Drug charges can be quite severe, and the penalties that come with them are often much more serious than the offense. However, you can potentially face charges even if the drugs weren’t yours, making them even more unfair.
If the car you were in was searched, and drugs turned up, anyone who had access to the drugs might be charged. The police will have to prove you both knew the drugs were there and had access to them, which might make it hard to convict you. But these charges are possible even if the drugs were not actually yours, and you should have a lawyer defend you.
For help with your potential case, call our Pennsylvania drug crimes defense lawyers at Kenny, Burns & McGill today at (215) 423-5500.
Elements of a Possession Charge
When they charge you with drug possession, there are a few specific elements they have to meet to show you were legally in possession of the drugs. This can happen in two ways:
Actual Possession
Actual possession is when you have drugs on your person. The elements here are that you knew you had the drug and you had physical control over it.
For these charges, they would need to find you with drugs in your pocket, in your hand, or in a bag you were carrying. If you recently took the drugs, they would be in your body or in your system, and that could also count as possession (because you must have possessed them in order to take them).
Constructive Possession
Constructive possession requires that you
- Knew the drugs were there and
- Had access to them.
This is how people are often charged with possession when they were not actually touching the drugs at the time. This could be how you are charged if the drugs were in your car, in your apartment, in your locker, or in another place you had access to.
How Can I Be Charged for Drugs That Were in a Car if They Weren’t Mine?
If you are in a car, and you know there are drugs there, and you can access those drugs from your current location, then that would satisfy all of the elements of “constructive possession.” This means you can be charged for possession even if you were in a friend’s car and the drugs were theirs.
These are some common ways this can happen:
- A friend using drugs that you can see and reach
- A friend storing drugs in the open inside the car (e.g., in a cupholder or on the back seat)
- A friend asking you to hold their drugs.
When Possession Charges in a Car Are Not Appropriate
Remember, the police need to show that you both knew the drugs were there and had access to them in order to charge you. There are many common situations where drugs might be in someone’s car instead of on their person, but passengers would not be guilty of constructive possession because one or both elements are missing:
- If the drugs were in a glove compartment or center console, you might not know they were there, and you might not have permission to go into the closed-off area.
- If drugs were in the trunk, you might not know they were there, and you cannot access a separately enclosed trunk (e.g., in a sedan vs. an open trunk in an SUV or van) from inside the car.
- If the drugs were in a friend’s bag, suitcase, box, or backpack, you might not know they were there or have permission to go inside that container.
- If the drugs were behind a lock, you could not have access to them without the key, even if you knew they were there.
If your case involves any of these situations or similar situations, our Pennsylvania drug defense lawyers may be able to fight the accusations that you “possessed” the drugs in any legally meaningful way. This could get the charges dismissed even before they ever go to trial.
How Would I Fight These Charges in Court?
For the prosecution to be able to go through with drug possession charges for you having knowledge of and access to these drugs as a passenger in a car, they need to prove a few things:
- The police need probable cause to arrest you in the first place
- The prosecution needs to prove in a preliminary hearing that there was probable cause to go through with these charges
- The prosecution needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you knew the drugs were there and had access to them.
This actually gives us four ways to fight:
Preliminary Hearing
The first opportunity to fight the case will be at your preliminary hearing, where we can challenge the assertion that you knew the drugs were there or had access to them. This is our first chance to say you did not know they were there or could not have accessed drugs in a trunk or in a locked box.
At this stage, the prosecution only needs to prove they had probable cause to go through with the charges, but it might be impossible to argue knowledge or possession even if you read the facts in the most prosecution-friendly way.
Suppression
If the case is not dismissed at that stage, we can challenge the probable cause to search the vehicle, seize the drugs, and arrest you.
If it was not your car and you were a passenger, then you do not actually have the right to say yes or no to a search of the car; that’s the driver’s/owner’s legal issue. This can make it hard to challenge searches, but you can still challenge the arrest if it was not based on probable cause.
Dismissal
From there, we can fight to get the charges dismissed based on these legal definitions. If no reasonable jury could find that you knew the drugs were there or that you had access to them, a judge should dismiss the case.
If there are still factual questions about whether you had permission to go into a friend’s bag (e.g., if you were storing something in their bag, too), then that would still have to go to the jury to answer those kinds of questions.
Acquittal
If the judge refuses, then we can argue for the jury to acquit you. The prosecution needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what you knew and what you had access to, which is a high bar for such a questionable fact pattern like this one. If the jury agrees you could not have known the drugs were there or you could not have accessed them, then they should find you not guilty and acquit you.
Call Our Drug Defense Lawyers in Pennsylvania Today
For your free case evaluation with the Philadelphia criminal defense lawyers at Kenny, Burns & McGill, call (215) 423-5500.
