Steven Knecht won another dismissal of felony drug dealing charges for his client with a successful motion to suppress the evidence obtained from an illegal search and seizure. This is the second dismissal of felony drug dealing charges in less than a month for Knecht.

The police had gone to an apartment due to a report of the client dealing spice from the apartment. Upon the opening the apartment door, the police claimed to smell a strong odor of burnt spice and seeing multiple adults in the apartment. The police entered the apartment without a warrant because of the presence of multiple adults and wanting to freeze the situation so evidence could not be destroyed.

Knecht successfully argued that there was insufficient evidence of an objective and reasonable fear that evidence was to about to be destroyed when the police entered the apartment without a warrant. Therefore, no exigent circumstances existed to justify the warrantless entry. The remedy for an illegal warrantless search is the suppression of the evidence obtained from the search. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

With over 34 years of experience, Steven Knecht is familiar with the possible defenses to criminal charges. If you find yourself having been arrested or accused of a crime, you should immediately hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer such as Steven Knecht to help you fight the State.