Expert: Jack Toomey - 4/3/2008

Question
i asked you a legal question a few years ago, the car i was riding in was reported stolen, police failed to remove the report from their computer after they had returned the vehicle to the owner. 4 months later police pulled us over believing the car to be stolen, i had just passed my police test and physical and was called in for the academy. this event ruined years of my life and my family, i was searched and police found a gun on me. i went to jail in state prison for over 2 years, lost my police job and spent 40,000 in legal fees. at the time the court told me i couldnt suppress the gun because police were acting in good faith, you told me the same thing, the fact is that between 1991 and 1996 the law was settled, that if a search was a result of police error, the evidence must be suppressed, see people v McElhaney 552 NYS2d, the court relying on the fellow officer rule, held a mapp hearing and suppressed the gun, the police had engaged in inexusable neglect that jeopardized the liberty of the crime victim by failing to either update the police departments computer records immediately or by not releasing the car to the owner until the record could be updated. kessia McElhaney did not spend a day in jail, keep in mind that her car was only one day late in the computer and she still got off, while the car i was riding in was still in the computer as stolen 4 months after it was found and returned by police. you said the goodfaith overides the police error, so did the court, the reason i had the gun was because a thug was threatening me at the time, and the search clearly violated my 4th amendment rights, the failure or error police made by not removing the stolen car report from their computer jeopardized my libertys, wheres the justice,

Answer
Robert,

   While it is certainly unfortunate that all of this happened I am not sure what you want me to do.  I don't see a question here.  I know that you are upset and it appears that you are keeping me up to date on what the courts have ruled and it also appears that every ruling has gone against you.