Summer Camp Music Festival Defense Lawyer in Peoria

Arrested at the Summer Camp Music Festival? 
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Friday, May 26, 2017 marks the starting day for the annual Summer Camp Music Festival , which is located at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois. While this event is a fun gathering for the people of Chillicothe and visitors from the surrounding areas, it is also a known hub for arrests, particularly for drug crimes. According to reports, past years have resulted in dozens of arrests for varying criminal activities at the festival, a large majority of them being related to drug offenses, such as:

Contact Our Peoria Criminal Defense Attorney For Experienced Help

If you or a loved one is arrested at the Summer Camp Music Festival for drug crimes, or any other type of offense, do not hesitate in taking legal action and fighting to protect your rights. If you need a lawyer in Chillicothe, contact the McCall Law Offices, P.C. today for the experienced defense you deserve on your side. We are located just half an hour south of the Summer Camp Music Festival.

Hiring a defense attorney is a crucial aspect of protecting your future, as you may not only experience hefty fines for your offense, but you may also be looking at time behind bars and a criminal record that will stay with you for many years to come. Take your future seriously by hiring a lawyer who will stop at nothing to represent your case! With over 10 years of experience representing people in the area, our firm has helped a number of clients obtain the desired results when facing criminal offenses such as drug crimes, violent crimes, and sex-related crimes.

As a former prosecutor, Attorney Christopher S. McCall is prepared to offer you the tactful and educated approach to your defense due to his unique legal history. By hiring our firm, you will not be disappointed with the hands on care you receive.

About The Summer Camp Music Festival

Chillicothe is a small town known for hosting this festival for over a decade and is located just north of Peoria. In 2001 the festival began as a smaller gathering of 1,000 people and 20 bands for the Memorial Weekend celebrations, and today it has grown astronomically. With over 15,000 guests in attendance, there are three straight days of performances on seven different stages, hosting over 100 bands for the weekend of fun.

A Message From Our Attorney

My name is Christopher McCall. I am a lawyer and a frequent attendee of music festivals such as Summer Camp in Chillicothe, Illinois. I am also a former prosecutor who practices criminal defense work in the Peoria County, Tazewell County & Putnam County. Clearly Summer Camp is an amazing atmosphere where we all can listen to mash groups like Girl Talk and meet amazing people from various walks of life. Some of my favorite performances on previous years include Moe, Tom Petty and The Roots.

Summer Camp is also a phenomenal experience to network and be care free. However buyer be aware; not everyone is there to hula hoop, listen to great music and meet new friends. Some attend Summer Camp for purely economic reasons that may be contrary to your goals. Yes, surrounding businesses make a lot of money with the influx of individuals participating in Summer Camp, but so do police agencies. Police Agencies decided to join the fray, reaping the economic benefits of Summer Camp. The Police Agencies are going to have undercover officers and agents of police who are Summer Camp attendees looking to make arrests. Those arrests can lead to ridiculous fines and reduced civil liberties. While at Summer Camp, their goal is to look like you, act like you in hopes they see you committing a crime, such as drug possession, drug dealing and/or drug use.

Disclaimer

It is not my goal in this writing to tell individuals how to commit crimes or to obstruct justice. It is my goal to teach people how to have a good, Summer Camp experience in a responsible way. As Americans, we have the right to know our civil liberties and make sure they are respected.

First of all, do not have in your vehicle marijuana or illegal drugs. There will be officers looking to stop your vehicle for miniscule acts such as minor speeding violations, swerving, texting and driving and missing headlights, especially Summer Camp weekend. The officers will probably begin looking for summer camp attendees with license plates from various states and cars with camping equipment, 90 miles or so to Three Sisters Park.

Once the officers stop your vehicle, if you appear nervous or if the officers smell fresh or burnt marijuana, you will be arrested. Your vehicle will be seized and the officers will search the entire car. Contrary to what some may think, fresh marijuana, no matter how well you seal it, shrink wrap it or hide it in your trunk, leaves an odor. It is an odor officers are trained to detect. Moreover, even if one does not smoke marijuana, it is very easy to smell the odor, police officer or not. The smell lingers as well, even if you have not smoked in your vehicle for days on end. The ashes smell and attach to the carpet fibers in your car. The bottom line is if the officers can find any reason to search your vehicle, they will search your vehicle Summer Camp weekend.

Assuming your vehicle is stopped…. What should you do?

