Legal Question in DUI Law in Minnesota

Re: Underage drinking and driving

I have a very full discussion of this topic at http://www.mn-dwi.com/underage.html.

You are charged with a misdemeanor and a court appearance is required. A good lawyer, however, might be able to arrange for you to deal with the charges by means of written documents without returning to the state. I did this recently for a 16 year old from Milwaukee.

The most common penalty would be the following: a fine of a few hundred dollars, an alcohol assement interview, a one or two day class, attendance at a MADD meeting, and a couple days of community service or county service.

If you are under age 18, you lose your right to drive in MN until you are 18, and then it's a big deal to get it back. If you are over 18, you probably only lose your right to drive for 30 days in MN. Problem, however, is that it will be reported to your home state or probably will be, and your state determines what this means to your license.

If I were to represent you, my first goal would be to see if it could be reduced to a non-driving offense of some kind so it would not affect your license. Again, I recently did that for someone from Milwaukee.

You need a lawyer. Bad idea to handle this by yourself.

Re: Underage drinking and driving

Must you make a court appearance in Minnesota, given that you live out of state? If you don't appear in court on the charge in MN then you can't be convicted of a crime, nor could a conviction go on your DL record. However, if the prosecutor decides to certify it as a petty misdemeanor, which is not a crime, but a "fine only" violation, then it could possibly result in a court certified violation (even without your presence, guilty plea, or a trial) which would go on your DL record, and be sent to your home state's DL agency. If you don't answer the charge in MN, either personally or through a lawyer, then there would likely be issued an arrest warrant. It seems unlikely that such a warrant would be enforced in another state, due to the expense for the local jurisdiction. But if you came back to MN, you could be arrested on that warrant.

Refusing the PBT makes it more difficult for them to prove you had consumed alcohol, but that likely would not matter since you admitted consuming beer, unless you meant non-alcoholic beer, perhaps. Presumably, the police officer could say she smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage, as well. The normal "sentence" for a first offense like this is generally a fine, and perhaps some remedial conditions. The real penalty, is having it affect your DL record, your DL, your insurance rates, etc.