Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington
When a citizen doesn't allow the authority's to search their vehicle & a warrent is issued by the judge to search the car for stolen merchandise from a clothing store, do the authority's have the option to charge the citizen with a small amount of drugs & drug paraphenelia found in the vehicle at the time of the search as well.. or do they by law over look the illegal controban, do 2 the simple fact that's not what the search warrent was issued for?
1 Answer from Attorneys
The police do not have to ignore evidence of other crimes that they uncover while properly executing a search warrant. That evidence can support additional, unrelated charges.
Note, though, that the warrant defines the type of search the police can conduct. If the warrant is for, say, big-screen TVs, the police can't search pockets. etc.
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