Location: CHEYENNE, WYOMING.
So the story is, I was driving from Colorado to Wyoming to purchase a truck. I was in a rental car. I got pulled over for going 81 in a 75 right before Cheyenne right after crossing the Colorado to Wyoming border. When the officer came to the car, he said it reeked like a marijuana extremely strong and that he was going to search the vehicle. I had no problem with it as I truly wasn’t doing anything wrong and had nothing bad on me. I disclosed to the police officer. I had about 22,000 cash on me as I was on my way to buy a truck from a private seller and had all the messages and advertisement to show as proof. they put me and my buddy in separate police cars and searched my car two times as well as running dogs around it. They had us sitting in separate police cars for almost 2 hours while they kept searching my car!! After making many phone calls and realizing they couldn’t seize my money,
they found a crumb which is SMALLER THAN HALF OF A FINGERNAIL- stuck in the seat of my rental car. they charged me with possession of a controlled substance under 3 ounces. I have a clean criminal record and don’t want to plead guilty and have my record stained. They denied my request for a public defender. I called three attorneys and I can’t get one to represent me for under $5000. I’m going to represent myself in court. My court date is in about 7 days. Does anybody have any advice about what I should say? I really just want to go in the court and tell the complete truth and hope the judge agrees with me that this is ridiculous, but I’ve never been in criminal court before and don’t know what I should be preparing for. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!
Comments
>Does anybody have any advice about what I should say?
“Your honor, I plead not guilty and I would like time to hire a lawyer.”
>ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!
Don’t represent yourself.
I recommend you pay the retainer and get an attorney if you intend to fight the charge. Either this is a simple defense, and you will get the majority of your retainer back or it’s not simple and it would have been better off pleading guilty from the beginning. In my experience a pro se litigant basically depends on the judge being generous and essentially running their defense for them. There is too much nuance to court proceedings for a person without legal training to be able to interact with effectively.
If you still intend to go through with pro se representation I cannot give much advice without knowing more about the charge and what the purpose of this hearing is. Best general advice is to be respectful to everyone in the courthouse, especially the judge and the prosecutor. Explain the situation clearly and concisely to the judge. Avoid making accusations and assumptions you cannot prove. Don’t accuse the cops of planting drugs or anything like that. Just say the marijuana wasn’t yours, you had no idea it was there, and that you believe the marijuana was already in the vehicle when you rented it.
plead not guilty and get a trial date. They will likely drop it before trial with that “evidence”
say you’re ready for trial