In this YouTube Hangout, San Diego criminal lawyer David Shapiro answers an online question about drug possession charges. If you have additional questions you may post them in the comments section below the video or visit him online at [ Ссылка ]
Steve – I was at a party where there were some drugs being used. The cops came. When the police arrived, someone stuffed something into my pocket. It turned out to be cocaine. The police searched me, found it, and charged me with possession. Can I be convicted?
Law Office of David P. Shapiro
3500 5th Avenue, Suite 304,
San Diego, CA 92103
619-295- 3555
Transcription of content:
- We're with David P. Shapiro, he's a criminal defense lawyer in San Diego, California and he's agreed to answer a question related to drug possession. With that said David, the further the question which was asked. This was from Steve. Steve says, "I was at a party where there were "some drugs being used. "The cops came, when the police arrived "someone stuffed something into my pocket, "it turned out to be cocaine. "The police searched me, found it, "and charged me with possession. "Can I be convicted?"
- Well Steve, you certainly could be convicted. The real question I think is will you be convicted? Okay so we have a couple different factors going on here. The first thing that I would look at, or any competent criminal defense attorney should look at, is the basis why the police were at the party to begin with. Meaning why were they called to the house? Why were they at the house? How did they legally get inside of the house? And then the next thing that you want to look at is if there's any witnesses obviously to what you're alleging, which is where someone put drugs unbeknownst to you in your pocket. And then we want to look at whether or not, you know, what statement if any you made as it relates to that
- I'm going to pause just a second. It looks like we have a mute going on. Micheal if you have mute, would you unmute that? Appears to be a mute button that was hit. David, are you on mute there at the op of your screen? I can't. You appear to be muted. Alright, let's see if I can hear you now.
- You should be able to.
- Yeah sorry about that. Okay so continue the answer.
- No problem, no problem. So you're looking at it from a couple different things. Why were the police there? How'd they get in the house? How'd they search you? Were there witnesses to someone putting the drugs inside your pocket as you claim? Whether or not the item was in fact cocaine. And probably most importantly, looking at it from the back end Steve, would be the amount of cocaine which was alleged to have been found on your actual possession when the police came and searched you. If it's a relatively low amount, just purely a usable amount and not possessed for sale, a high amount. You probably are looking at nothing worse than a misdemeanor charge. That doesn't mean you're going to be convicted on it, that doesn't mean you should be eager to be convicted of it. Those are all the things you need to factor in to. From an evidentiary issue, from a search and seizure issue, which is more of a legal argument, stuff that your attorney would focus on more than you. In it from an investigation standpoint. And it may be challenging, in all honesty to get people at this party to come in and say first that they were there. Second, that they were aware that there were drugs there. Third, that they saw the drugs being basically planted on you. You know, they might wind up incriminating themselves by doing so. So you have a lot of factors going in there. Hopefully you heard some of them that I enunciated just a little while ago. And if you need any additional help, definitely reach out to a qualified competent criminal defense attorney.
- Excellent, if you have any other question for David, just post them in the comment section below. Thanks you for your time, David.
- Yeah my pleasure. And I can personally be reached at 619-295-3555.
