Who gets charged with drug possession?
Watch a few episodes of “Cops:” it seems the person driving the car is held responsible for the contents of said car, regardless of whose name is on the car’s title.
Yeah, right, it’s not yours.
I was holding it for a friend.
You do, unless you have some pretty good evidence else wise. Such as a known drug dealers fingerprints on the package, and you have a good lawyer, etc.
I went to HS with a guy who sold pot. His car got stolen and they recovered and arrested the thief. The police had him and his parents come down to the station and identify his stuff from the car. They pulled out his backpack which he knew was loaded with dime bags ready for sale and he said he had never seen the pack before in his life. The cops said “glad to hear it” and charge the thief with intent to disribute.
I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not a lawyer, so this is just my own assumption, certainly not an attempt to give legal advice.
My thoughts are that you would be charged with stealing the car and possession of the drugs, as well as anything else that might have gone along with the car theft (speeding, evading police, etc).
Being charged with it means the police (or grand jury) are accusing you of it, it is not a finding of guilt. Even if it is blatantly obvious, you still have the right to be presumed innocent at your trial and to make the prosecutor prove every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
If the drugs truly belonged to the owner of the car (and your defense attorney should be able to find out if your prints are on them or not), the jury should find you not guilty of that particular charge.
They don’t have to answer with one verdict covering all charges. They can hand down separate verdicts for each charge. Neither do you have to enter one plea covering all the charges. You could plead guilty to the charge of car theft and not guilty to the charge of drug possession.
What a charming person.
A friend of mine was literally “busted on Bourbon Street.” His car, he was driving, not sure why they were pulled over and searched, but a friend of his ditched a bag of contraban in the car, and the police found it. My friend was charged with posession, but it didn’t stick. Good lawyers were probably involved.
:rolleyes: Seriously?
What was he supposed to say: “Yeah, that’s mine, thanks for getting it back! Now bring out the handcuffs!” Maybe the car thief has a heart-warming story to tell and had a difficult childhood and stuff, but in my opinion, stealing a car is far lower than dealing dime bags to your classmates. No sympathy from me.
Well, I’m pretty sure the car thief wouldn’t have minded making the jump to dimebag purveyor, and the cops would not have been involved without him stealing the car. I’m not really sure who has the moral high ground in this case. I would have given the same answer, as I don’t owe the person who’s robbed me much of anything in the way of protection.
No, being a car thief is charming.
Anyone who say they would do differently is a hypocrite.
If you borrow a car and get a fixer ticket, it’s your responsibility to get the ticket signed off. If that means paying for the repair first, because the owner is either broke or a jerk, them’s the breaks.
With that as a precident, I can’t imagine a car thief not being charged for anything that was in the car. Unless going after the owner would give them a chance at a bigger bust. Even then, they might go for both.
Doesn’t matter since the car will be seized anyways and good luck getting it back.