Special Student Issue

Underage Drinking

Drinking under 21 is illegal. A police officer may issue a citation if he has "probable cause" to believe you are violating the law. You must sign that citation, not as an admission of guilt but to show you recieved it. Show the officer your ID if he asks for it andyou have it. The officer may ask you to take a prelimnary breath test (PBT) on the scene. You should refuse it unless you have had absolutely no alcohol.

When a hearing is scheduled, you MUST appear or you WILL be arrested. The State must prove the violation beyond a reasonable doubt, like a criminal case. You can cross-examine the State's witnesses, produce your own witnesses and testify or not testify yourself. You may also hire an attorney. A violation is civil and NOT a criminal offense, so the penalty can be substantial.

For more information about underage drinking laws and your rights, check our website.

Crime Definitions

Affray - common law crime in Maryland when two or more participants engage in combat in public. Even though voluntary on both parts, both get chrage, and both can be convicted.

Disturbing the peace - either using obscenity or making such a loud noise that others are distrube or incited to violence.

2nd Degree assualt - crime of touching, nitting or threatening to touch or hit someone. Punished by up to ten years in prison and/or $2500 fine.

DWI: A Dozen Rules

Don't Drink & Drive. use a designated driver, hire a driver, stay where you drink, walk, call a cab, rent a limo, or ride a bus, or you can always not drink.

Avoide Getting Stopped. Make sure vehicle equipment is operating properly: headlights, taillights, brake lights, license plate lights. No loud exhaust or cracked windshields. Dim headlights to oncoming traffic. use turn signals. Obey speed limits. Don't cross center lines, lan lines or edge (fog) lines. Come to a complete stop at stop signs. don't "squeal your wheels". Pay attention to your driving. Turn off the radio. Don't give the police officer an excuse to stop you.

Stop Safely. When the cruiser's light go on, give a proper turn signal and promptly pull safely off the roadway.

License and Registration. have a license and registration ready before the officer arrives at your door.

Exit Vehicle When Told To. It's the law.

Decline Field Sobriety Tests. FST's are not mandatory. Don't do them.

Miranda Rights. Invoke them. Politely decline to answer questions about where you were, what you drank, how much you drank, etc..

Don't consent to searches. Don't interfere with the officer if he searches anyway, but be polite and firm about your protest.

Be cooperative when arrested.

Ask to call a lawyer. Phone a lawyer before you decide to take the breath test at the police station or a blood test at the hospital. This is your legal right.

Always be polite, courteous, respectful. The officer is just doing his or her job.

Drugs

Don't Do em. No one can be trusted. No one can be trusted. No one can be trusted. Most drug case are prosecuted with informants. That's right: Snitches, Rats, Finks. Neighbors, friends, acquaintantces and intermeddlers who won't hesistate to "dime you out" to "work off" their own chrages or extricate themselves from their own legal prdicaments. Better your ass than theirs. Then there's the "Citizen informants," the self commision soldeiers of the "War on Drugs" (i.e., "The War Against the Constitution"). So what can a druge arrest be based on?

Odor. Part of training a the police academy must be surgical insertion of unique olfacotry senses. Never met a police officer who couldn't "based on his education, training and experience, immediately, recognize the odor of buring marijuana."

Plain View. If an officer is somewhere he's legally entitile to be, and sees something he immidiately recognizes as contraband, he can sieze it. Examples: Bongs, pipes, screens, scales, roach clips and the ubiquitous "clear plastic baggie with a green vegetable matter which I immediately recognized through my education, training and experience as marijuana."

Plain Feel. That's right, plain feel. Police with such sensitive hands and fingers that they can identify through touch a "nickel bag" of drugs in your jeans pocket.

Drugs don't do 'em

Just say No!

Police can conduct a search with 1) a Warrant, 2) probable cause, or 3) your consent. You can not stop or interfere with a Warrant or Porabable Cause search. You can and should refuse to consent to a search of your person, clothing, purse, book bag, luggage or other containers; your car or residence. They will probably search anyway. Don't interfere, but do not consent.