As soon as a person realizes that they are under investigation, even if they have not been arrested, it is imperative that they contact an experienced lawyer. An attorney can help an individual understand their rights while the lawyer deals with the police, the narcotics division, the undercover cops, and other parties involved. By doing this, an attorney can help build an effective defense against an attorney’s Abilene drug charges.
Common Charges
There are many ways that an individual could be mistakenly charged in a drug case. For example, an older person may possess their prescription, but just have the drug in their pocket or even in the medicine container. However, in Lubbock, that is illegal because a person does not have it with the prescription.
These types of cases might get resolved fairly quickly, but most of the time, a drug charge is going to take several months if not longer to handle. It is during this time that a lawyer can begin building a defense to combat a person’s Abilene drug charges.
Potential Constitutional Issues
There are a lot of mistakes that law enforcement may make when issuing a drug charge. First, they can have an issue with how they stopped a person. There may have been a violation of the law, or maybe the person did not even commit a traffic violation. If it is a bad stop, and the stop is suppressed, then no evidence from the stop would be allowed in.
In terms of constitutional issues, there could be a violation of the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer, or Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Further, there could be issues with the actual drug themselves, the chain of custody may be a problem, or there may be issues with the lab and the testing.
There are also cases where the drugs were mixed up. Samples may have been mixed up and the wrong drug could have been tested. This could equate to someone else possessing that drug. Any of these issues can be utilized when building a defense against an Abilene drug charge.
Challenging the Government’s Case
The most effective way to challenge the government’s evidence is to simply start at the beginning. An attorney will look at how the police had gotten involved, such as if they had stopped an individual in their car, if they came to their house, if someone called an informant, and many other elements. These elements can be used to help build a defense against an individual’s drug charges in Abilene.
If any of these things were to occur, an attorney will want to challenge that undercover information or the reliability of that informant.
If an attorney does not take the case apart or look at all the facts involved, then they potentially risk missing actions of the government that may be illegal that may help the client get the case reduced or dismissed.