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3 Defenses To Use If You Are Falsely Charged With A Drug Offence Because Of Your Roommate

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Getting charged with a drug offence can be a hard battle to fight; however, if the drugs were not yours, you could use this as your defense. If your roommate had been doing and dealing drugs, and if you had no idea this was going on, you may be able to fight the charges and win. To do so, you will need a drug offence lawyer to assist you. Your lawyer may present these three defenses to help you get out of the charge.

You Did Not Know It Was Occurring

The first defense your lawyer will use to get the charges dropped is that you had no idea this was going on. The problem with this defense is that you will need to be able to somehow prove that even though you lived there, you had no clue that he or she was doing and selling drugs.

If your criminal background is clean, the court might be more willing to hear this argument. On the other hand, if you had any drug offences in the past, it might be hard for the court to believe you.

In order to prove that you didn't know anything about the drugs, you may need to call in witnesses. Your close friends or family members might be able to vouch for you, or you might be able to prove your side simply by demonstrating that you are a responsible, hard-working adult. By demonstrating this, it may be slightly easier for the court to believe your side.

The Drugs Were Concealed In Your Roommate's Bedroom

The second defense your lawyer may use is to back up your side even more is that the drugs were not found in your room or even in common areas. If the drugs were located in your roommate's bedroom, you will have more evidence to prove that you had nothing to do with the drugs.

In some cases, it will not matter where the drugs were found. If they were inside the house you live in, the police may assume that they are yours.

The Police Didn't Obtain a Search Warrant

Finally, your lawyer may be able to fight your charges with legalities relating to search warrants. First of all, the police are not allowed to search a person's house without a search warrant, unless the person living there consents to the search. If the police knocked on the door and told you they were going to search your house, you may have allowed it simply because you thought they had the legal right to do so. The problem is that they do not have this right without a warrant.

If they found drugs in your home during this search, the court may agree to drop the charges because the police found the evidence in a way that was illegal.

There is another defense that may also work for you though. If the police knocked on your door and asked for your permission to search the house, you may have consented to this even though they did not have a search warrant. In this situation, their search would be considered legal simply because you allowed it.

Keep in mind that this could be a ticket to your defense too. If you allowed them to search the home without a warrant, it would only make sense that you were not trying to hide anything. If you were, you probably would not have let them complete the search.

Being falsely charged with a crime you did not commit can be embarrassing, frustrating, and difficult. Your best option in this situation is to hire a drug offence lawyer to help you fight the charges. With one or all of these three defenses, you might be able to get the charges dropped for a crime you did not commit.


2 June 2015