nptguy said:
Guess I'm just pissed that he would not let me off with a warning , knowing that I was leaving the next morn ,and had a clean driving history.
I know that you didn't have anything in that car, you know that you didn't have anything in that car, but what we both don't know is if one of your friends lost or dumped something in your car by accident.
You pretty much can kiss your ass goodby if the cops would have found such an item after you gave consent...because you would have waived your rights.
Two years ago a friend of mine was celebrating his birthday and was whooping it up. Later that evening, the concern was, who was driving after the bars closed? He said he had a ride, one of his friends was only having a few beers and was willing to give him a ride home. After all, this would be second offense DUI within 5 years for Aaron, if he gets stopped driving home tonight.
It comes time for me to leave and I feel comfortable that my friend's friend is going to do the designated driver thing.
Next day at the drop zone, I hear the bad news, Aaron got busted for DUI that night. For some reason, the guy that was supposed to drive my friend home, let Aaron drive his SUV and the owner rode shotgun. They took a back road home from the bar and failed to slow down for the "Speed reduced to 25" sign and got stopped for speeding.
Since Aaron was pretty obvious regarding drinking and driving, the natural chain of events occur and Aaron gets "arrested". Since Aaron is getting "arrested", the cops have the ability to search the vehicle without consent, since this search is "incidental to arrest". The cops find pot under the driver's seat during the search...bad news for Aaron, because the "passenger" and owner of the vehicle is in big time denial during the traffic stop.
The cops did the right thing in Aaron's case, they waited until they did their homework before filing charges on the pot and had the detectives and prosecutor's office do a follow up investigation. Eventually, they got the owner of the vehicle to confess to the possession charge.
The difference between your case and Aaron's case, is that you weren't being arrested. You had the right to peacfully decline the offer to have your car searched. They could have tried to ask again and then later invented some articulated "suspicion" ruse as their reason for doing the search anyway...but their own cop car dash cams would have been their own worst enemy here.