So often people will contact me confused about being arrested for possessing drugs. No, the confusion is not that the possession caused them to be arrested, instead it’s the fact that they were arrested twice for the same situation. Is that legal? How can you be released and arrested again? No, it’s not a conspiracy against you and it’s not time to find someone to make you a tinfoil hat (yet). Instead, it is quite normal for you to be arrested twice when the charge relates to drugs.

Suppose you are driving down the street minding your own business and commenting to your passenger about how lovely the day happens to be. It is so lovely in fact that it would be a shame to have to stop for the stop sign in front of you so you elect not to do so. If your luck is like mine, there would be a police officer behind, next to or near you watching the whole thing. In my case, there would also be a toddler in the backseat yelling, “Daddy ran a stop sign” [Narc!]. You pull to the side (always a good idea) but realize if this situation escalates beyond just a ticket for the stop sign, the bag of _________ (insert your drug name here – probably not marijuana though) in your pocket would be a problem so you move it to the center console. An aside – so far every law enforcement officer I’ve encountered is aware of the center console, so it’s not a great hiding spot. While you are moving the substance off of yourself, the officer sees you doing it and, instead of saying, “hey – what did you just move,” she says later in a report that, “I saw him make a furtive movement in his vehicle removing something from his person in an attempt to conceal it.” Oh, by the way, moving around in your car is called a ‘furtive movement’ and during a police stop you no longer are just an ordinary person with a name, you and your body are referred to as his or her “person.” Since you made a furtive movement, many officers will have you and your passenger step out of the vehicle and move away from it. [Free tips and tricks – if you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to be tased, there is an opportunity to find out in this situation, just refuse to exit your car. Likewise, if you have decided your tires are just old and worn out or you want to check your ability to drive highway speeds on your rims, failing to stop initially will introduce you to a ‘spike strip’ which will allow for you to experience those situations – I don’t recommend any of them though].

Anyway, once you are out of the vehicle and they have searched “your person” (and your passenger’s person), they likely will ask for consent to search your car. If you consent, the search is on and police will do you the favor of cleaning out all of those hard-to-reach areas of your vehicle while you sit and watch. Unfortunately they never seem to help dispose of the french fries lodged between the console and the seat. Should you refuse to consent to the search, well, I’d like to say it won’t take place, but it likely will, and I will discuss that in another one of these blogs. Once they find the drug(s), you (and maybe your passenger) will be arrested and taken to a police department or a local jail. Expect a picture to be taken along with your fingerprints and a detailed list of everything ‘on your person’ and in your vehicle. Here’s where things get a bit confusing. Unless the quantity of drug(s) are so significant that you could have been a story line for Miami Vice (Google it), the drugs likely will be seized and you and your passenger will be released.

What? Released? I will do another bloggy thing on interrogations, but figure there will be an opportunity for you and the others in your car to be separated in the jail/station to see what story each person has about the drugs, etc. Once that is over, assuming everyone read my not-yet-published blog on interrogations and refused to say anything other than, “I do not want to make a statement. I want an attorney,” chances are you will be released. While everyone (police included) likely know what the “contraband” is that was seized from your car, neither you nor any of the law enforcement officers (including DEA/FBI, etc.) are qualified to conclusively state what they seized. Accordingly, you are released and the file is marked PAW (Pending Application of Warrant). You leave thinking the issue is over and attempt to forget about it. Months later a number of folks come to your door and arrest you for the same event you thought was over. Why? Huh?

After arresting you, the drugs were conveyed by the officer to a crime lab. The lab folk tested the drugs and made a scientific conclusion about what drugs were recovered and the quantity of them. The lab will then contact the arresting officer to pickup the drugs and laboratory form which they usually do rather quickly. Thereafter, the officer will meet with a prosecuting attorney to explain the situation and provide the lab report. Assuming the prosecutor believes everything was done correctly, a charge will be issued against you for possession, possession with the intent to distribute, trafficking, distribution, etc.

Does the lab ever lose the sample or forget to test it? Yes, but it’s not often. Do police officers sometimes forget to pick up the items from the lab or forget to apply for the case with the prosecuting attorney? Yes, but it is not often. Is there a reason why I am typing all of this? Yes, because more often than not, in between arrests you should hire a criminal defense lawyer. Do you have to hire a lawyer? No, but consider the alternative. If you wait, aware you will be arrested again later, it’s not fun each time you get in a car as you don’t know if the warrant has been issued yet. Each time you need to take your kids to school or are running late for work you run the risk of being stopped wherein an officer may see a warrant and arrest you on the spot. If, however, you retain an attorney, we generally have good relationships with law enforcement or different departments. We can contact them while the PAW is in effect with a request the officer to notify us when they apply for the charge to be filed (and warrant for your arrest to be issued). More often than not the police officer will notify us about those issues. You see, it is safer for them if they do not need to show up with a SWAT team to get you out of your house in the middle of the night. It is also much, much better for your family to avoid that situation as well. Equally important, before turning you in to the jail, criminal defense lawyers will work with prosecuting attorneys to come to an agreement on a bond/bail amount so when you do turn yourself into the jail, you bring your bond amount with you and post it as soon as you arrive. You will spend a few hours in jail, but will then be released with the warrant gone.

Of course, you can take your chances hoping the lab or officer forget, but you run quite a risk. Suppose you do that and then get stopped taking your kids to school (someone told you stop signs with white borders around them are optional (they aren’t btw)). Now you are getting arrested and someone needs to come get your kids or maybe your dog or your great-grandmother who is in the car with you. Plus, your car will either be left on the side of the road or towed to a far away lot that charges you per day it sits there.

Most criminal defense lawyers charge a minor fee to keep track of PAW cases. I know I have a list that I check every Friday morning to see if there are any changes. Yes, if the charge gets issued and you have to turn yourself into a jail you will still owe more in legal fees, but you will avoid the worry of a warrant existing and the expense that it can create.

So now you know, expect a second arrest on a drug case if you are released. It might also be a good time to ask your Pa about some money in light of the PAW!