Was charged with possession.... Have some questions

[IncredibleOne]

So last night I was pulled over for having a tail-light out. I had been smoking in the car with a friend about 30 minutes before being pulled over and when the officer was talking to me during the first few moments of being pulled over he stated that he smelled marijuana. He told me that under the Washington State Plain Smell Law he had the right search me and the vehicle. I presumed this to be true so I cooperated with the search. He asked me if he was going to find any marijuana or paraphenelia in the car and I answered truthfully, telling him that I had a few pipes and a little bit of weed in a small cardboard box in my glove compartment. So he detained me, read me my rights, asked me some questions and wrote me a ticket for posession of marijuana and possession of paraphenelia. My court date is in about a week.

Now for some more info... I am 18 years old, I turned 18 about a month ago. I have no previous criminal records or history. I am employed part-time at a local retail store. I am a student at my local high school.

Based on all this information and what happened, can anyone with some knowledge on these workings give me some insight on what I should expect to come? I plan on going to court and pleading guilty and telling the judge that I am willing to do community service/rehab or whatever else. Just wondering if anyone out there has experience with something like this...

[MastaChronic]

get a lawyer

[40oz]

Yea a lawyr is all you need. Theres no way out since you gave the cop permission. You shouldnt get much more than a fine and probation

[Web Smoker]

Washington - NORML (http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?wtm_view=&Group_ID=4571) if your from Washington your looking at fines nothing else im surprised u dident have to spend the night in jail

[IncredibleOne]

Thanks for everyone's input so far. Yah, I'm hearing the word "fine" a lot so I know that I'l probably be shelling out some money for all this in the future... Does anyone also happen to know what could happen as far as my record? I know I'm considered an adult but after so many years is there a way to seal away a misdemeanor charge like this so that it won't show up when employers do BG checks?

[keeko]

in texas i was pulled over, got a possesion of marijuana charge, didnt get a lawyer, all i got was a $400 fine and unsupervised probation for 8 months.....unsupervised probation=cant get introuble for dugs/alcohol but dont have to meet with an officer or anything

[IncredibleOne]

Do you know if you are stuck with the charge on your record forever? Or is there some kind of legal action you can take to have it sealed after some point?

[40oz]

you only have to worry about it if its a felony

[keeko]

Do you know if you are stuck with the charge on your record forever? Or is there some kind of legal action you can take to have it sealed after some point?

right sorry forgot to add that part.....when i went the judge and prosecutor told me it would erase from my record after the probabtion. This was also my first offence so that helped a lot

[Amun]

what a damn shame.


fresh 18. have a job. in HS.


yeah, but dont worry....theyre 'helping' you!!!

[sttomassmoker]

they are gonna probably offer you two things

a fine

or some sort of probation type deal where at the end if all goes well it will get expunged from your record

[meloncoly]

such fucked up laws.

[jahjahjahjah]

Well i'll tell you how you first fucked up, you played into the Police's gotcha games, You should have known better not to violate your 5th ammendment right, eg, ( incriminate Yourself by admiting you had Marijuana) and you let the police search your CAR !!!!!! All you had to do was refuse the search and he could have done nothing about it, It's your duty as a US citizen to KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!! and not let anybody including the Police pressure you in to giving up your rights as a citizen.
And the up most important thing he lied to you and you believed it, There is no such exsisting law in all of the state of Washington,

(DISENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM)

[Gatekeeper777]

plain smell law?????
lol

i would of said" Officer you scared me by pulling up behimd me and i shit my pants, next time i will try for roses."

[locomark]

Well IncredibleOne,

I just got off a year of probation for possession and I'm smoking large now. I talked to a lawyer who wanted $1500 and who said I would get one year of probation. I went with a Public Defender and got a year of probation with no stain on my record. You get the picture?

Loco

[BOYZNUS]

no but there is a way u can clear it of your record ijust dont no how but have heard of it being done

IT'S CALLED AN EXPUNGMENT. IF YOU KEEP YOUR NOSE FOR 3 YEARS, THE SENTENCING JUDGE AND THE DA CAN SEAL THAT CHARGE FROM YOUR RECORD.
THE ONLY ONES THAT COULD EVER SEE IT LATER IN LIFE IS LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE MILITARY.

YOU CAN DO IT YOUR SELF. GOOGLE IT.

[Dutch Masta]

If you get good grades, bring your report card with you to court. A judge will be more sympathetic if you prove you are not a delinquent.

