LAW

 

 

Investigative Detention
In this case, a police officer saw a lone vehicle with two occupants parked in a dark area of the rear parking lot of a closed gas station. The time was just past midnight on a dark and windy night. There was a 24 hour donut shop and a closed restaurant nearby. The officer pulled up about three feet away from the passenger side of the parked vehicle which had no lights on and was not running. The occupants did not initially see the officer, but were shocked when they did – the police officer saw the driver Chaisson, threw something on the floor and tried to stuff something else under the seat.
The officer asked the men what they were doing and told them to get out of the car. As the passenger exited, the officer saw, in plain view, a large plastic bag containing marijuana on the floor and a small piece of the drug on the seat. The driver was arrested and placed in the back of the police car; the passenger was also arrested and held outside the vehicle.
Neither of the two were read their rights at this time.
A search turned up two sets of scales in plain view, more marijuana under the driver’s seat and just over a kilogram of marijuana in the trunk. After the search was completed – about 20 minutes after the arrest, the driver was advised of his right to counsel, taken to the police station and searched further, which turned up additional drug items in his pockets.
1. In this case, the police relied upon the fact that the marijuana was in plain view; would that provide the police with the authority to seize the drug?

2. Does the fact that the drug was found in the vehicle in plain view provide the police with the authority to search the rest of the vehicle?
3. Was there anything in the actions of the police that would impair the successful completion of this investigation?

 

 

PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A GOOD DISCOUNT