Can I Be Charged if the Drugs Weren’t Mine in Illinois? Facing drug charges in the state of Illinois? Attorney Joshua Boardman from Combs Waterkotte discusses whether you can be charged in Illinois even if the drugs aren’t yours.
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Interview Transcript
Dunn: Can I be charged if the drugs weren’t mine?
Boardman: Absolutely. The legal terms are actual possession and constructive possession. So if you and I are in a vehicle and I pick you up, you’ve got a backpack, you’ve got some sort of unlawful substance in your backpack. I get pulled over for having a brake light out or a tail light out or whatever, and law enforcement either established or it is established that there needs to be any sort of reasoning for searching the vehicle, or probable cause, or anything like that. And subsequent to that search, they locate unlawful drugs in that backpack. I may have no idea that those drugs were in your backpack, but they were located in the vehicle that I am owning and operating. So actual possession is if law enforcement comes up to you and you’ve got a baggie of something in your pocket, but constructive possession is do you have the ability to exercise dominion or control over that space and the state’s attorney can rely on circumstantial evidence to file possession charges against you. That’s why it’s very important that you do not get into a finger pointing battle there at the scene and allow the defense attorney to really focus on that constructive possession element.
