Can There Be Reasonable Doubt That You Sold Drugs To An Undercover Police Officer?

If police catch you with a large quantity of a controlled substance in your possession, the odds are in your favor that you can get the charges downgraded to simple possession, provided that the quantity of the drugs was the only thing that made prosecutors believe that you intended to sell them.  Things are different if police have evidence that you were planning to sell the drugs.  How can prosecutors prove that you were or were not planning to sell the drugs, or to do anything, since planning is an action that takes place entirely inside your mind?  Their evidence can be quite convincing if they have a recording of you saying that you were bringing the drugs to a certain place at a certain time and of the other person saying that he or she would meet you there and buy the drugs from you.  If you are facing criminal charges after an undercover officer recorded a conversation which prosecutors claim proves that you were planning to sell illegal drugs, contact a West Palm Beach drug offenses lawyer.

Secret Recordings by Law Enforcement Do Not Tell the Whole Story

In 2024, Chad Marlow conversed by phone with an undercover police officer, and the two met in the parking lot of a shopping center in Broward County.  The officer asked to buy methamphetamine from Marlow, as the two had discussed on the phone, and then the officer showed his police badge and arrested Marlow.  The ensuing search of Marlow’s car yielded a lunchbox containing a pound of methamphetamine, as well as a backpack with various quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl pills, and weapons.  The officer had recorded several conversations with Marlow regarding the drug transactions.  In May 2024, Marlow pleaded guilty and received a prison sentence.

This is not the only possible outcome for drug cases that involve conversations recorded by undercover law enforcement officers.  It is sometimes possible to show that the recorded conversations do not clearly prove that you possessed illegal drugs or that you intended to sell them; your lawyers may be able to persuade the jury of another plausible interpretation of the conversations.  In rare cases, you may be able to use the entrapment defense successfully.  The entrapment defense is where you argue that the only reason you broke the law is because the officer persuaded you to do it; in other words, the officer caused you to commit the crime instead of merely catching you in the act.  It is more likely, though, that the recording contains evidence against you and also against other people.  Therefore, you might be able to get a plea deal if you are willing to testify against other defendants and corroborate the evidence against them that the recording captured.

Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

Attorney William Wallshein has more than 41 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County.  Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

cbs12.com/news/local/drugs-gun-meth-fentanyl-cocaine-south-florida-man-chad-marlow-sentenced-to-25-years-following-an-undercover-drug-bust-broward-county-pompano-beach-florida-news-may-2-2024