Police misconduct?
Myself and two friends were recently pulled over. The cop said he had been following us and that we did not make a complete stop at a stop sign. We are certain that we did because 1. we knew the cop was behind us and 2. we were uncertain of which direction to turn and we sat and discussed it. The cop then asked if we were drinking and told us if we lied it was an obstruction of justice, so we admitted to drinking. He then searched the car and trunk and told us that if we had any dope we should just give it him because he would search us anyway. We didn't have any. Then he gave us breathalyzer tests, and we all blew around a .012. He then flicked our tubes onto the side of the road, littering, which bothered me. Then when we received our tickets we found multiple errors on them, which the officer made just by not copying our license information correctly. We were also wondering if he had the right to tow our car, when we said that we would call our parents to come get it. Please tell me if there is any way we can get help.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Police misconduct?
At .012, none of you should have received any citations, because a low level like that is consistent with naturally occurring alcohol levels produced during the digestive process. You would need around nine times that much, or .10, to be presumptively guilty of drunk driving under current WI law for adults. You should definitely fight the tickets if they were either for under aged drinking or drunk driving with readings were that low. You may also want your lawyer to challenge the sufficiency of probable cause for the stop, which would result in dismissal (if you win) based upon the fourth amendment of the US Constitution. In terms of what rights the police have with regard to towing vehicles or littering, my response is that they have the de facto right to anything if nobody challenges them in court. Making them explain their conduct to a court via a contested proceeding is the only way to find out. If they stopped you for no reason and issued citations upon which you are found not guilty, there is a very strong argument that they did not have the right to tow your car.
Re: Police misconduct?
You raised a number of issues. "Misconduct" is not the right word or the right legal prism. The first thing is to challenge the right to stop. Of course, if it is a swearing contest between you and the cop about a complete stop, you will likely lose unless you have some independent witness that can testify (other than your passenger). Then the statements may be suppressible if you can establish that you were not free to leave and that the statements were aimed at soliciting an incriminating response. Finally, was the search AFTER the arrest or before? Did you consent? Voluntarily or were you basically coerced. These are all critical questions. It will also be important to know if this is a 1st offence. That you can handle on your own IF you are not challenging this. You need to consider if this is going to make you lose your license on points - you lose 6 - and whether it impacts your job.
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