Constitutional Law, Justice

This Could Happen To You

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

This video of Collinsville, Illinois K9 officer Michael Reichert violating the civil rights of two guys returning from a Star Trek convention.

The laws of physics must have been suspended when Reichert, standing at the rear of the car, says the wind is blowing this way so any odor in the car would be blown to the front.

It turns out that Reichert has a conviction for selling counterfeit Oakley sunglasses, and in a federal drug case the judge dismissed Reichert’s testimony.

This seems like a good time to remember Scott Morgan‘s five reasons you should never agree to a search:

1. It’s your constitutional right.

You have the right to refuse random police searches anywhere and anytime, so long as you aren’t crossing a border checkpoint or entering a secure facility like an airport.

2. Refusing a search protects you if you end up in court.

Basically, if there’s any chance of evidence being found, agreeing to a search is like committing legal suicide, because it kills your case before you even get to court.

3. Saying “no” can prevent a search altogether.

If you remain calm and say no, there’s a good chance they’ll back down, because it’s a waste of time to do searches that won’t hold up in court anyway.

4. Searches can waste your time and damage your property.

You certainly can’t count on officers to be careful with valuables or to put everything back where they found it.

5. You never know what they’ll find.

A joint roach could stick to your shoe on the street and wind up on the floorboard. A careless acquaintance could have dropped a baggie behind the seat.

There a lot of good information in the following video by law professor (and former defense attorney) James Duane on why he will never talk to the police:

H/T: Radley Balko, Orin Kerr, ACLU, Flex Your Rights.

63 thoughts on “This Could Happen To You”

  1. Democracy Now! is streaming a story about this right now for anyone who is interested.

    Sources identify White Plains cop Anthony Carelli as triggerman in fatal shooting of retired Marine

    Exclusive: At center of controversial Nov. 19 shooting of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., cop also to go to trial in unrelated brutality and racism case

    By Juan Gonzalez, Janon Fisher, Rich Schapiro AND Helen Kennedy /

    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

    Published: Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 11:00 PM

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/sources-identify-white-plains-anthony-carelli-triggerman-fatal-shooting-retired-marine-article-1.1056394

  2. Illinois Traffic Stop Of Star Trek Fans Raises Concerns About Drug Searches, Police Dogs, Bad Cops

    THE FORFEITURE CORRIDOR

    Asset forfeiture is the process by which law enforcement agencies can take possession of property suspected of being tied to illegal activity. Under these laws, the property itself is presumed to be guilty of criminal activity. Once the property has been seized, it’s up to the owner to prove he obtained the property legitimately.

    In about 80 percent of civil asset forfeiture cases, the property owner is never charged with a crime. And in Illinois — like many states — the law enforcement agency that makes the seizure gets to keep the cash or the proceeds of the forfeiture auction (in Illinois, the prosecutor’s office gets 10-12 percent).

  3. Blouise,

    thanks for the list. my addition: lol – lots of love. I first ran into this when a friend responded to most of my emails w/ lol. It was just a rude or inappropriate response to some of my missives. Finally I asked why he was laughing at everything I said. Got it cleared up. Then there’s the story about a father-son exchange. Dad was saying lots of love; son was saying laughing out loud. When that got sorted out Dad decided that it was pretty much like in-person communication and eventually, but not yet, son would mature. In the meantime, they were interacting and both continued to lol.

  4. Pingback: Video: This Could Happen to You | Monroe Criminal Defense Lawyer

  5. Reblogged this on illinoisduilawyer and commented:
    This 17 minute video is definitely worth your time. It demonstrates how giving someone a badge gives him or her free reign to violate your rights and potentially ruin your life. One wonders what would have happened to this person if there wasn’t a dash cam recording the stop? Driving under the influence of drug case and allegedly refusing a blood test? Nothing would surprise me.
    Thanks to Jonathan Turley for his original blog post, which I am “reblogging” in its entirety because I agree with everything he said.

  6. Wow – what a bunch of losers. Why not delete 911 from your phones? I can’t wait for the counter-suit by Officer Reichert.

  7. This is absolutely appalling! It’s a good thing the two guys from Ohio were white. If they had been black they would have been arrested and perhaps beaten too! Welcome to police state America!

  8. I pray that this common piece of shit,and his partner do not have children,or,a wife..the Nazi Cops I`m talking about.

