Expert: Jack Toomey - 1/7/2007

Question
sir at 8:25 four friends and i were in route to a liquor store all but one of us are of age and we each had a beer(unopened) and i had 1 empty can in my possession we were walking through a parking lot when four police cars pulled up and three (what i assumed are trainees because they had fabric badges and no metal shields) and five normal police officers descended upon us and begin to accuse us of defacing public property after which we informed them we had done no such thing and further informed them we were on our way to the liquor store they then harassed us for thirty minutes and asked such degrading questions as "what are you all  a bunch of raging alcoholics?" and "why do you losers hand out together" and then they approached a parked car and begin to investigate that car and ask us repeatedly and with a malicious demeaner "is this your car, is this your fucking car?" it was none of our car like i said we had been drinking so we were walking to the liquor store they then began to search all of us they found nothing however there was one female in our group who asked to be searched by a female officer and they refused i claim to be no expert of the law and yet somehow this doesn't seem right to me we all plead not guilty and are awaiting trial i was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the subject , see the judge informed me that trespassing is and i quote " a person commits the crime of first degree criminal trespass if such person knowingly and unlawfully enters or remains in a dwelling of another or if such person enter any motor vehicle with intent to commit a crime therein"  we did not knowingly enter this area it wasnt fenced off and there were no signs furthermore after they wrote us all tickets mine being the only one with an "open container" they had us open our unopened beers and pour them out so although i did have an empty beer that hardly classifies as open container right please i hope you can explain this to me

sincerely
robert

Answer
Robert,

   I am not sure what your question is.  It seems that you are complaining about the actions of the police.  I'm not the person to talk to if you don't like what the police did.  You need to speak to the supervisor of these officers if you feel that they violated departmental rules.

  If you are asking about the law in your state that would difficult since there are fifty states with fifty sets of laws.  Perhaps your attorney would be able to shed some light on your situation.