Legal Question in Criminal Law in Nebraska

Re: Drop Charges based on false arrest?

your case would require more extensive facts in order to advise you of your legal rights in respect to probable cause for your arrest. if you would like a free case evaluation/consultation, please email me back with your contact information as soon as possible.

Re: Drop Charges based on false arrest?

Unless Nebraska has some specialized statute or constitutional provison dealing with this, the meth can only be supressed under federal constitutional principes as illegally obtained evidence if it was obtained as the result of an unlawful search and seizure. The police may arrest and search without a warrant when they have probable cause to believe that a felony has been committed by a person. Since the vehicle had been reported stolen by the company, the police likely did have probable cause.

Basically, if the warrant remained unrevoked, it would appear to be the error of the car rental company, and not the police. They did receive a stolen vehicle report. But, if the car rental company had contacted the police and reported the recovery of the vehicle, you may be able to contend that the police should have taken action to withdraw the warrant and, therefore, might still be able to make a case it was illegally obtained. You need to get a criminal lawyer in Nebraska to address these questions.

It may also be possible that you have a lawsuit against the rental company for negligence in falsely reporting a vehicle theft and resulting in your arrest for a crime you clearly did not commit. If you can get the rental company to accept some responsibility here, if nothing else you may be able to leverage help with your legal expenses. You may be able to sue in California if the company does business there.

For more in-depth consultations, e-mail me with more information @[email protected].

Re: Drop Charges based on false arrest?

I generally agree with Mr. Wisong's analysis re: the search. This was not a false arrest; instead it was a proper arrest based upon incorrect information given to the police by the supposed victim. A false arrest is one where the police know or reasonably should know that the person being arrested did not commit the subject crime, and here the police had no way to know that.

I'm not sure I agree with him that you have a case against the rental company; if you do have such a case I think it would be rather small. The company might be at fault that you were arrested and strip-searched, but you are at fault for having the methamphetamine. Any portion of your experience which can be seen as a consequence of you having meth would likely be seen as your fault and not the rental agency's. For example, the meth probably would justufy keeping you in jail over the weekend, so you would probably not be able to recover damages for it. While you could ask a jury to award you damages for the arrest and the strip search, they will likely learn about the meth you were carrying and will not be very sympathetic to you.