A drug case in Missouri can begin with a search of your car or home or with officers going through your pockets during a roadside stop. But if law enforcement acted in a way that violated your constitutional rights, it might have an effect on how the case proceeds.
Constitutional limits on drug searches
The Fourth Amendment and the Missouri Constitution protect you from unreasonable searches and seizures, so police generally need a warrant before searching a place where you reasonably expect privacy. To obtain one, officers must present facts that establish probable cause to believe the location contains evidence of a crime.
Once a judge signs the warrant, its terms define where officers can search and what they can seize. If they go beyond those boundaries without another legal basis, a court may find that they exceeded their authority.
Circumstances permitting warrantless searches
Police may proceed without a warrant when a recognized exception applies. Common examples include:
- Voluntary consent
- Probable cause to search a vehicle
- Contraband in plain view
- Search following a lawful arrest
- An emergency requiring immediate action
An officer cannot justify a search simply because it uncovered drugs. The court considers what officers knew before they acted and can suppress the evidence if those facts did not support the exception they relied on.
Effects of suppressing key evidence
When a judge finds that police obtained evidence through an unlawful search, the exclusionary rule may keep that material out of trial. Prosecutors then cannot ask the jury to consider the drugs or other items covered by the ruling.
The court may also exclude material that officers discovered because of the original violation. Under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, suppression can extend beyond what officers found during the original search. Judges can bar later statements, additional contraband or other information discovered because of the violation.
Courts do not exclude everything connected to a violation. Prosecutors can still use evidence from an independent lawful source or material that officers would have discovered anyway. They might also rely on items seized under a warrant that officers reasonably believed was valid.
Suppressing evidence does not dismiss the charge by itself because the state can still rely on other admissible proof. If prosecutors lose the drugs or other evidence at the core of the case, the remaining proof may not show that you knowingly possessed a controlled substance. Prosecutors could then dismiss the charge.