September 24, 2015
If your spouse or roommate is selling drugs, the question of whether you can be arrested depends on a police officer’s assessment of the facts of the case. Whether you were in actual or constructive possession of those drugs, or otherwise directly or indirectly participated in their distribution, will determine how the case proceeds.
What Actual Possession Means
You are in actual possession of drugs if you are holding them, or they are on your person. You are also in actual possession if the drugs are so close to you as to be readily in your reach and control. If you cannot exercise control, mere proximity to you is not enough to prove actual possession.
Impact of Constructive Possession
If your spouse or roommate has concealed drugs in a place you have control over, you might be deemed to be in constructive possession of the drugs. If you did not have control over the place, the prosecutor is required to show that you had control of the drugs and knew they were there. If you are the sole occupant of a motor vehicle, and drugs were found in it, you have a potential problem.
Conspiracy Between You and Your Spouse
A conspiracy is generally an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime. If someone you were living with was selling drugs and you financed his or her operation, you can be arrested for a conspiracy to sell drugs. Whether you intended to commit a crime is irrelevant. For prosecutors, a conspiracy is one of the easiest crimes to prove. It takes only an agreement to commit a crime and a single step in furtherance of it.
Contact the Khonsari Law Group
A drug conviction can have very serious ramifications, even after you have served your sentence. Your employability can become seriously impaired, housing can be denied, and the conviction will show on every security check that you might go through. In many drug cases there may be errors or misconduct by police. Contact the Khonsari Law Group at (727) 269-5300 regarding any arrest for a consultation and case evaluation by a knowledgeable and experienced criminal law attorney.