Underage possession of malt beverage

[Jeansboy]

What is the name of your state? NC. My 18yr old son was given a ticket by an off duty police officer who was not in uniform. Noise from a party my son was attending, awoke a police officer living in the same apartment bldg. He came over to the party out of bed and out of uniform and issued my son and a friend of his, tickets for underage possession of a malt beverage. He also had them submit to a breartalizer test. Was this action legal on his part? Are the tickets valid? Would the issuance of tickets, under these circumstances, hold up in court?

 

[moburkes]

Did they submit to them?

 

[CdwJava]

Why would they NOT hold up in court?

The officer was not at work, and it is never wise to be your own complainant in a situation like this, but I doubt there is anything unlawful about the officer acting on his status as a peace officer and asking the lads to submit to a breath test and issuign a citation.

Maybe next time they will learn to party a little quieter.

- Carl

 

[Jeansboy]

Yes they did submit to them.One was a .14 and one was a.03. I wasn,t aware an off-duty officer could issue a ticket to someone. I guess my question is , what is the penality for a conviction of underage possession of a malt beverage considering the zero tolerance policy of NC?

 

[rmet4nzkx]

Yes they did submit to them.One was a .14 and one was a.03. I wasn,t aware an off-duty officer could issue a ticket to someone. I guess my question is , what is the penality for a conviction of underage possession of a malt beverage considering the zero tolerance policy of NC?

Which BAC belonged to your son? In any event you have a bigger problem than whether or not an off duty officer can issue citations to rowdy underage party goers. Your best source of this information is going to be a criminal defense attorney since there may be some options that may differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.