Question
Does off duty border patrol agent have the legal authority to initiate an arrest &detain in san diego? Thank u to all that answered before & here is the complete story. My bf had met up w 2 friends of ours who were at a beach parking lot@aprx 10pm after they called him to drive them home in their car because they were too drunk. They were then waiting for me so I could follow to bring my bf back. While waiting my bf sat in back-friends in front & they were parked 2 stalls away from a truck. They were then approached by a man from the truck,shinning a flashlight, displaying a badge, & announcing he was an "unarmed officer" & demanded they get out of the car.At first they thought he was jst posing as an officer in attempt to rob them as he was not uniformed & had came out of the vehicle next to them which had already been there prior to their arrival. After his repeated demands they got out of the vehicle&were instructed to put hands on the car in which they were frisked,pockets were searched & emptied& then made to sit on the curb while the guy appeared to radio for backup (no walky talky was seen but they heard it & him talking on it). He told them that they were being arrested because 1 friend had gone outside car & urinated (in a public beach park area)&for seeing them lighting a pipe, in which the 2 in front had&considering the truck was parked next to them entire time, he had to have also noticed my bf in backseat was not participating in the activity, yet just waiting in the car instead of outside in the cold,dark,secluded area til I arrived.police arrived,searched car(both front passengers were on informal probation)&found a baggy w meth residue (driver charged w possession) & pipe within the car(passenger charged w pharaphenial found under his seat),all 3charged w pc11550 hs. During this time the police were trying to get my bf to admit being a meth dealer(pressing other 2 to verify which of course they nvr did because he's not) they also went through my bf phone &saw a txt that had my hotel room# that I was at at the time,but not hotel name.The police then went to the surrounding hotels inquiring about who was in the room# on his phone, as well as showing his picture&giving his name asking if he had a room at any of the hotels, in which he didn't. The 2 other people were drunk, failing all field sobriety test given to them while my bf wasn't & even had officer comment on his surprise that he passed.All were taken in,booked,&blood tested (my bf denied them to take blood becuz he didn't feel they had the right the to but was told that they would use force if he didn't cooperate, in which he felt he didn't have much a choice so he did). He was then placed in drunk tank(though had not drank at all)&they said he didn't have a bail as they would release him in 7hrs while other 2were kept somewhere else(though drunk)&both bailed out&release hrs before my bf was. The driver had court the following week&plead out w pc1000(was not charged w dui though seen driving up)&my bf&other passenger have court march 8th. Passenger has prior DUI, so he's hoping to find a way to avoid charges as I don't think he's eligible for pc1000 or prop36 & wants to avoid losing his job serving jail time. Although my main concern is my bf who's only charge is pc 11550 hs & though he wasn't using in that event or within a couple days, he will test positive for pot he had used for 1st time in awhile, aprx 3days prior, which I heard could still be used as proof for his charge if any drug use occurred within 5days before arrest. I read that off-duty border patrol agents can only make private citizens arrest in California. Would the initial contact/arrest still be constutionally legal even when he announced himself as an officer, flashing a badge,& proceeding in such a manner to lead my bf&friends to believe they were already under arrest by a legal authority&being detained w no free will at that point to leave? Also is there any misconduct in the way they blood tested him against his will or charging him w pc11550 hs having not been seen smoking drugs like the other 2, having nothing illegal on or even near him in the car, the only 1 of the 3 not on probation/parole, having no drug/alcohol related arrest in the past 20yrs,& passing all sobriety test w nothing indicating any kind of intoxication? Will the motion to suppress include the blood test results, as that is the only evidence theyd have to use against my bf & friend? And finally, taking into consideration the above facts about my bf @the time &having no related or recent criminal history, were any of his constitutional or civil rights in any way violated when the police went to several high-end hotels showing his picture & giving his name because they wanted so badly for him to be a drug dealer, even though he wasn't witnessed doing anything nor had he possessed anything drug related, had little to no money on him,& was perfectly coherent, displaying absolutely no reasonable suspicion,"probable cause"(in regards to dealing drugs-suspicion of using would obviously be implied for just being there while others use), or right to conduct in such a manner? Thank you all so much & I greatly appreciate your time & assistance in responding!
Answer
If someone even tried to answer this question, what would you do with the info??
Are you going to be your boyfriend's attorney? Is he going to be his own attorney? Does he have an attorney? If so, ask her. This forum, as I see it, is not to act as your boyfriends attorney. These are attorney questions, and should be asked by your boyfriend to his attorney,
No one is helped by reading this long description of facts that you really don't know to be true. Work on finding him an attorney, not on trying to find answers to what YOU consider the legal issues in his case.
