First offense: Misdemeanor possession of marijuana/paraphernalia - What now?

My home state: CO
State where I was ticketed: ID

As I was returning home to Colorado from Yellowstone National Park, I was pulled over for speeding in Rexburg, Idaho. The arresting officer questioned myself, followed by my passenger, before asking if there was anything illegal he should be aware of inside the vehicle. After a short period of denial, I made an admission of marijuana and paraphernalia possession. I was written a ticket for misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia and marijuana and released, as opposed to being taken to jail.

My ticket states that I must appear in court on August 10th. I called the county court clerk to see if this matter was something that could be dealt with over the telephone, considering I live over 500 miles away, and was informed that I would infact need to appear in court in order to have any chance of dealing with this.

Now, to my question. I'm 28 years old and have never been convicted (or even charged) of any criminal offenses, be it a felony or a misdemeanor. I had roughly 1/8th of 1 ounce of marijuana on me, which was deemed by the officer to be for personal use only. I'm a particularly thorough person and immediately began researching the possible outcomes and courses of action available to me, and I'm having difficulty recognizing what type of plea I should enter with the judge. They recovered the items from my car, so I'm certainly guilty. I understand that entering a "not guilty" plea despite incontrovertible evidence is not considered a lie, and might even be necessary, depending on my intentions.

My question is, how do I plea? My hope is, considering I'm a first time offender, that I can somehow get the misdemeanor dropped with little (or no) penalty...how do I go about achieving this goal? I want to take care of this matter all in the same trip - I have no plans to return to Idaho in an attempt to defend myself. I would like to just admit that I committed the crime and be done with it; HOWEVER, it is of utmost importance to me that the misdemeanor not make it to my permanent record, if that's even possible, so, while a bevy of trips to Idaho isn't exactly my best-case scenario, I will do whatever is necessary in order to minimize the damage of this violation. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read through my bone-headed blunder.

Chad, sweating bullets in CO

Chad

Contact a criminal defense lawyer.

You may be able to avoid or at least delay appearing.

BUT

If you must appear - then you must go.

It does not matted if you will never go to Idaho again.

Thank you for your response, Xylene. It is much appreciated. I suppose I should have omitted the portion of my post regarding my conversation with the county clerk, as it really has no bearing on the question heh. My apologies. I'm scheduled to appear next week, August 10th, which is a Tuesday. It just so happens that I have Mon-Wednesdays off, so showing up is not really a big deal. I obviously am not too keen on driving the distance, but a positive outcome to this ordeal is my number one priority.

That being said, I hate to sound crass, but I was hoping for some advice beyond "seek legal council". Is there a possibility that I could get these charges dropped with little (or no) financial obligation to myself, and with no substantial defamation to my criminal record? Possession of less than 3 ounces of marijuana in the state of Idaho is a misdemeanor offense carrying a maximum penalty of $1,000 and, I believe, up to 1 year in jail. As far as I understand things, those penalties are the MAXIMUMS. Considering my untarnished criminal history thus far, would it be wishful thinking to assume I will likely be able to get the sentence deferred or some such, community services or classes, etc...and have the charges dropped?

Chad

You have a serious criminal case.

Let's put it this way.

If you were told by the school nurse

"Chad you have a less than 3 ounce tumor on your liver"

Would you say

"Oh I wouldn't bother with a doctor, I'll do the surgery myself because that's a misdemeanor tumor."

I mean - short term - you could lose your job, be screwed about school...

A drug record is a big deal.

If there is a chance of using that spotless record to get you off... a professional lawyer has it. Not you.

Once again, I greatly appreciate your candor Xylene, but I'm not going to get a lawyer. I also think it's a bit presumptuous to say something like "you'll never beat this without a lawyer" because people do it all the time. Maybe I'm not smart enough or sufficiently eloquent to be one of those people; however, maybe I am.

At this point in time, I have already decided that I'm going to plea guilty. It's just the right thing to do, in my eyes. I would imagine that the judge, upon the entrance of my plea, would impose his sentence. Perhaps I'll have an opportunity to speak on my behalf, in which case I would make certain to touch upon a great many points, such as the impact that a conviction would have on my immediate future, and my preference for a withheld judgement, ultimately resulting in dismissal of all charges, to name a few.

Then again, perhaps I won't have a chance to speak at all. Perhaps the judge will just deliver his sentence and that will be that. Even then, I would imagine he'll look over at his/her prosecutors, who will in turn begin to inform the judge about my flawless criminal record, lack of prior arrests and convictions, and lack of any prior withheld judgements. I will then get a proverbial "slap on the wrist" in the form of a withheld judgement with relatively innocuous conditions.

Don't get me wrong, Xylene - I'm terrified. This would destroy my plans for the immediate future. I simply cannot afford a lawyer. Even with my financial aid, tuition alone is going to cost a bundle out of pocket...and that's not even counting books! Sure, you're going to say that I could get a court-appointed lawyer, and repay them in installments, but that just isn't going to work for me. I've finally reached a point in my life where I'm making real progress, and I refuse to believe that, on my FIRST OFFENSE EVER, in 28 years on this planet, a lawyer can possibly be worth the amount of money it's going to cost me.

