Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Possession is 9 tenths of the LAW

Based upon your facts, it was your vehicle and you voluntarily allowed the police to search your vehiclethat was your first mistake. Once permission was given, anythingfound is assumed that it was yours.

The only way I can think that you can prove that youare innocient is to bring your friend to court and have hiw or her testifythat is was their beer and that you had no knowledge. This has a minimalchance of success because the police will testifythat you admited drinking one or two beers.

My suggestion is to plead to the crime, and ask the courtfor community service instead of a fine.

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Don't Plead Guilty

*First Point. A person is only guilty of Possession of a substance, if he has knowledge of the substance. If you truly did not know the alcohol was in the car, you are innocent. At the first appearance, the arraignment, you should enter a plea of "not guilty" and set the case for trial (or inquire about programs discussed below). The judge will likely set the case for a pretrial conference where you may speak with a District Attorney. At that conference, keep in mind that DA's hear "it was somebody else's" several times every day. They may believe you, but probably won't. No problem. DA's don't decide cases, juries do. Demand a jury trial. Bring in the 24 year old as a witness and see what happens. What do you have to lose? **Second Point. You have been charged with possessing a particular container and the case should focus on this possession. The fact that you admitted having several other beers is probably relevant, but that statement is not sufficient to serve as the basis for a conviction. For reasons that would take too long to explain, there is a "corpus" rule of evidence. It requires that the body of a charge be proven prior to the admission of any statement of the accused. In your case, your admission relates to a prior incident that occured outside of the officers presence. There is no corpus for the prior incident. In other words, they can't say "even if the 24 year old possessed this alcohol, you admitted drinking earlier in the evening and you must have possessed some then." This is legally insufficient. (I just hope you have a judge smart enough to understand.***Third Point. As a practical matter, courts often have a some sort of program for person's under 21 to participate in to avoid conviction for 1st time minor alcohol offenses. In many courts it consists of paying a fee and attending classes. Even if you are truly innocent, you may want to inquire about and consider this option a a practical alternative to pleading guilty.****Fourth point. The real killer in these cases is that the DMV is going to take your California Driver's License if you are convicted. This collateral consequence is far more serious than any fine you might recieve. This should give you a lot of incentive to fight the charges. Good Luck