Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Wrongfully Searched??

This is called a search incident to a lawful arrest. The officers were permitted to frisk you to see if you had any weapons; such searches are allowed because officers are often attacked during arrests.

Although the police are only allowed to look for weapons in such a search, they sometimes find other contraband and are not required to ignore what they find. The fact that they were looking for something else at the time doesn't matter.

Can you fight the charge? Sure. Can you win? I don't know, since you haven't provided all the information I would need in order to assess the case against you.

Evidence obtained in such searches is sometimes thrown out because the search went beyond what was reasonably necessary to check for weapons. For example, the officer would not have been allowed to make you open your mouth so she could look inside, since there was no reasonable chance that she would find a weapon there.

The same analysis may apply to the place where she found your pipe, but probably won't. The pipe was in your waist band, which is also good place to keep a knife. The officer probably was justified in searching there.