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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Court: Scent not enough for car search (Colorado) 1
#24488860 - 07/17/17 04:22 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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Because pot is legal in state, smell doesn’t constitute cause
The indication by a drug-sniffing police dog to the presence of controlled substances in a vehicle by itself is not enough to constitute probable cause for police to search that vehicle, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
In a precedent-setting case involving a Moffat County resident, a three-judge panel agreed that a police officer needs more cause to search a vehicle without permission from its owner.
That’s because it could be legal marijuana, the court ruled.
“Because Amendment 64 legalized possession for personal use of one ounce or less of marijuana by persons 21 years of age or older in Colorado, it is no longer accurate to say, at least as a matter of state law, that an alert by a dog which can detect marijuana — but not specific amounts — can reveal only the presence of ‘contraband,’” Judge Daniel Dailey wrote in the ruling, which was joined by Judges Michael Berger and Jerry Jones.
“A dog sniff could result in an alert with respect to something for which, under Colorado law, a person has a legitimate expectation of privacy,” the court added. “Because a dog sniff of a vehicle could infringe upon a legitimate expectation of privacy solely under state law, that dog sniff should now be considered a ‘search’ for purposes of (the amendment) where the occupants are 21 years or older.”
In this February 2015 case, Craig Police Cpl. Bryan Gonzales had followed a truck driven by Craig resident Kevin McKnight that was leaving a home that had been searched for drugs nearly two months earlier.
Gonzales testified that he pulled the truck over because McKnight allegedly made a turn without using a turn signal. He later called in Sgt. Courtland Folks with the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office and his drug-detection dog, Kilo.
Kilo is trained to detect cocaine, heroin, esctasy, methamphetamine and marijuana.
After Kilo detected something in the vehicle, it was searched by police, revealing a glass pipe commonly used to smoke meth.
Despite a motion by McKnight’s attorney to suppress that search, Moffat County District Judge Michael O’Hara allowed evidence found from it. McKnight, 48 at the time, was later convicted of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance.
But the appeals court said that because some amounts of marijuana are legal, and the dog could not tell officers what he was sniffing, the officers did not have enough probable cause to conduct the search.
Both Berger and Jones wrote separate concurring opinions in the case.
While Berger said Amendment 64 gave Coloradans “an enforceable expectation of privacy,” Jones said the amendment has “added a level of ambiguity” when it comes to police trying to gather evidence in drug cases.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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tacodude
Old Soul
Registered: 07/20/10
Posts: 1,753
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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Re: Court: Scent not enough for car search (Colorado) [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#24488864 - 07/17/17 04:33 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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This story was great until a guy with a meth pipe was found...
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pineninja
Dream Weaver
Registered: 08/17/14
Posts: 12,468
Loc: South
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Re: Court: Scent not enough for car search (Colorado) [Re: tacodude]
#24488865 - 07/17/17 04:39 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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You missed the point then. Also it may not have been used for meth....one of the points.
-------------------- Just a fool on the hill.
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Caddilac
(*'
Registered: 11/19/13
Posts: 469
Loc: WY.
Last seen: 5 years, 9 months
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Re: Court: Scent not enough for car search (Colorado) [Re: pineninja]
#24488907 - 07/17/17 05:34 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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This kinda says i could have a kilo of dope in a trap and throw a cop an 8th and say thats all i got.
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LoveNaborFuckHater
That one guy
Registered: 02/13/15
Posts: 861
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
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Re: Court: Scent not enough for car search (Colorado) [Re: Caddilac]
#24489100 - 07/17/17 09:06 AM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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This makes it seem like drug dogs are useless in CO now unless they stop training them for marijuana
-------------------- "They told me drugs were bad, oh man, oh man, they had me fooled"
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musiclover420
psychonaut
Registered: 11/06/12
Posts: 19,563
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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-------------------- Don't worry about me, I've got all that I need. And I'm singing my song to the sky You know how it feels, With the breeze of the sun in your eyes. Not minding that time's passing by I've got all and more, My smile, just as before. Is all that I carry with me I talk to myself, I need nobody else. I'm lost and I'm mine, yes I'm free
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Konyap
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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Re: Court: Scent not enough for car search (Colorado) [Re: musiclover420]
#24489380 - 07/17/17 12:03 PM (6 years, 8 months ago) |
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at least arrest the person first before you search their shit
Edited by Konyap (07/17/17 08:08 PM)
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tdubz
Registered: 02/26/12
Posts: 5,586
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Dogs can be retrained to not alert to marijuana they would have to start from scratch though, and also dogs can be trained to sniff out almost anything.
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