Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Fighting a Nolo Contendre Plea for Marijuana Possession

Rescinding a nolo plea is very difficult, but even if you could do it you would stand trial and I see no reason to believe you would win. After all, you evidently did commit the crime. Your proposed arguments would actually help the prosecution make its case and would do nothing to help you.

That you were neither driving nor intoxicated at the time of your arrest doesn't matter, since you weren't charged with DUI or with being under the influence. The fact that the marijuana was intended for your mother also doesn't matter; possession is possession regardless of what will happen to the pot later.

You also can't win by arguing the pot already belonged to your mother, since possession is not the same thing as ownership. If someone hands me marijuana and asks me to hold it for him until he gets back, then I am in possession of it even though he still owns it. If I'm caught it won't help to argue that the pot belonged to someone else, but making that argument would show that I knew what it was and that I had it on me -- two important facts that the prosecution would no longer need to demonstrate by other means.

You say that the marijuana wasn't in your car but was in your purse instead. You don't say whether you had the purse with you at the time, but it really doesn't matter. Possession essentially means that it is someplace under your control, and your purse -- whether it was in the car with you or not -- qualifies unless it had been lost or stolen before the pot was found.

Obtaining a medical marijuana card after the fact doesn't matter, either. The legal status of such cards is still an open question, but even if we assume they are valid the fact remains that you didn't have one at the time of your arrest. Do you think someone who somehow manages to get a pharmacist's license after being convicted of illegally selling prescription drugs can clear his record that way? That isn't how it works. You just can't retroactively turn a criminal act into a legal one.

Keep in mind that all I know about your case is what you have said. There may be some winning arguments available to you. But you seem to believe you are actually innocent and that you can win by explaining what happened. That argument is doomed to fail spectacularly in court.