Marijuana trafficking is a serious charge, and a drug crime lawyer in Oklahoma City should be your first call if you are being accused of trafficking in marijuana. Keep reading to learn more about how the police will bring a case against you and what we can do to defend you.
Can Police Use Your Text Messages or Phone Records in a Marijuana Trafficking Case?
The simple answer to this question is: yes. The police can use your phone records and text messages against you, but they must obtain those records by legal means.
Your Rights
The Fourth Amendment protects you against unreasonable search and seizure, but there’s a limit to what’s considered “unreasonable” around the concept of “reasonable expectation of privacy.” So, for example, if you are in your own home with the door closed, it’s reasonable to expect that what you do in your home shouldn’t be subject to public scrutiny without a warrant. But things are different when you’re out in public. In a coffee shop, for example, you should not expect to have privacy: it’s not a private environment.
How It Applies to Phones
The question is how all this applies to cell phones. In January 2014, a case in Oklahoma, State v. Marcum, went a long way towards setting a precedent that Oklahoma residents should not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for text messages that are stored by a third-party service provider. In this case, two people had been charged with conspiracy to defraud the state, and the court was considering whether the text messages from one of the parties could be admitted as evidence against them.
Ultimately, the court held that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in this record, referencing a Maryland case from 1979 as precedent. The Maryland case established something called the “third-party doctrine.” In that case, the police had installed a “pen register” on a phone, which recorded all the numbers that called it. The court ultimately ruled that this was acceptable because the phone company kept records of all numbers that dialed in anyway.
The third-party doctrine states that anyone who gives their information to a third party, whether that’s a phone company, a cloud service, or any similar entity, has no reasonable expectation that this information will be private. At the same time, the courts have consistently found it too intrusive to say that law enforcement can simply access these records on a whim. Because of how important cell phones are to our personal and private lives, a warrant is required before the police can get these records.
Application to Marijuana Trafficking
The precedent set by the cases mentioned above applies to all criminal cases, including marijuana trafficking. To bring a trafficking charge, Oklahoma law-enforcement only needs to prove that you had a certain amount of marijuana in your possession (25 pounds or more) and do not actually have to prove any intent to sell it or show the existence of a distribution network or any communications about selling it. So why would the police care about your phone records, then? This really becomes a question if the state needs to prove that the marijuana they found belongs to you.
For example, say you were found walking down the street with 30 pounds of marijuana in a backpack: the state would not need to prove that you had an intent to distribute it. They can charge you with trafficking just for having that amount on your person, and it’s pretty clear those drugs are yours. But say you live in a home that you share with three roommates and have friends regularly coming and going. If the police come in and find 30 pounds of marijuana hidden in a closet, even if that closet is yours, it becomes much easier to argue that you didn’t even know about the drugs. In this case, the prosecution will need to find some way of showing that the drugs belong to you. If they are able to find text messages discussing the sale of drugs or phone records showing that you made calls to a known distributor of illegal marijuana, this would enormously help their case.
Challenges the Police Face
The police do face some challenges in using your phone records. One of them is the challenge of proving the authenticity of the messages. To be admissible in court, a text message must meet certain criteria that prove it to be authentic and relevant. It can also be very time-consuming to get information off a phone, particularly if you and your lawyer are putting up a fight and bringing motions to suppress this evidence. The police must also show that they have reason to believe they will find something useful to their investigation and incriminating to you to get the proper warrants. If they try to search your phone without a warrant, anything they find maybe inadmissible in court.
Things to Know
Deleted Messages Don’t Delete
Everyone should be aware that deleting texts from their phone does not mean the texts are gone forever. Many service providers keep records of texts, and it is often possible for a forensic expert to recover them.
Calling Drug Crime Lawyer in Oklahoma City Should Happen Fast
The faster you contact a drug crime lawyer, the more quickly your lawyer can jump on your defense. If you give the state lots of time to go through the evidence without challenging them, it’s more likely they will find something to use against you. In a worst-case scenario, law enforcement may even acquire evidence through illegal means and try to use it against you. If you don’t have an experienced criminal defense lawyer watching your back, investigating everything the prosecution tries to use as evidence and digging into how that evidence was obtained, your rights could be violated and you may not even realize it.
If you call a lawyer right away, your lawyer will start throwing up roadblocks and make sure that the police do everything by the book. If anything they do does violate your rights, your lawyer will immediately move to suppress that evidence so it can’t be used against you. Beyond that, your lawyer will challenge the prosecution’s interpretation of the evidence and may also be able to negotiate a plea bargain on your behalf to get charges lowered.
Marijuana Trafficking Has Big Penalties
Trafficking is a serious crime in Oklahoma and not something you want to mess around with. The minimum prison sentence for marijuana trafficking is four years, and it can easily be more than that if it’s not your first offense, if you were trafficking near a school or public park, or because of other factors. There are also some pretty hefty fines. The faster you get started on your defense, and the more experienced your defense lawyer is, the better outcome you can hope for.
If you or someone you love has been charged with marijuana trafficking, don’t delay. Call Cannon & Associates right now at (405) 657-2323 or visit us online to set up a free case strategy session. Our team is made up of former prosecutors, experienced defense lawyers, judge advocates, and other professionals who all strategize together on every case to provide you with the best possible defense.