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Criminal Defense

Three Drug Felony Charges Dismissed After Illegal Search: What the Body Camera Showed

Jason Savela8 min read

The Boulder DA filed a motion to dismiss three Drug Felony level 1 charges — heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine — after body camera footage revealed that Longmont Police had searched a small container without consent or probable cause.

The Boulder District Attorney filed a motion to dismiss a case against my client that included three Drug Felony level 1 charges: Possession of Schedule I with Intent to Distribute (heroin), Possession of Schedule II with Intent to Distribute (cocaine and methamphetamine), and additional related charges. The reason was straightforward — the police searched my client without his consent and without probable cause. The police reports and arrest warrant affidavit did not reveal the problem. The body cameras did.

The Longmont Police officers in this case were, by all appearances, kind and pleasant. Their tone was designed to gain cooperation. They suggested that if my client simply told the truth, he would not get in trouble. They even implied that a different person — likely the dealer my client had bought from — was the real target. It was a well-practiced approach. My client did not give consent to search. He did not admit to having any drugs other than marijuana. He never said where he had bought anything. He did admit to having a Leatherman multi-tool on him that could be considered a possible weapon. That admission would matter.

The stop itself began with a common police tactic: an unmarked Ford F-250 tailgating my client until he failed to use a turn signal. Tailgating is a deliberate technique to provoke a minor traffic violation that creates a legal basis for a stop. Without that turn signal, there would have been no lawful stop. The police may have found another opportunity to contact him, but they need a valid reason — a traffic violation, an equipment violation, a registration issue. The turn signal gave them their opening.

Once stopped, the officers patted my client down for weapons — a Terry frisk, permitted when there is reasonable suspicion a person is armed and dangerous. During that pat-down, they found objects in his pocket and removed them: a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and two small containers that were not see-through. The officer set these items down and continued talking with my client. So far, arguably within the law.

Then the officer picked up the two opaque containers, opened them, and looked inside. That was the illegal search. No weapon could fit inside a small opaque container. There was no reason to believe anything other than marijuana — which my client had already acknowledged — was inside them. My client had not given permission to open them. He had not said drugs were in them. The officer had no probable cause to open those containers. But he opened them anyway, found heroin, and the investigation escalated from there.

Confronted with the discovery, my client cooperated and admitted there were other drugs in the car. He could have said only: 'I want a lawyer.' He did not — but fortunately, that error did not ultimately harm him, because the illegal search that started the chain of discovery was the foundation of everything that followed. Suppress the container search, and the rest falls with it.

There is an important legal principle at work here that goes beyond this case. The trunk of a car is the most legally protected area of a vehicle. A person has the greatest reasonable expectation of privacy in a locked trunk. And when a firearm or other weapon is found in the same location as drugs, a special offender charge can be added — one that carries a mandatory prison sentence. The stakes in cases like this are not abstract. They are years of someone's life.

The lesson this case teaches is one I have seen confirmed many times: the police report is not the whole story. Officers write reports that describe their actions as lawful. They are trained to do this, and they often believe it. But body cameras record what actually happened — the sequence of events, the tone, the exact moment an officer reached into a pocket or opened a container. In this case, the camera showed what the report did not: an officer opening two opaque containers with no legal justification.

My client did several things right that night, even if he did not do everything perfectly. He was polite. He did not consent to a search. He did not volunteer information about where he had bought drugs or who had sold them to him. He asserted his right not to answer questions without a lawyer. These actions — calm, clear, non-confrontational — preserved the legal issues that ultimately won the case. The street is not the place to argue with police. The courtroom is.

If you are facing drug charges in Colorado and believe the police may have searched you, your car, or your belongings without proper legal justification, do not assume the police report tells the whole story. Request body camera footage. Preserve every piece of evidence. And contact an experienced criminal defense attorney before you say anything to anyone. The difference between a conviction and a dismissal can come down to two small containers and what an officer had — or did not have — the legal right to open.

Legal Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every legal situation is unique. If you have questions about your specific circumstances, contact The Savela Law Firm, P.C. directly.

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