For the police to arrest you, they have to show the judge and the prosecutor, they had Probable Cause to believe you were committed a crime. In plain English that means, a darn good belief. Caveat, the police will probably say they were merely detaining you and investigating whether you committed a crime, not arresting you until they hit the jackpot (finding something illegal).

Here is the important part (screen-shot this):

A “detention” is a situation where the police stop you briefly while they investigate an alleged crime but haven’t arrested you yet. In a detention, the police have a lower burden of proof. They only have to show a “reasonable suspicion” as to why they were detaining you. During a detention, they can begin to ask you questions in hopes you will appear nervous and/or try to talk your way out of the police encounter.

By the way, you don’t have to answer questions outside of the basics, name, license, insurance, registration etc. You don’t have to inform the police where you are going, even though they know exactly where you are going. Surely, the police may write in their report that their contact with you was just a “consensual encounter” where you were free to go at anytime; i.e. you all were just chit-chatting about the most recent, Cubs, White Sox or Cardinals game (Sure!). Bottom line, if the Judge believes your discussion with the police was a consensual encounter, the police don’t really need to justify why they stopped you. The Court will believe you were “free to leave,” but just chose to remain (even with Police Agencies’ guns, sirens, backup officers and police dogs).

Remember.

Ask the officer if you are being detained or arrested and why he is stopping you? Be nice, be concise. But be very clear that you don’t plan to have a long discussion with him. You don’t have to tell the officer why you assume he is stopping you. Most officers will ask you to guess why he is stopping you. This is a trap. If you guess correctly, the officer will surmise you know and are possibly admitting you committed a traffic violation. If you argue with him, nothing good happens. Simply inform him to please inform you why you are being stopped. Don’t look confused or say that you don’t know why he stopped you either.

3. Miranda Rights: Not like TV

Most believe (incorrectly) that the police have to read you your Miranda rights or the arrest gets thrown out of court.

Not true. The police have the right to completely lie to you in any interview. The only time they have to read Miranda rights is if:

• A) You are under arrest (handcuffed and not free to leave—sometimes HOURS later)
• B) They want to use a statement you made after being arrested in court against you.

The Right against Self Incrimination is in the Bill of Rights for a reason. USE IT. You should NEVER give a statement to the police without a lawyer. Period. This is not your girlfriend, boyfriend or your college professor. You cannot talk your way out of the ticket and/or the arrest Summer Camp weekend. Don’t do it. Don’t try it. Also, don’t assume the officer will record the encounter. Sometimes their microphone will malfunction or the officer will forget to activate his microphone or the recording equipment. Officers sometime leave their music on in the squad car or they just plain old don’t record the encounter. If you say anything remotely inappropriate, you are no longer in control of what the officer interprets or what he writes down hours later.

E.G. Questions like “whose backpack or gummy bear wrapper is this with the acid?” should be answered like this. “I want a lawyer, please.”

4. You don’t have to give the authorities consent to search you.

One other major Constitutional right you have is the right to be free from an unlawful search of your person and property. Clearly, the Summer Camp employees will demand to search your bags when you enter. You are on private property and they want to make sure you aren’t bringing prohibited material into their facility. You will have to consent to get in to the facility.

However during your traffic stop you don’t have to give consent to the police to search your belongings. The police will probably tell you that they will impound your car if you don’t consent. Here is a hint. You can appeal the impound decision, and the police were probably going to impound your car anyway. Usually once the officer asks you to get out of the car, nothing good is going to happen.

Common Sense Reminder Time . . . If the police are asking you for permission to search you or your property, it usually means they know they are making an illegal search. You may simply say, “I’m not giving you consent to search me or my vehicle or anything in my vehicle.” If they ask what you have to hide or why not, don’t argue or get frustrated or snippy with them. Simply say again, “Officer, I’m not giving you consent to search me or my vehicle. If I’m free to leave I’d like to leave. If you are arresting me, I would like an attorney, please.”

At this point, the officer can still search you if they have probable cause, but what you’ve done with your statements is make them declare their reason for doing so and force them to show they are legally entitled to search you. They will probably get a police dog to sniff around your vehicle. The dog will probably “hit” your vehicle and your vehicle will be searched. However, the police still have to prove you knew what was in the vehicle if anything illegal was in it.

Bottom line: Have a safe Summer Camp experience. If you see me there, say hello. If you need me, feel free to give me a call. Let’s have fun.