I Was A Passenger In My Friend’s Car & Was Arrested. Can I File A Motion To Suppress?
– VT, Texas
Answer:
Suppose one day you and a friend are riding in your friend’s car. He’s driving and he gets stopped for speeding. The cop decides to have you both get out of the car. The cop then finds drugs in the car in the arm rest. You want to file a motion to suppress because the cop shouldn’t have searched the car.
The problem is, that because it’s not your car you have no control over the car, and you have no authority to agree to the search. Because you couldn’t agree to a search, you can’t argue that the search was illegal.
But you shouldn’t care anyway because your plan at trial is to argue that you don’t care about the search. Why don’t you care? Because the drugs found aren’t yours. Who cares what the cop found if it’s not yours?
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