[bluedevilar4]

living in washington state and having had a few freinds run into this same predicament i can tell u what i kno happend to them. in washington small amounts like udner certain grams = personal and thats been decriminalized, which is why you didnt get arrested and just got a ticket, if your record is clean and you have good attendacnce in school good grades etc. you should be fine, a couple of my freinds who had the exact same felonies, (arrested at same time same hting) both had competley differnt out comes based on GPA attendace record they look at every thing and make a decision and its all comes down to what judge you got and every thing as well but washington is beter than most states. Try and see if you can get it deffered if its not past ur court date, my freind got a MIP and he got that deffered and when the cop pulled him over he didnt evne have that on his record, cop was like im not gonna give u speeding ticket because you have a squeaky clean record,


good luck!

[IncredibleOne]

So I just thought I'd bump this thread to give anyone who cared an update on what happened. Basically... About the beginning of February I went to court for the arraignment. Prosecutor offered me a fine of $525 on both the possession and possession of paraphernalia charge and a 1 day jail sentence for both. I declined and applied for a court appointed lawyer. I was fortunate to get a lawyer who was both intelligent and a pretty cool dude. He had a few years of experience under his belt so he knew what he was doin' and was pretty enthusiastic about helping me out. After several court resets and bargains with the prosecutor they finally settled on dropping one of the charges completely and giving me a deferred sentence on the other. That was finally settled on Friday, the 11th. I've also gotta still serve 24 hours in jail because it's some Washington law :mad: So all in all, it came out pretty good. I just gotta stay outta trouble (or not get caught) for a year and they'll drop the remaining charge which is kinda in limbo right now. My lawyer also went another step and told me to come see him after 12 months so we can have the arrest expunged so my record will be clean again so that's pretty cool. Tommorrow I'm going in to serve the jail sentence so we'll see how that goes... Thanks to everyone who supplied advice and insight along the way

[fishman3811]

Good luck buddy and dont drop the soap.

[skatin_foo15]

Good luck buddy and dont drop the soap.

Nice, see everyone take notes on this guys story and remember always get a lawyer and make sure you know your rights! oh yeah and dont smoke in vehicles, thats what i do...

[flyable6string]

I have something on my record from 11 years ago, and it was expunged. The county where I was arrested has no record, and the NCIC has no record, but for some reason when an employer checks my background, the record that was supposed to be expunged comes up, and I have a terrible time trying to find employment. I moved to another state to get away from that shit state of Arkansas, and now im trying to find another job. Its scary when I have to look for work, its also embarrassing, because I was innocent of the crime that I was charged with, but I was looking at going to prison for a long time. I felt like they were going to put me in prison, just because they could, and they wanted to, so I was stupid and took a damn plea bargain that kept me out of prison. They said that they will expunge it after 5 years, and they did expunge it, but its not expunged from these background check websites.

[IncredibleOne]

Final Update: So the 24 hours in jail was not terrible... Nobody tried to start shit with me (or rape me haha) but it was just incredibly boring. I was also lucky to not have tweaker cell mates while I was there which coulda made things really bad.
But in response to the post above mine... I'm sure there's some sort of legal action you can take if you just ask a good criminal lawyer about your situation. If you received a deferred charge or they dropped the charge and have not had any more "incidents" for over 11 years AND you had the arrest expunged then nothing should be coming up on background checks... That means that the police department who was prosecuting you has not correctly delt with it and they can be sued over that type of thing. Good luck!

[Eazy]

hmm
wats that son

come give uncle bear a hug

lol yeah my days n night in cell are BORING

[Frickr]

Dude i just got busted for the same shit, the only thing i wasnt driving, and because it was my first offence and i cooperated with the officer, i got 2 of the charges, parif. poss. and consump dropped to possession. I got 30 days suspended jail time for a year, and $400 fine, but i also sat in jail all weekend because South Dakota is a Zero tolerence state., but since you were driving they might suspend your license for 30 days or so, but grand you a work and school permit. I also pled guilty to all my charges and didnt appeal any of them, or bother with a lawyer, so you might be able to get out of some more.

[Frickr]

Thanks for everyone's input so far. Yah, I'm hearing the word "fine" a lot so I know that I'l probably be shelling out some money for all this in the future... Does anyone also happen to know what could happen as far as my record? I know I'm considered an adult but after so many years is there a way to seal away a misdemeanor charge like this so that it won't show up when employers do BG checks?


After one year you have the chance to clear your record, you can only do this once in your adult life, but that will clear any trace of any kind of drug chrage

[Frickr]

and you cant get any more charges in that year, otherwise your stuck with it