the marijuana possession charge. As I waited for our case to be called for trial, the arresting officer agreed to speak with me so long as the prosecutor was present. He proceeded to tell me that he stopped my client for speeding. He said he patted down my client down for his own safety, which he said he routinely does. Yow! The Supreme Court limits patdowns to situations where a police officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion to believe that the patdown will find contraband, ordinarily a weapon. This police officer was running afoul of this Terry decision...
See the rest of this article here: Cop says he routinely pats down people. - UNDERDOG BLOG - by M&K's Criminal Defense and Individual Rights Lawyers (http://markskatz.com/justiceblog/archives/90-Cop-says-he-routinely-pats-down-people..html) .