I was recently arrested for growing 3 plants for personal use in Houston. I’ve never done anything illegal to be able to put me in jail before and have no prior incidents with the law that required me to get ticketed or mistreated. We have friends of the family who are police officers and know for the good part that they are just doing their jobs and I was doing something bad. My parents had learned that I had been smoking marijuana for about 3 years they didn’t approve because it’s illegal but even though they never acknowledged it I believe they saw it was me deal with my depression. I knew the risk when growing but too many close calls with police and once with a very understanding one that had stopped me for my head lights being off at dusk. He let me go with the message do it at home because I can’t stop you there, and the obvious greed from drug dealers stop me from buying weed since Sept. and growing seemed to be a safer and cheaper source of action. Sadly I was mistaken and watched videos about my rights and the way cops abuse theirs too late. I was good enough to hide the plants from my parents but not from Houston narcotics agents. I just bailed out and am trying to get ready for court and still I don’t fully understand how the cops were allowed to walk onto my parent’s property without any consent from us. I understand the knock method police use but what if the officer never knocked does he have the right to walk to the back of the house without any consent. Is that ever legal? It was around 11 in the morning January 14 when I went to my back yard to my shack which is pretty much my apt away from my parents to enjoy the company of two friends who wanted to smoke a cigarillo with me. We hadn’t begun to light it when I heard some talking in my back yard so I stuck my head out of the shack. That’s when I found myself talking to a police officer. The officer told me that he was there because they had gotten a complaint about the house and thought the house was in violation of city code I stepped out of the shack and told my friends to follow closing the flap behind me. It didn’t matter in the end a cop went into the shed without permission or a warrant and found the plants. After being arrested for more than an hour in the back of a cop car they told me that they gave my father 41 tickets (which after review by a lawyer turned out that the majority were false) and that the real reason they were there was because of suspicious drug activity, which I don’t understand cause I don’t sell, plan on selling, or in any case ever sold. They never once showed me or my dad (mother was at work oblivious to the fact of what was going on) a warrant to search any part of our house. Everything seemed fine to me at first and was more than happy to talk about the city code violations and fix them since I had been trying to get my dad to finally let me throw away a lot of the clutter around the house. While I was at the front of the house I presume that an officer entered my shack without permission and had to walk all the way to the back and move a curtain to find my plants. I was then called under my garage by a narcotic officer with the last name Norris who was pretty nice I thought for letting me take the blame for the plants and not getting my parents involved and causing them to lose everything (which isn’t much). But as we talked I realized they seemed very confused not to be finding a lot of drugs he then asked if I was working which ironically I had an interview that day. When I stated I didn’t he asked if I wanted to work for him and I said yeah thinking he cares he can get me a job when no one else could but then the questions came and I saw It was just a trick. He asked what the largest amount of cocaine I had ever seen, and which I replied was a dime bag a friend had since I don’t touch the stuff. Then followed up with marijuana which I truthfully responded the weed I was growing. Then started telling me don’t worry ill talk to the prosecutor it’ll be a misdemeanor you’ll walk out in 3 days just serve the time and help your family. But after going to jail and spending the night there I found that It wasn’t a misdemeanor but a felony and I would be in jail till Tuesday and still would possibly get stuck doing time. If any can help me in any way with legal advice it would be greatly appreciated. It’s about time the corrupt government of Texas is put under pressure and exposed for the criminals they truly are. How they sleep knowing that a 19 year old with good parents , a loving ,and sane head on his shoulders can be put in jail with people who plainly seem to just not give a fuck about any of the consequences of their actions is beyond reason. I hope they’re children don’t have to be in the same position I am in but after seeing the pain and disappointment in my parents faces I can’t stop and wish they would. So in the hopes of gaining support for a rally at city hall ive made my myspace account into a page for stories of people who didnt deserve to be treated like the lowest of criminals if you have any story of your own please dont hesitate to message me on myspace my url is
http://www.myspace.com/rogelioe.rodriguez 