What if an officer is given consent to enter a household for say(searching for a convict) and goes straight to a closet in a bedroom and finds something else(say a marijuana plant) and confiscates it, and one will be "hearing from them soon" what to do?
by 
Leeizmee
ANSWERS: 8
-
Get rid of the plant and any trace of it immediately. Also make sure that your entire house, car, and clothing are free of any traces of that or any other illegal substance.
-
I think the mistake was the 'consent' part. If you give your consent for them to enter, their powers are pretty broad. If they have to get a warrant, the warrant spells out pretty specifically what they're there to do, and it gives you a pretty strong legal defense if they step outside of those boundaries. As far as damage control goes, you'd better walk the straight and narrow for a while. Get rid of any trace of a connection with the wonderful world of herbal remedies, and anything else in that vein. Chances are, when they come back, it will be with a warrant in hand, and they're gonna turn the place inside out.
-
Run like hell and don't stop till you get to Tijuana
-
I believe that it was decided in Mapp vs. Ohio that evidence cannot be seized unless there is a warrant for that specific item. So, I guess you're off the hook for now, but you're headed for trouble.
-
Generally speaking, an officer looking for a person *can* look in a closet, so long as the person he is looking for is of a size that could be concealed in said closet. If the marijuana were in a small container or something too small to conceal a person, so long as you weren't in the room, the police couldn't look there. Police may look for a person on the warrant anywhere in the place described in particularity on the warrant where a person may hide. They can additionally do a search around anyone in the place to be searched for weapons that may be within reach. I'd say deny ownership of the plant. If it belongs to the person they are looking for, be careful, as you don't want to admit to aiding and abetting a fugitive of law. Then, as suggested before, do a thorough search of the property and remove anything that is potentially illegal. It is better to be safe than sorry, and the existence of one marijuana plant, depending on your jurisdiction, may convince a judge that a warrant should issue for the search of your home.
-
if they find something that isn't on the warrant they have then they can't do anything about it (from my understanding). i don't know if you're going to get your plant back or not, but they shouldn't be able to get you into any sort of trouble for that b/c it wasn't on their warrant
-
Of course this is all hypothetically speaking, right? But the hypothetical marijuana plant was in the hypothetical closet, and the hypothetical policeman looked in aforesaid closet for hypothetical suspect. I'd suspect the afore mentioned police officer was probably scaring the person which this hypothetically happened to which of course wasn't you, and would quietly dispose of the hypothetical plant as he has no right to have taken it.
-
This cop took it home and is caring for your "hypothetical" baby. So I wouldnt worry to much about it.If he was intent on you being in some sort of trouble,he would have arrested you for cultivation.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC