Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
A 19 year old purchases a bottle of liquor from a liquor store, shows a fake ID during the process, gets caught in a sting operation to close the store down and receives a ticket for underage posession and purchase. 19 year old was not arrested, was not under the influence and fully cooperated w/ officers to help close store. Do they need legal council during their court appearance? What can they expect?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Didn't your Mommy and Daddy ever teach you to keep your mouth shut and to not "cooperate" with police officers? Now you will need to hit them up for money to hire a lawyer, or else you could have a criminal record and never be able to get a job, ever.
�What can you do�? When arrested or charged with any crime, the proper questions are, can any evidence obtained in a test, search or confession be used against you, and can you be convicted, and what can you do? A little free advice that you should have heeded earlier: exercise the 5th Amendment right to SHUT UP and do NOT talk to anyone about the case except an attorney. That includes on this or any other web site or public forum.
Raise all possible defenses with whatever admissible and credible witnesses, evidence, facts and sympathies are available for legal arguments, for evidence suppression or other motions, or at trial. While this isn't a 'capital case', you certainly face potential jail and fines, so handle it right. You can hire an attorney, unless you know how to effectively represent yourself in court against a professional prosecutor intending to convict. The attorney will try to get a dismissal, diversion, reduction, or other decent outcome through plea bargain, or take it to trial if appropriate. If serious about hiring counsel to help in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me. I�ll be happy to help use whatever defenses there may be.
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