Am I in trouble?

State: New Jersey
City: Clifton
Age: 16

Here's the deal. I was walking around with my friends yesterday. One of them says something about climbing somewhere, so he wants us to follow him. Before we know it, he starts climbing some building's roof (It's not that high, obviously). He finally climbs up, and wants my other friend to do the same. My other friend starts climbing, but he loses his balance. To keep him from falling while he gets up there, I hold his leg. He finally gets up, and they want me to go up also. To tell you the truth, I don't really have a good history with roofs. Once I fell off my own roof and nearly broke my arm. Anyway, I say I don't want to, and sit down on the floor.

About 5-10 minutes later, this kid walks in front of us. One of my friends calls his name. The kid (he's 17) gets closer to the wall my friends climbed and ask them what the hell they're doing up there. After my friend answers, the kid and I walk towards the sidewalk. While we're walking, some police car stops next to us, watches my friends run, and puts the handcuffs on OUR hands. He pushes us into the police car and goes out to look for my friends. He calls another cop and they both climb the wall with a ladder. My friends are nowhere. They stop looking for my friends and takes us to the station.

After staying in the station for a good 2 hours, our parents come to pick us up. The cop tells my parents that the court is going to mail us. Now the kid and I have to go to court for something we didn't do. I'm guessing they're making such a big deal out of this because they think my friends were doing something bad and we were helping them. Now my question is, can I get out of all this without going to juvenile hall or something? Because one of my friends' mother called last night after I got home and said sorry about all this. And I told my friend to tell the judge or whoever to say I had nothing to do with it. If we prove it wasn't me and it was my friends who were up on that roof, do you think they'll let me go, and give my friends community service or something? They weren't doing anything bad up there, just sitting.

What's going to happen to me?

I'm an idiot for having such friends. I don't want to sound like a preacher but choose your friends carefully.

You were aiding and abetting. You got caught.

You learned your lesson not to climb up on roofs and now you've learned not to aid and abet.

Did you cooperate with the police?

Did you give them the names of your friends who climbed on the roof? Where they could be found?

Yes, choose your friends carefully.

It is difficult to say what will happen but better now than as an adult.

Aiding and abetting? I doubt it. The police probably got called in response to "kids on the roof", got there and saw a bunch of kids, some on the roof, some not. They have no clue which ones were up there, so all get hauled in, except, in this case, for the ones actually guilty, as they ran.

If the facts presented are "correct", then the OP has nothing to worry about, other than hoping his "friends" take the blame and exonerate him when the police speak to them.

The cops didn't ask us anything. I figured they were trying to have fun. When we were at the station, they told us that they were going to take us to the shelters, and they told us we would probably get "raped" over there, and 5 seconds later, they were all laughing about what they said.

When they arrested us, they looked around a little but couldn't find them. And about aiding, I was only there looking at my friends, not helping them. One of them was about to fall straight on his face, so I held him. And the police only saw the part where they ran and left us standing next to the sidewalk. I talked to one of my "friends" last night. His mother talked to me first, told me she was sorry about what happened, then I told my friend to confess, and say the other guy and I had nothing to do with it. He said ok, but I haven't heard from my other "friend" since.

What should I expect? My sister has a lawyer friend she's going to talk to today. Dammit, I didn't do crap.

Oh and according to my sister, it might be useful to gather up all my school papers, report cards, etc. for the court. I'm an honor student and my GPA is pretty high.

Oh and I found this.

B. Presumption of Nonimprisonment
1. General Rules
a. When dealing with a person convicted of an
offense other than a first or second degree
crime, who has not previously been convicted
of an offense, a court shall not impose a
sentence of incarceration. N.J.S.A.
2C:44-1(e).

From http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/sentguide.pdf


Since I've never been arrested before, and this whole thing is a 4th degree crime, and the fact that I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, I shouldn't be worried about incarceration, right? This is my first time getting handcuffs on my wrists, and I might be acting a little dramatic, sorry.

