legal_citizen
New Member
My jurisdiction is: PA
In Aug '09 I was charged with Possession of a controlled substance and also Possession of drug paraphernalia, these charges were related to marijuana. I have not yet been convicted of these charges and my court date is in Oct or Dec '09.
We were on a canoe trip on the Delaware river between PA and NJ camping for the night on an island that is Federal land but we had no knowledge of this and it was not sign posted as Federal land. We were in a party of 14 people but 2 of the people left the night before as one of them got injured and we had to call the river police in to fetch them by boat, when the police and paramedics arrived that night the policeman let us know in no uncertain terms that he was unhappy that we had woken him up in the middle of the night to assist us for what he referred to as "a little city slicker injury" and the paramedic in fact reprimanded the police officer saying, "If you don't like your job then get another one!"
The next morning we were woken up and instructed out of our tents by 2 Federal officers and one NJ State officer, obviously they had come in with multiple jurisdiction as a sting having been tipped off by the unhappy officer the previous night. Our guess is they came in expecting underage drinking or possibly the unhappy officer had seen something the night before. They proceeded to tell us "someone was going to jail that day as they had evidence of multiple violations". The Federal officer then searched all our tents and bags in the tents while the other two officers asked for each persons information.
They had found a marijuana smoking pipe which belonged to one of us supposedly lying outside the tent, yet the person who it belonged to remembers putting it just inside her tent the night before, and had claimed it prior to the officer searching the other tents and bags. When searching our tents the officer never asked permission to search our tents or bags just who each bag belonged to? All 12 of us were charged with possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages in a national park by the NJ state officer due to the beer cans we had in a trash bag and 4 of us were charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia which the officer found in our bags in the tents. No one was arrested just cited.
On my citations it does not say marijuana yet the girl who's pipe they found does have the word marijuana written under Possession of a controlled substance.
1) Does the fact that we were not arrested mean anything?
2) Did the officer have a right to search all our tents if the one pipe supposedly in blatant view was claimed prior to him searching all the other tents?
3) Why do some of our citations have marijuana written on them and others don't?
4) Do the 3 of us that had stuff found in our tents have a case to argue?
5) Would you suggest going with a lawyer for hire or would a Public Defender be able to fight the case similarly?
In Aug '09 I was charged with Possession of a controlled substance and also Possession of drug paraphernalia, these charges were related to marijuana. I have not yet been convicted of these charges and my court date is in Oct or Dec '09.
We were on a canoe trip on the Delaware river between PA and NJ camping for the night on an island that is Federal land but we had no knowledge of this and it was not sign posted as Federal land. We were in a party of 14 people but 2 of the people left the night before as one of them got injured and we had to call the river police in to fetch them by boat, when the police and paramedics arrived that night the policeman let us know in no uncertain terms that he was unhappy that we had woken him up in the middle of the night to assist us for what he referred to as "a little city slicker injury" and the paramedic in fact reprimanded the police officer saying, "If you don't like your job then get another one!"
The next morning we were woken up and instructed out of our tents by 2 Federal officers and one NJ State officer, obviously they had come in with multiple jurisdiction as a sting having been tipped off by the unhappy officer the previous night. Our guess is they came in expecting underage drinking or possibly the unhappy officer had seen something the night before. They proceeded to tell us "someone was going to jail that day as they had evidence of multiple violations". The Federal officer then searched all our tents and bags in the tents while the other two officers asked for each persons information.
They had found a marijuana smoking pipe which belonged to one of us supposedly lying outside the tent, yet the person who it belonged to remembers putting it just inside her tent the night before, and had claimed it prior to the officer searching the other tents and bags. When searching our tents the officer never asked permission to search our tents or bags just who each bag belonged to? All 12 of us were charged with possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages in a national park by the NJ state officer due to the beer cans we had in a trash bag and 4 of us were charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia which the officer found in our bags in the tents. No one was arrested just cited.
On my citations it does not say marijuana yet the girl who's pipe they found does have the word marijuana written under Possession of a controlled substance.
1) Does the fact that we were not arrested mean anything?
2) Did the officer have a right to search all our tents if the one pipe supposedly in blatant view was claimed prior to him searching all the other tents?
3) Why do some of our citations have marijuana written on them and others don't?
4) Do the 3 of us that had stuff found in our tents have a case to argue?
5) Would you suggest going with a lawyer for hire or would a Public Defender be able to fight the case similarly?
