Hand

BACKGROUND

A.

In August 2024, Hand was charged with one count of transporting a controlled substance, heroin. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11352, subd. (a)). According to the police report, on the day she was arrested, August 27, 2023, Hand had been driving a car that police pulled over based on an expired registration.

Because Hand’s passenger indicated he was on parole, an officer searched the area of the car reachable from the passenger seat and found a plastic bag containing a large quantity of a substance later confirmed to be heroin. The bag was deformed and had been melted in places, which indicated that someone had ripped off pieces of the bag and used a lighter to seal the hole. Police also found a working digital scale with the heroin.

Hand “spontaneously” volunteered to the police that the heroin belonged to her, and that her passenger did not know that the drugs were in the car. Police subsequently found a methamphetamine smoking pipe in a bag slung across Hand’s torso.

After being read her rights under Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 (Miranda), Hand again volunteered that the drugs belonged to her and advised the police that she had some drugs on her person, a…