Legal Question in Criminal Law in South Carolina

Search and seizure

My son's school did a ''random'' drug search on the entire school grounds. The K-9 dog picked up a scent on the door handle of the car my son drove to school. They asked my son if he had drugs in the car and he told them no. He did, however, tell them that a friend had left a BB gun in the car. My son was charged with ''carrying a weapon on school property'' which we don't feel was the case. Can a person be charged with this IF what the officer was looking for was drugs?


Asked on 4/16/08, 7:52 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Johnston Law Offices of Robert J. Johnston

Re: Search and seizure

These type situations happen all the time. Under the search and seizure laws, if the police are legally conducting a search for one thing and happen to find something else that is illegal, then they may arrest for that. Think about it for a minute. Say the police are legally searching a person's home for drugs. Once inside they discover four dead bodies. Would it be fair that the person get away with murder just because the police were not there looking for bodies? Anyway, I hope this helps.

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Answered on 4/16/08, 8:24 am


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