CLEARWATER CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY

WHAT ACTION SHOULD YOU TAKE WHEN LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WANT TO SEARCH YOU OR YOUR PROPERTY

The police pull your car over for a bad tailight. They ask for your driver's license. Suddenly Pinellas County Police Officers want to search you and ask if they can search your vehicle. What would Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyers tell you to do? Every lawyer will tell you that you do not have any obligation to let them search. Tell them you want to see the search warrant signed by a Pinellas Judge giving them the right to search you or your vehicle. Then tell them you want to call your lawyer immediately.

What should you do you when federal government agents from the FBI or the DEA demand that you allow a search of your home, your office, your tax records, your car, your computer, your phone and cell phone records, your internet activity, your hard drive or even your pockets or your purse? Tell them you want to see the Search Warrant signed by a Judge giving them the right to search.

The fact is that you possess the Right to Privacy as an American. The Right to privacy means that you have the right to keep your personal information private not only the police, but from anyone who wants to search you unless a Judge has signed a search warrant.

Remember that a Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney is just a phone call and always available to help you every day at any hour. I'll never charge you for an immediate consultation to discuss your legal rights to privacy if you're the target of a criminal investigation. And my early intervention on your behalf may prevent your arrest or increases the chances that your privacy and your property can be protected from unlawful government intrusions. Robert Hambrick's objective is simple, to keep you from being arrested and to take action so that your records will remain just that - your records, rather than become public documents in a criminal prosecution.

(727)365-5555

If there is a valid search warrant, then law enforcement will search.

If there is a search warrant for your property, then you must allow the search. In fact if you hinder the search, then you can be arrested for the crime of obstruction. However, any search is limited to what is described wihin the search warrant and can not be supplemented by the officers at the scene.

Yet all unlawful evidence found will be collected and used for additional charges where possible. For example, if Federal Agents serving a search warrant in a tax fraud case find child pornography on a computer incident to the search warrant, the child pornography will be charged as well as the orginal tax fraud.

But it's vitally important to have Clearwater Criminal Lawyers look over the evidence, the search warrant and the prevailing law to make certain that the search warrant is factually and legally correct. If the search warrant has false information, then the results of the search may be subject to a successful motion to supress in which the evidence will be stricken by the Court as being 'fruit of the poisonous tree' and therefore prohibited from use at a later criminal trial.

If there is no search warrant, must consent to a search be given to law enforcement officers?

Without a search warrant an officer can not make a search unless he observes immediate probable cause. Never give consent to a search to an officer. Officers are trained professionals. Officers have been taught that if there is probable cause to search property to search it.

For example, an officer stops an automobile for for an outdated tag. When the driver rolls down the window, the officers smells what he believes to be marijuana. The officer will search the vehicle because he has a reasonable suspicion that there's a crime of possession of drugs. What if the officer is lying about the smell? A Clearwater Criminal Attorney will file a motion to suppress and at the hearing place that officer under oath to establish that the officer lied and the trial Court will determine whether the search and everything found during the search should be suppressed.

But if the driver of the car gives consent to search to the officer, then he does not need to formulate a reason to establish probable cause because permission to search is sufficient to conduct any search. If the driver gives consent to a search without a search warrant, then the search is valid even if the officer could not smell marijuana.

Similarly, an officer who gains your permission to search your home, business, computer files or phone has been taught to always conduct a search because he has nothing to lose. Thinking counterintuively that once permission is given the officer will not conduct a search because he somehow will think that permission would only be given if there was nothing to find simply gives him the ability to freely search and in the process to take away your Right to Privacy. There will be little or no benefit in either the weight of the charged misconduct nor in the final sentence for having allowed the search.

IF YOU'RE CONFRONTED BY POLICE WHO WANT TO SEARCH YOU OR SEARCH YOUR PROPERTY - JUST SAY NO!

When law enforcement officers ask or demand that you allow a search simply say these magic words:

1. I do not agree to any search. If you have reason to believe I have commited a crime show me the Search Warrant.

2. I demand my right to call my Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyer.

3. I refuse to say anything further.

Robert Hambrick strongly believes our American privacy rights are fundamental rights which must be vigorously protected from government intrusion or be lost.

Because Robert Hambrick has served the community both as an effective Defense Attorney for over twenty years as well as having served seven years as a Lead Trial Prosecutor in Pinellas county, Robert Hambrick gained vast knowledge about both sides of the criminal defense system giving him a crucial advantage when it comes to filing successful and effective Motions to Suppress where there was unlawfully obtained evidence that violates the Fourth Amendment Rights found in the United States Constitution.

IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE HAS BEEN ARRESTED OR CHARGED WITH A CRIME hire a Clearwater Criminal Lawyer to take the necessary steps to protect your rights, your property, your peace of mind while obtaining the best possible results.

CALL ROBERT HAMBRICK NOW

(727) 365-5555

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