Read what you did.
You helped one get up to the roof, you knew they had no business up there and could be charged with any number of violations.
You told one of your friends to confess to get you out of trouble but not tell the police or the court, who the other person was so they wouldn't get into trouble, so now you have added conspiracy to it?
And you haven't done anything?
Why didn't you just walk away?
Please, if you are an honor roll student you can look these up also.

Relax kid, you're not going to jail.

You Are Guilty said:

Relax kid, you're not going to jail.

Click to expand...

My response:

And what do you call living in New Jersey - - a walk in the park?

IAAL

What's going to happen to me?

Click to expand...

You'll go to court, plead guilty. I'm telling you to plead guilty because while you feel you didn't do anything wrong, trials cost money and you'll be looked down upon for wasting court time & money. Yes, I know, technically, you didn't do anything. Legally though, you did. You were there. Thems the breaks.

The judge will most likely give you a slap on the wrist, and file your case for one year. Stay out of trouble for one year - poof - record gone. I can't see anything beyond that happening to you. Take YAG's advice and relax.

I'm an idiot for having such friends. I don't want to sound like a preacher but choose your friends carefully.

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Yes, well, you're 16 years old. We all make mistakes. It's not like you were running a meth lab on the roof.

Good Luck.

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE said:

My response:

And what do you call living in New Jersey

IAAL

Click to expand...

Residing in the armpit of America.

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE said:

My response:

And what do you call living in New Jersey - - a walk in the park?

IAAL

Click to expand...

Yep. A really smelly, dirty, rotten park. Now, if he were from the South Bronx on the other hand...

rmet4nzkx said:

Read what you did.
You helped one get up to the roof, you knew they had no business up there and could be charged with any number of violations.
You told one of your friends to confess to get you out of trouble but not tell the police or the court, who the other person was so they wouldn't get into trouble, so now you have added conspiracy to it?
And you haven't done anything?
Why didn't you just walk away?
Please, if you are an honor roll student you can look these up also.

Click to expand...

I never said anything about not getting them into trouble. I said "And I told my friend to tell the judge or whoever to say I had nothing to do with it. If we prove it wasn't me and it was my friends who were up on that roof, do you think they'll let me go, and give my friends community service or something? They weren't doing anything bad up there, just sitting."

If they ask me who was up on that roof, I'd tell the truth, I don't care about my friends getting in trouble. They shouldn't have been running away in the first place.

I didn't want them to go up there, the only reason I held his leg was because he was losing his balance. I know I should've walked away, though.

If I plead guilty, then it's going to look like I climbed on top of the roof, and it's gonna be like my friends were never there, no? And are you sure about the whole slap on the wrist thing?

Sorry if I'm overreacting, I can't help it.

You Are Guilty said:

Yep. A really smelly, dirty, rotten park. Now, if he were from the South Bronx on the other hand...

Click to expand...

It's dirty alright.

I personally wouldn't plead guilty, but even if you were to, it would most likely be a "slap on the wrist". I highly doubt they're going to waste time on a trial for something like this - I am 99% positive they'll offer some sort of plea bargain before the trial date, probably some sort of "conditional dismissal" (I don't know NJ's term for it, NY calls it "adjourned in contemplation of dismissal or 'ACD') whereby if you stay out of trouble for X time (usually 12 months), this charge gets dismissed.

Of course, if you get charged in those 12 months, it comes back to life, but my crystal ball tells me you have very little chance of that happening to you, so you shouldn't worry.

If you/your folks speak to the ADA (prosecutor) anytime soon, it would be a good time to bring this up to them rather than wait and let this drag out. They may want additional conditions (i.e. no alcohol or drugs) but I'm pretty sure they'll go for it.

And stop worrying! (You'll have plenty of opportunity to worry when you turn 17 and you find out about that really painful thing that will to happen to your testicles that all 17 year olds get.)