It is common in drug crime prosecutions throughout Los Angeles, California, and even the United States that people's homes are searched and drugs are found. The question becomes, what do you do? What defenses might you have?
If it's your home that's involved and there's nobody else that lives there and there's drugs found there and there's a significant amount of drugs and they've got a drug crime investigation.
Then, you're going to be the one that gets pointed to, and they're going to be prosecuting you, assuming they can prove that you have illegal drugs and that they're your drugs.
I recommend getting a criminal defense attorney as quickly as possible so that you can be in the best position to defend yourself if the case is defensible or minimize and mitigate the damages that can come to you related to a drug crime prosecution.
If there are multiple people at home, then you might have a defense that those are not your drugs if they find drugs inside your home.
That's going to depend on where exactly the drugs are found and what evidence and information the authorities have when they enter the home.
Usually, they have information from an informant, through surveillance, or both, that there's some drug activity.
Maybe they wiretapped someone's phone. Perhaps they followed somebody to that location. There are all sorts of ways that they can determine that there are drugs in a home.
Fourth Amendment Right Against Searches and Seizures
Many people ask me how they get into the home in the first place. I have a real problem with the police coming into my house.
Don't I have a Fourth Amendment right against searches and seizures in my home? Of course you do. The issue will be the probable cause of getting into the house.
Now, you start talking about them getting a search warrant. Going to a judge and saying, hey judge, we think there's going to be drugs in this home.
We think there will be cash and guns in this home, and the money and guns are okay in a home.
As long as there are no drugs that are being sold illegally either from the home or that are in the home, they are going to be sold outside the house somewhere.
When you combine that with cash and guns, you put yourself in a much more difficult position.
Probable Cause in Drug Crime Cases
So, you're talking about probable cause. How do they get probable cause that there's going to be drugs in the home? Listen to that language very carefully.
There has to be probable cause that there's going to be drugs found in the home. There is no possible cause, necessarily, that a person is involved with drugs.
It doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be drugs in the home. So, that's how they're going to come at you.
They have to be able to show that there's evidence that there's going to be some drugs found if the judge issues a search warrant and lets them search your home. The way they can do that is by surveilling the home. They can watch.
If they see a bunch of drug transactions or drug-type activity going on, that would be a little piece of their puzzle. Then, they can start pulling people over who are coming from the home.
If they find drugs on that person multiple times, they might argue that drugs are being sold from that home. They could get an informant to do a transaction, which can take place inside the home.
Maybe they can follow some drugs to the home. So, these are all ways they might be able to get a search warrant to get inside your home to be able to find drugs. If they find drugs, they can then use those drugs against you.
Motion to Suppress Evidence in California
Of course, as a criminal defense attorney, I will file a motion with the court to try and prevent whatever was found in the home from being used against you.
That's typically going to be drugs, and the way that we do that is we file the motion. Of course, we have to have a good argument that the police illegally entered your home and violated your Fourth Amendment rights.
If the judge agrees, then we ask the judge to suppress or remove anything that was found in the home because it was an illegal search.
So, we must prove through competent evidence that the police are on a fishing expedition. It was a hunch.
They didn't have good solid evidence that there were going to be any drugs that were found there.
And they can't bootstrap, meaning they can't say, well, we found the drugs, so that means there must have been probable cause there were drugs there. No, that's not true.
Sometimes, they get lucky and find drugs. It doesn't matter. They can't use that argument to justify the search for a home. You've got to do your work, do the surveillance, have the informant — whatever the information is.
So, I'm always looking to try to attack search warrants in drug cases because, a lot of times, the police cut corners, and they don't have the probable cause necessary to search somebody's home in a drug-related offense.
