abuse of authority in a traffic stop
Forgive the tone of this post, but I'm furious over what happened to me today. I have one possession of marijuana charge and one distribution of <1/2 oz by accomadation charge (also marijuana). Both of these charges are now 5+ years old, and I literally have not touched the stuff in years. I was pulled over earlier today by the same policeman that arrested me the very first time for possession. There's a little bit of an ugly history between me and him. He had illegally searched my car, but the court said it was a justified search because he found marijuana. Anyway, I know him, he knows me, etc. I was pulled over for speeding today, and it just happened to be him. As a note, I'm not in a rural area, there are 200,000+ people here and this is the first time I've been pulled over by the same cop twice. He comes to the car and he's like "Well, well, well, we meet again." He does the standard "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "Yea, I was speeding." He says "Do you remember me?" and I nod. At this point he takes my license and registration and goes back to his cruiser, runs it, etc. He comes back and says "Sir, please step out of the car." "Why? Is there a problem?" "Not if you just step out of the car." At this point I get out and he sits me on the curb. He asks me if i have anything illegal in the car and I say "No, that was a long time ago and a lot has changed." "Do you mind if I have a look?" "Under the condition that you put everything back where you found it." (As a side note the first time he pulled me over he tore EVERYTHING out of my car and left everything on the side of the road) He says "okay" and starts going through my car (Without calling for backup, which I thought was standard procedure for a search). He proceeds to just throw everything out onto the side of the road. He even took the spare tire out, and asked me if I had the paperwork for my car stereo (It felt like he was implying that I stole it). Once my car is TOTALLY empty, he goes back to his car, writes me a ticket for speeding, and then tells me "It looks like you may have cleaned yourself up. I'll be back in half an hour, if this isn't cleaned up, I'll make sure you get a ticket for littering." Needless to say I'm pretty pissed. I called the police department and told them, and they gave me the whole "Okay, we'll look into it......"
At this point I have several questions.
First- I KNOW that this IS NOT right. What can I do about it? Please take into account that I'm a student and have no regular income. I thought about calling a lawyer, but unless I get a settlement out of this, I can't afford one.
Second- I have heard that most standard police cruisers do not have cameras in the dash. How do I find out if his did, and how do I get a copy of the video? When it comes down to it he's the "upstanding policeman" and I'm the "lowlife criminal" and we all know who the courts will believe.
|