Any lawyers here? Specifically NY lawyers.

[Kingofalldems]

Can the police come to a house with a warrant and confiscate marijuana and paraphernalia that goes with it without arresting or charging the owner? BTW, they supposedly let him keep his bong.

[elleng]

1. Would have to know what the Warrant said.

[Kingofalldems]

3. I have never heard of a confiscation only warrant,

which is what allegedly happened in this case. No charges, just took his stuff. I am having trouble believing the story.

[elleng]

4. Right, sounds peculiar,

but my experience isn't with 'warrants.' My son in laws is, and he executes warrants to arrest perps.

[Kingofalldems]

5. Hmm, just thought of something.

It was a search warrant, maybe charges come later.

But he kept his bong. Funny.

[elleng]

6. Ok, 'search,'

didn't include paraphernalia, I guess.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Dave wasn't there, man

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[trof]

7. Dood?

[Massacure]

8. I'm not a lawyer, but...

I'd be willing to hazard a guess that police in most jurisdictions are allowed to seize evidence of a crime unrelated to the warrant if during the execution of that lawful warrant such evidence of the unrelated crime appears in plain site. For example, if the IRS has a warrant to take your computer and and any papers with financial information on them while investigation tax evasion, they aren't going to just ignore a dead body if they see one.

[Kingofalldems]

9. They had a warrant specifically for drugs and drug paraphernalia.

[dr.strangelove]

10. Short Answer - Of Course

Why would they choose not to arrest, or more likely issue a court summons, based on your description, is another matter.

Often drugs and related paraphenalia are seized and only a summons for a later court date is issued, depending of course on the individuals involved, volume of drugs and how the search proceeds. I have represented many clients who were pulled over and had pot, pipes and bongs taken, but no one arrested on numerous occassions. Usually its young adults or juvies with no priors who cooperate. But without knowing those details, I can only say that I have little or no problem believing this happened if the people involved were kids or young adults with no priors or at least no violent/felony priors.