Legal Question in Criminal Law in Kentucky

Last night I was at a party and the police showed up at the party, apparently they were called by someone, and they forced everyone including me to hand over our drivers licenses as IDs (they said we could be charged if we are over 18 and didn't show them ID which I'm 19) and to take a PBT(or whatever the field breathalyzer is called) I blew a .029% and one of the officers told me I was being charged with underage possession of alcohol even though I was never holding any alcohol in their presence and didn't have any alcohol on my person other than what was inside my body, also the officer said she would be writing citations to us that night before we left but after they were done testing everyone they told us we could leave does that mean I didn't get a citation or can they mail it to me(there was at least 30-40 people so i wondered if because of the amount they didnt give us citations)? what should I do if i have to appear in court and do have a citation? is there any way out of it because of the conduct of the cops? I was not around or operating a motor vehicle either I was inside of a house.


Asked on 5/15/11, 2:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Andrea Welker Welker Law Office

Give it a few days and call the district court clerk to find out if you were cited. They should have given you a copy of the citation there, so likely if you didn't receive one, you just got lucky. If you have been cited, you probably won't have any luck fighting it. The county attorney might offer to divert it, which means if you stay out of trouble for the diversion period, the charge is dismissed. Otherwise, it's a fine, and probably some sort of alcohol education class.

What likely happened is someone called in a noise complaint and when the cops showed up, some drunk person told them they could come in. Pretty common, and usually the cops don't want to fool with charging 50+ college kids with underage drinking. They just want all of you to go home safely.

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Answered on 5/15/11, 2:43 pm


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