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underage drinking citation help

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sleepytime

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

Hello, here's how the night went. My friend and I were over at his place early on in the night (around 9 or so) and I had a gin and tonic (granted, it was stronger than normal) with some pizza. Then, a few hours later, we drove over to our other friends house (this was probably about 12:30 or 1am and i did not have anything to drink since that initial gin and tonic. We left my second friends house around 2am and headed back to my place.
On the way back, we stopped in a Wawa to pick up a bite to eat. When we were about to leave there I took a sip out of a water bottle and then pulled away. A few minutes down the road a cop pulls me over and I couldn't figure out why. He came up and asked if I had been drinking any beer that night, i told him no and he proceeded to ask me to get out of the car. He then told me that he saw me drinking a beer in the wawa parking lot. I told him that it wasn't a beer, it was a bottle of water and I even showed him the bottle. I was competely coherent (it had been over 5 hours since the drink) and was more than nice and tried to be as cooperative as possible.
Then, they (there were two police cars with once policeman in each, they said that they were partners) had me walk the line, stand on one foot, and count with my fingers. I passed all of those fine (except for being a little wobbly standing on one foot because there were two cars with flashing lights and it all made me pretty nervous). They walked away for a few minutes, i guess to call another cop over. He came and gave me a breathalizer. They then told me that I blew a .05 and I am still trying to figure out how that is possible. I looked it up online and there is no way that I should have tested that high. My friend, according to them, blew a .16, twice the legal limit.
When all was said and done, they made him drive my car home - it's a stick shift and he has never driven one before, let alone the fact that he tested 3 times higher than me and was twice the legal limit. They allowed him to practice in the parking lot. The whole time he was practicing, about 20 mins or so, they stood there laughing at us and throwing their arms around mocking him.

Anyway, what should I do now? I received my citation in the mail the other day (my friend still has yet to receive his). Also, my understanding is that if i plead guilty my license will be suspended for 3 months. Is that a red license where I would be allowed to drive to work, school and home? Or is it a complete suspension?
Sorry that this post is rather long. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
 


sleepytime

Junior Member
so, probable cause for pulling me over has nothing to do with it? Since they originally thought that I was drinking beer in a parking lot, and was not, shouldn't the case be dropped?

Also, how does the breath test have nothing to do with it? If I was clean at the time, then how would I have gotten the citation?
 

DCLCD

Junior Member
How old are you, and what was the citation for?
Underage drinking, or DUI?
These are the real questions to answer. I know in New Mexico, where I used to live, you get a DUI (called DWI there) if you are under 21 and you blow a .02.

But you get a minor in posession for any amount, that can't be reasonably proven to be caused by listerine or similar.

Cops can pull you over for nothing at all. A police officer can say your vehicle was acting 'suspicious'. Maybe he won't show up to court if you contest it. But if it's DUI, I can't help ya.
 

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