No. Someone else doing a crime is no defense. If you have concerns about police conduct, you should start by filing a complaint with the arresting department.

A proper search is premised on either a warrant exception (e.g., for vehicles, that is usually "plain view"), a warrant with probable cause, or consent. The police are always free to ask for consent to search.

In both your scenarios, I could see the police confiscating the box; I... View More

Search challenges are fact-dependent. No real way to say "yay" or "nay" without seeing the reports and knowing what the container was and what the police had reason to look for.

Police, courts, and prosecutors have various levels of governmental immunity that makes it extremely hard to sue them without a clear and very intentional violation.

The federal Confiscation Act of 1862 would apply to gold owned by the Confederate States of America (which the Act did not recognize as an entity), with the result that the United States would own the gold. This is a hypothetical question because the CSA government probably held no gold at the... View More

No, but there may be other actionable problems here. Generally, there is a right to have the actual preliminary examine within 21 days of arraignment unless waived, or upon "good cause" by the court.

When a lawyer is in good standing, they deserve to be presumed to be zealous advocates for their client. What clients sometimes don't realize is that defending people does not include advancing unfounded theories, whether grounded in fact or law, or presenting false facts or statements. A... View More

You need to focus your arguments on what is happening now; not what happened or didn't happen five years ago. Perhaps the first step should be filing a motion to change parenting time. Your argument isn't whether supervised parenting time should have ever been in place, but that you no... View More

Not necessarily. Police departments do a more comprehensive background check than most employers. A domestic violence charge - regardless of underlying facts - is going to be highly scrutinized by any law enforcement agency. Not saying you can't become a police officer, but you need to be... View More

You need a criminal defense attorney now. These situations are fact dependent. It sounds like there was a valid stop. An attorney might want to know how long you were stopped before the dog came out. And there are some interesting cases regarding what can happen when a dog "hits" on a... View More

No. That statute applies to school personnel and what can be done to students within the school. School officials have an obligation to follow applicable laws. The mask mandate comes from county health departments. School officials must follow those orders, and they would be acting under color of... View More

Bingo! phone lines and internet connections are matters of interstate commerce. But it is not always charged as a federal crime; more often than not, it would be a state-level charge.

Good questions. Federal crimes are connected to interstate commerce. Commonly, federal criminal cases involve multiple defendants in multiple states. Guns used in crime came from somewhere, and usually not from the state where the crime occurred. For example, a gun may have been stolen from someone... View More

Not necessarily. Federal criminal law is concerned with interstate commerce. Under your fact scenario, the person would be charged with murder in the state the murder happened: Ohio. Note that Ohio has the death penalty, unlike Michigan.

Your question is heavily fact-dependent. How and what was the police officer searching? What was the basis for a wellness check? Regardless, cops don't need to ignore things then in the open. For example, there would be no impermissible search required for the police to arrest someone when... View More

With modern technology, it's rare to see a paper arrest warrant. Police can arrest you for misdemeanors committed in their presence, or felonies upon information - there is no distinction between violent or non-violent. Search warrants are a different story.

The 4th Amendment does govern whether a warrant may be issued and when. Be careful with legal research and relying on case law for information unless you are trained to do so.

Your question is much to broad. The 4th Amendment is the subject of new case law nearly every week. But very broadly, a search or seizure must come about after reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

There are limits (not at all addressed below), but generally yes. Public health rule making is regarded as one of the Police Powers.

The US Constitution reserves the Police Powers to the states (Tenth Amendment), although limited by the supremacy clause (Article VI, paragraph 2, and not... View More

A Michigan attorney could advise best, but your post remains open for a month. As a general matter, each state might operate differently in terms of what their Departments of Natural Resources (or Environmental Protection, Wildlife, Fisheries, etc.) share with their Departments of Motor Vehicles.... View More