Alcohol & Drugs: MIP, MIC, Intoxication MIC while on vacation in Arizona

[Mixinthe206]

I am 17 years old and I just got back from a weekend I spent in Arizona with a friend. While watching a baseball game, my friend and I were hanging out in the walkway near the concession areas when a couple of friendly guys came around and we decided to have a chat. They seemed friendly and after talking for a few minutes one of them said that he was going to go and get a beer, and knowing that my friend and I were under age 21, still offered us if we'd like one as well. He warned us that cops might be around and to be careful, so we said OK. He came back with a beer for us each, and we quickly drank them down. After maybe two minutes, two uniformed officers approached us and asked us if we'd been drinking beer. Not knowing if they'd actually witnessed it or not, I quickly answered, "Yes," and when the officer asked where we got it from, I told him "we saw a couple of abandoned beers on that table over there and we decided to finish them." The officers bought my story (luckily for the guys who bought and gave us the beer), and we were taken to an office for questioning and citation. The officer asked us if our parents were around, and I told him my mother was in the seats watching the game. He asked for a phone number, and just as I was about to give him it, the other officer quickly intervened and said "Oh no no let's not get the parent involved yet..." Which arouses my suspicion that they wanted to get us to cough up information and take advantage of us without having someone around to back us up. Coincidentally, while walking down the pathway to the office, my mom just happened to be walking by and I notified her, and the officer filled her in on what was going on, much to her dismay. While in the office, about four police officers stood around us asking us questions. My mom reminded us, in front of the cops, that we weren't obliged to answer any questions. One of the cops seemed irritated by this, and was very rude to my mom, telling her not to interfere. It seemed perfectly reasonable for her to "interfere" to me, regarding the fact that the officers hadn't reminded us of our rights before arresting us.

After a bunch of seemingly-irrelevent questions, the officers filled out forms and let us go, assigning us with court dates for a month later, meaning we'd have to travel back to Arizona, a long journey from where we live.

To cut to the chase, I'd like to know if there was anything illegitimate that went on over the course of the events I've described. What should I do? Is it possible to get the location of my court hearing changed due to the inconvenience of where it's scheduled? And as far as the rudeness of the officers, is this a normal thing for them to be so intrusive and pressuring?

Also, what am I looking at in terms of punishment for what I've done, and how is this going to affect me personally in the long-run? Thank you very much. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[ejwalden]

Not that this matters any more but whe the cop first asked you, the answer "no" would have been a lot more successful. If you had only had one beer, the bac level would have been so low that even if they did test you, you could easily claim it was a false positive. And if he said you smelled of beer, your at a baseball game, you got beer spilled on you. They can't prove anything.

As for getting your court date changed, you most likely won't be able to. I'm pretty sure anyways. Call the court though and see what they say. But honestly, if you only had one beer, and you tell your story exactly the same (saying you found the beers and drank them) I wouldn't be surprised if the judge dismisses the claim. If there is any punishment, you would probably get community service and maybe a fine of no more than a few hundred dollars. But I could be completely wrong. Good luck