Alcohol & Drugs: MIP, MIC, Intoxication Unlawful Possesion of Alcohol

[PleadDaFifth]

Jurisdiction

New York

In advance any help would be much appreciated and thank you for your time.

We are 3 18 year old college students living on campus. Last Friday the RAs smelled "marijuana" in our hallway. The Police came and ONLY knocked on my door and did not knock on any others in the hallway. I was in the bathroom when the officers were at my door and my two friends were in my room. The police asked my friends if they could enter and they said yes (Without my consent). I arrived from the bathroom and entered my room, I asked the police if they have a search warrant, they replied "No you're friends let us in". They ended up entering our room searching for marijuana. They found no marijuana, they found 6 beers and 1 beer that was open and half filled. We all got tickets for "Unlawful Posession of Alcohol". We have court this Wednesday.

Should we plead non guilty? And is there any way we could beat this case?

Thank you again.

 

[army judge]

Should we plead non guilty? And is there any way we could beat this case?

A criminal defendant should ALWAYS plead not guilty and ask if he or she qualifies for a court funded attorney.

Said criminal defendant should say nothing about the case, the charge, the circumstances, NOTHING, except name, date of birth, address, telephone number, other pertinent biographical details.


As far as beating THIS charge, unless you were mistakenly identified as 18 when you are 21, how do you think a garden variety, lowest level offense can be beaten.

The elements of the crime: You possessed alcohol, you were not 21 years of age or older, nothing more need be proven.

 

[mightymoose]

The police entry to your room sounds legitimate. No warrant was required. They obtained consent before entering.
Unless you withdrew consent and demanded they leave before any contraband was discovered you have no way around this. I suspect alcohol, especially an open one, was easily discovered in plain view before there was any opportunity to withdraw consent.
Your focus should be on minimizing the damage not on technicalities to have the matter dismissed.

 

[zddoodah]

Should we plead non guilty?

This is not for anonymous strangers on the internet to determine. It is for you to determine in consultation with a criminal defense attorney.

And is there any way we could beat this case?

Any chance of "beat[ing] th[e] case" depends on successfully challenging the search of your room, and there are a lot of facts relevant to that issue that we don't know. However, I think it's unlikely.

You're fortunate that this is simply a "minor" in possession of alcohol charge that probably carries nothing more than a relatively small fine (which would make you not eligible for appointed counsel). A drug-related conviction could jeopardize your eligibility for federally-guaranteed financial aid.

 

[ElleMD]

So you had alcohol while underage and got caught. Not much you can do with that as they had to dead to rights. Your friends let them in so no warrant was needed, and it is questionable that they would have needed one even if they had not.

You can see if your school offers legal services to students. Some do. If so, that person can better judge the likelihood that a first time offender would get leniency and under what circumstances.

 

[4Justice_MD]

This is a fairly minor offence,especially,if it's your first time,and the facts you presented seem pretty straight forward.If you think it's wise to play "hard ball,"and plead not guilty,you should know that it's your word up against the police,and it most always ends in their favor,so I would suggest you plead guilty,and get this behind you.
As far as the warrant thing goes,the moment consent was given by any one of you,their entry into your room was perfectly legal.