Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Yes.

The way to challenge this is with a 1538.5 motion, a pretrial motion to suppress. San Diego? Rick Mueller is your man. By the way, was a pipe found in the car?

It wastes your time to claim he could not have seen what they later found in the car. It defies sense to think he had no reason at all, could see nothing, and just hoped he would find something that would justify his taking his time off to do an unlawful arrest and search. WHAT DID HE SMELL? Did the pipe have fire in it? That lights up the car.

The Border Patrol is a Federal Law Enforcement agency with the powers and authority to arrest. They have plenty of authority to initiate contact under the facts you have described. However, that doesn't mean everything the officer did was done correctly. In fact, a lot of mistakes can and do get made during an arrest. You need an attorney. Since you did not provide any specific information as to charges it is difficult to provide you with any real information.

The 1538.5 motion, suggested by Mr. Fleetwood is an excellent idea.

Good luck

In what you wrote, it sounds like there were tons of procedural errors by the officer. Does he have the authority? Any person has the authority to detain another if they are effecting a citizens arrest, but by him badging himself, he is now under the rules governing searches by peace officers. You don't say what was found, but based on his conduct, I think a motion to suppress would be an appropriate thing to do.

Sworn law enforcement personnel are 'on duty' 24/7.

Of course you can fight any criminal charges. There may be grounds for procedural violation arguments. When arrested or charged with any crime, the proper questions are, can any evidence obtained in a test, search or confession be used against you, can you be convicted, and what can you do? Yes, you can raise all appropriate defenses with whatever witnesses, evidence and sympathies are available for legal arguments, for evidence suppression or other motions, or for trial. If you don't know how to represent yourself effectively against an experienced prosecutor intending to convict, then hire an attorney that does, who will try to get a dismissal, diversion program, reduction, or other decent outcome through plea bargain, or take it to trial if appropriate.

If serious about hiring counsel to help in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me. I�ll be happy to help, using whatever defenses there may be.