Need legal advise....my daughter got an underage drinking ticket

My 19 year old daughter goes to school in Oneonta...and she frequents the bars there. The bar got raided and my daughter was stopped by an officer. The officer asked her if she had ID, my daughter told her only her school ID...she also had no beverage in her hand at the time. She was asked if she was drinking that evening, and my daughter told her she had one bottled beer earlier in the evening. She was issued a summons to appear in court November 3....HOWEVER...the ticket says she was in possession of an alcoholic beverage at the time the ticket was written AND it says the name of a completely different bar than one she got busted at.
So, my daughter went to the Police Station today and spoke to an officer and told him that she is not denying having and one beer earlier in the evening BUT, she was not drinking at the time AND she wasnt at the bar that is stated on the ticket. The officer agreed with her that there were many discrepancies on the ticket. He told her he would email the officer that wrote the ticket and that possibly the fine could be reduced or dismissed.
Any advice as to what she should do when she goes to court?

well was she of the right age to be in the bar?

as to court, she should explain to the prosecutor or judge exactly what she said to the officer at the police station today.

i would just have her follow up on the e-mail that was sent to the officer. it will probably get dismissed since there were so many discrepancies, but tell her to not offer up facts (like that she had a beer earlier before) and just wait to hear if it's dismissed.

ETA: I'm not a lawyer, but I work in Student Affairs and have dealt with a ridiculous amount of underage drinking cases when I worked in Residence Life!

She will still have to go to court on the return date of the ticket. If she misses court, a warrant can be issued for her arrest.

When she goes to court, she'll most likely be made an offer of an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal (ACD) which basically means if she doesn't get in trouble again in the next 6 months, it'll be completely expunged from her record. She should not have to pay any sort of fine for this.

She does not have to make any sort of admission of guilt with an ACD. She just stands there, the court would say 'ACD granted' and maybe tell her not to get in trouble again, and she'd be on her way. She likely wouldn't have to say a single word. If this is NOT the offer, the court (and by court, I mean judge) may ask her a question about the night in question. My suggestion is that she then say 'your honor, the ticket I received has misinformation on it -- I was not at XXX bar that night. The officer who brought me in saw me at ZZZ bar. I ask that this be dismissed.'

That is ALL I would suggest she say. The judge would most likely dismiss it based on that alone. The officer will probably not show up court that day, but even if he does, he isn't going to lie and say the ticket is correct. This sort of mistake on the ticket makes it void, since whether she was drinking earlier or not, the ticket itself charges her with an impossibility since she wasn't at that other bar. Plus the ticket would have to allege that the officer saw her with the alcohol OR that he is informed by her statement that she was drinking at the time. Without either of those asserted on the ticket, it cannot be valid to charge her with underage consumption of alcohol.

I hope this isn't too confusing. Feel free to FM me if you have any more questions about it.

I agree with what Laura said... tell her NOT to offer up information next time. No one needed to know she had been drinking earlier. That wasn't the question the officer asked her. Only answer the questions asked. Period.

HTH

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Posted by Clover23

well was she of the right age to be in the bar?

as to court, she should explain to the prosecutor or judge exactly what she said to the officer at the police station today.

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No she is only 19, so was there illegally. Yes, I know she is wrong, I dont condone it...but of course I dont want to see her get in trouble.

Thanks ladies for all your help!

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Posted by Michy2009

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Posted by Clover23

well was she of the right age to be in the bar?

as to court, she should explain to the prosecutor or judge exactly what she said to the officer at the police station today.

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No she is only 19, so was there illegally. Yes, I know she is wrong, I dont condone it...but of course I dont want to see her get in trouble.

Thanks ladies for all your help!

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Was that a 21 or over bar? Some bar's let people in at 18 and over and the 21+ crowd get's a stamp or something for drinks, some of the bar's are like around me.

It doesn't matter if she was in the bar or not, she's not being charged with being in a bar. She's being charged with being in possession of alcohol... if the officer didn't see it firsthand, it's hearsay anyway and since she is being charged with a violation that makes the charge legally insufficient. She should go to court and ask that it be dismissed, state to the court that she was not even in that bar at the time, and that she was not in possession of alcohol nor was she even alleged to be in possession of alcohol at the time the officer was there. I can't see how they won't dismiss it. Unless she's being accused of trespassing or using a fake ID it's the bar that will get in trouble for having her there, not her, unless she was drinking.

ETA - she should not offer up any other information about having been drinking that night. If they question her on that statement she can say yeah but it wasn't in that bar and it wasn't even within hours of when she was with the officer, so it shouldn't matter as it pertains to this charge.