Legal Question in Juvenile Dependency in Michigan

While the owners of the house may be responsible for providing the alcohol, etc., that does not negate your daughter's responsibility for minor in possession of alcohol. The typos on the ticket will not cancel the charges - an officer can revise or amend a ticket at any time, including on the day of trial.

MIP can mean various things, such as consumption of alcohol, holding a beer can, or having alcohol in your possession. A breathalyzer or PBT is not required to prove MIP, unless the officer wants to prove she had it in her system. She may have admitted to the officer that she consumed jello shots - have you seen the police reports and any eye-witness statements? There is generally little information contained on a ticket.

An MIP is a misdemeanor charge, and you definitely want to retain a lawyer for this. This charge an easily be sealed and your daughter can plead guilty under the Youthful Trainee Act (YTA), if she is guilty and/or this is otherwise the best thing to do. If she was not aware that the jello contained alcohol, and this was an accident, then she may not have to plead guilty at all. She may not have intended to possess or consume the alcohol. She may even be able to get the charges dismissed in exchange for testifying against the adults or whomever provided the alcohol. My opinion may change depending on what is contained in the police report and/or after speaking with the officers involved, the prosecutor, etc.

I cannot stress to you enough the importance of having a lawyer handle this. You don't want your daughter to plead guilty or be found guilty and have this on her record. Courts look at an MIP conviction almost the same as they do drunk driving, i.e., they consider it an "alcohol related incident." Today, 90% of schools and jobs require a person to disclose their criminal history and/or the entity performs it's own criminal background check. Getting this charge dismissed or having it sealed, if she is guilty, is absolutely imperative, so she will not have to disclose this to schools and employers. In other words, you don't want this to follow her around for the rest of her life. You cannot have misdemeanor charges expunged, so unless it is sealed under the YTA (if she has to plead guilty), then it will show up. There is also the issue of having her fingerprint and arrest record destroyed, if they exist. Most MIP charges are given in the form of a ticket, versus having the person arrested.

Please contact me if you would like to retain a lawyer. If the incident occurred too far from where I practice, I will find you a good lawyer in your area. Do not rely upon a public defender for something such as this - this is your daughter's future at stake.

Thank you.