  9. When cops had a ‘beat’, a regular neighborhood where they learned the people and area, and where having a relationship with your neighborhood cop had benefits it helped to cooperate if you could. As it is, where the cop and you are essentially unknown quantities to each other and there is no ongoing relationship there is no up side to cooperating.

    At best you part and never see each other again. At worse you go to jail. There is no incentive for the cop to give you a break and no point to trying to ‘get on their good side’. Any promises by police to ‘put in a good word’ or ‘give you a break’ are pointless. They document. It is the DA that decides what gets prosecuted.

  10. Yes martingugino train ahead of time what to do, because when you are nervous and adrenalin rushed around a storm trooper you will not be thinking clearly. You might say “Officer since your questions do not pertain to the the stop, I respectfully am not going to answer them.”

    Doing God’s work huh? Violating your inalienable rights and the Constitution is God’s work? Which God’s might that be? The God of light or the god of darkness?

    If there were ANY justice in this country 50% of the cops would be doing a long jail sentence, and 45% would be on death row.

    “Bad cops make the other 5% of law enforcement look bad’.”
    ~Dave Champion

    http://www.davechampionshow.com/archives/?cat=1,6.

  11. Jill – I agree with you about “beyond the rule of law”, past the point, cops able to abuse their power, not to mention see themselves as bouncers. It doesn’t take many cops to do serious damage, the rest will watch, and violence is not the solution, although many people may have to be injured before the rest get a clue.

  13. Very similar thing happened to me driving on 70, in Missouri? You were weaving, seemed nervous, looking for drugs, do you have anything? Exactly the same. Refused permission to search. There was a dog, did not alert.

    Second officer came up and questioned me: Have you ever used marijuana? I looked incredulous, like you gotta be kidding. They said that was probable cause.

    Searched the car and trunk. End of stop (Didn’t find any “shakings”).
    I told the officer I was gods gift to mankind. Officer said he was just doing gods work.

    Amazing that someone got the dash cam video. Excellent work. I see a pattern. People now need their own dash camera. http://amzn.to/FR4CMh

  14. What a scum bag cop. It’s the government that brings in most of the drugs.
    And there is no Constitutional authority for the drug laws.

    Alert my ass….. any pig can fake it……Since when is a dogs word probable cause?

    Great post BTW!

  15. pete1, March 19, 2012 at 1:08 am

    btagwa
    ————————————
    hahahahahahahahahaha!….oh too funny….sorry I didn’t see this sooner…thanks pete 🙂

  17. Kathleen,

    DWB, of course. Often the mind avoids the obvious, which was the case after having had WWB explained to me.
    I had even postulated the ultimate crime in a car: DWB driving while being, but did not offer it. Of course that leads to other “being” crimes, which we have or will be persecuted for.

    Of course, you’ve all heard the one which I did many years ago:
    “When I persecuted I persecute”. It was a very small jurisdiction and an elected DA we may assume, and don’t come with your slurs on the south.
    Notice no capital S. Why didn’t somewhere in Quebec or Maine qualify for northern derison?

    Sometimes one’s derison tastes bitter. Our ignorant in-bred feuding mountain cousins suddenly appeared like brothers when in the newsreels one year when they were shown carrying their polio stricken children in their arms on foot down the mountain side for medical helpl

    Which is a helpful realization.

  18. Thanks dear folks,I’ll have to paste-it on my screen.

    Now I’ll have to mention that I was a amateur radio telegrafist since 1952.
    We used INTL morse code for that, and used things like you listed to save time when conversing that way. some were number code like 73, which meant best regards, 88 love and kisses, and alphabetic CUL see you later,
    that was enriched later working for Western Union by learning to read 5 hole punched paper tape and their abbreviations, then years later as assembler programmer 7-hole paper tape, and hexadecimal coding 0-9, and a-f.

    No, never did get to read magnetic tape, don’t remember why, if you get the joke.
    But got out of net contact after brief BB exposure, and never came back netwise. thus my “illiteracy”.
    Don’t know if I made one here or if it was already in use: NBAL= not being a lawyer.
    Hope my little tale was amusing. Oh yes I forgot the Q codes QSO contact, QSY change frequency, QRM noise from other stations, etc.

    BFN bye for now. Smile

  19. And, to answer idealist707’s other question:

    DWB = driving while black

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