The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that you have the legal right to be free from an unreasonable search or seizure. A search can be illegal from several standpoints. It may be that the police officer never had the right to search you or your premises in the first place. The police officer could have gone beyond the scope of a warrant that they obtained. Either way, you may be able to persuade the court to have evidence suppressed and kept out of court when it was illegally obtained. You should contact a criminal defense attorney at Hogan Eickhoff to help protect your legal rights in the face of an illegal search or seizure.
It is a key requirement that a police officer needs probable cause to perform a search of your person or premises. The ordinary rule is that the police officer would need to go to a magistrate to demonstrate that they have probable cause to get a search warrant. The magistrate would need to issue a warrant that specifies the areas to be searched. Police may also rely on an exception to the warrant requirement, which means that they do not have time to obtain a search warrant, or it would be impractical to do so.
Your case depends on the evidence that prosecutors intend to use against you in court. They could rely on witness testimony or physical evidence that they obtain from your person or premises. They need to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and that takes evidence to demonstrate to a jury. If the prosecutor has a strong case that is backed by the evidence, you may not have fewer legal options available to you, and it becomes a matter of negotiating the best plea deal possible to spare yourself the maximum punishment.
The best way to protect your rights is to hire a criminal defense attorney as soon as you learn that there is a search warrant. There are mistakes that you can make that may be interpreted as giving the law enforcement officer consent to conduct the search. Although you may not have any experience with search warrants before, you can make errors that can complicate your case.
In criminal cases, courts use a doctrine called “fruit of the poisonous tree.” Here, the poisonous tree is the conduct that officers took in conducting an illegal search. The illegal conduct could be that officers never had the right to conduct the search in the first place, or they went beyond what was specified in the search warrant. Any evidence that is derived from the illegal conduct (whether it was directly seized in an illegal search or it was gained as a result of other evidence that officers illegally obtained) may be suppressed and thrown out of court.
However, you should not assume that evidence taken without a warrant or even that was illegally obtained will automatically be suppressed. There are exceptions upon exceptions to both the requirement of a search warrant and the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine that could allow the prosecutor to still use evidence that was seized from you. Law enforcement often knows the outer contours of the rules that protect you, and they know how to work around the margins in a way that gives the prosecutor a chance of winning in court if the evidence is challenged in a motion to suppress. In many cases, the evidence that is thrown out is when law enforcement blatantly violates your legal rights and has no colorable argument to the contrary.
If the prosecutor loses some of the evidence that they intend to use against you, they would have a much weaker case. The judge may end up dismissing some or all of the charges for lack of evidence. Alternatively, the prosecutor may realize that they are not able to prove their case, and they may drop the charges themselves. At the very minimum, with less chance of success, the prosecutor may be more inclined to offer you a more generous plea bargain in exchange for a guilty plea. If the prosecutor’s remaining case is weaker, you may even choose to fight the charges all the way to a jury in court if the prosecutor insists on moving forward with the case.
You need an experienced professional who can get to the bottom of any case against you during the early stages to know what to challenge in court. In addition, a criminal defense attorney could keep you from making errors in the early stages of your case, which can include speaking to law enforcement and turning over evidence to them that they can use against you. A lawyer can review your case and help you determine whether you have any defenses to the charges against you or whether you have an opening to challenge any evidence being used against you.
The experienced criminal defense attorneys at Hogan Eickhoff can help you mount an aggressive case when you have been charged with an offense. At the same time, our lawyers pursue a pragmatic approach that is aimed at helping you achieve the best possible outcome and resolution to the case against you. Contact us today at 920-450-9800 to schedule a free initial consultation, where we will review and discuss your case.
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