I have faith that the above scenario is pretty close to what will happen. I've done a great deal of research, and said research seems to coincide with my hypothetical scenario. I was just hoping that someone who had been in a similar predicament, under similar personal circumstances, or simply a lawyer who has seen this kind of situation, could put me at ease and say "yeah, you're right, that's probably exactly what will happen"...or "nope, that's wishful thinking - some people get lucky, but not most".

I know you might be thinking, "So if you've got all the answers, why did you bother posting", and I know I may come across in that way, but I just want to know if I'm being overly optimistic.

If you want to minimize the damage, get a lawyer. The idea that you can some how explain your way out of the penalties for your admitted criminal activity is overly optimistic. What are you going to do when the judge throws the $1000+costs (times two, you're charged with both possession of the marijuana and paraphernalia) and you and may even consider jail (up to a year each, but not likely).

Even if you get the judgements withheld, you're still going to pay a lot of costs.

chadwicke970 said:

I just want to know if I'm being overly optimistic.

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Yes. Vastly overoptimistic.

I have already decided that I'm going to plea guilty.

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So then you don't need any legal advice. You have it all figured out.

Even then, I would imagine he'll look over at his/her prosecutors, who will in turn begin to inform the judge about my flawless criminal record, lack of prior arrests and convictions, and lack of any prior withheld judgements. I will then get a proverbial "slap on the wrist" in the form of a withheld judgement with relatively innocuous conditions.

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Oh my! You are joking, right?

The judge is going to ask you how you plead. Then, your plan is to plead guilty to a first offense misdemeanor possession and paraphernalia. The prosecutor won't have to say a thing. He most assuredly will not be your advocate for leniency. The judge will then hammer you for coming from out of state and messing around in his jurisdiction. That's up to $2K in fines and 2 years in jail (however unlikely jail time might be). Do you really want to take that chance? Have you ever actually been in a courtroom? It's not like "Law & Order."

But OK, those are just fines. What will really suck will be that now you will have 2 misdemeanors on your record (you just plead guilty, right?). A criminal record, get it? How do you think your financial aid provider will feel about that? How about future employers?

On the other hand, maybe there was something wrong with the stop or the search that could get the whole thing tossed. You'll never know unless you get counsel. Oh, and just by the way, the local criminal attorney will know every prosecutor, clerk, and judge. He may even socialize with some of them. If anyone can cut you a deal it's that local criminal defense attorney.

But hey, you're smarter than everybody here apparently.

With a lawyer, when I tell him that I want to enter a plea of guilty, will the sentence imposed by the judge (be it a withheld judgement or what not) be any different because I have a lawyer?

chadwicke970 said:

With a lawyer, when I tell him that I want to enter a plea of guilty, will the sentence imposed by the judge (be it a withheld judgement or what not) be any different because I have a lawyer?

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<sigh>

You seem intent on having a criminal record.

First, you confessed to the cop. Easiest trick in the book. The cop most likely had no probable cause to search, so he just kept asking you until you volunteered the information. If the cop'd had probable cause for MJ in the car, then he wouldn't have needed your consent to search. If he went ahead and did the search anyway without probable cause, then there would be grounds to have this entire thing dismissed. But you made that a moot point by opening your mouth. Understand, for real, that was a foolish mistake.

Now you want to go into a foreign jurisdiction and plead guilty, imagining that they have some incentive to be lenient on you. They do not. You confessed. The prosecutor doesn't even have to make a case. You have nothing to bargain with.

If on the other hand you go in with counsel, and he indicates that he is going to fight the charges (however slim a possibility that may be)the DA might be inclined to reduce the charges to avoid a trial.

If you are hell-bent on pleading guilty and taking whatever they give you, then you are correct that you don't need a lawyer.

Intent on having a criminal record? The cop caught a smell of marijuana. He had a police dog with him. He said, "Do you have any marijuana in the car" and I replied "No". He said "I'm going to walk my dog around the car, and if he signals, I'll have probable cause". The dog is OBVIOUSLY going to signal because, surprise, I had marijuana in the car. At that point, I figured the best I could do was cooperate as best as possible to avoid being taken to jail and having my car impounded.

Like you said yourself, they've got a slam-bam case. At this point, I'm just trying to acquiesce as much as possible - cooperate as much as possible - in hopes of leniency. I'm not trying to "beat" this. I'm just trying to get a realistic idea of what kind of consequences I can expect. Even though you are right, and I have nothing to bargain with, and I'm in a foreign jurisdiction, I thought it was still rather realistic of me to expect a withheld judgement, considering I'm almost 30 and have never, ever, EVER been in criminal trouble of any sort, but from the sounds of things, I guess I better prepare for the worst.

Can you answer that Elvin? You sound pretty knowledgeable, and I can understand your frustration with me, considering I basically gave up all my rights on the scene. If you were a gambling man, what sentence would you wager that I will be looking at?

chadwicke970 said:

At this point, I'm just trying to acquiesce as much as possible - cooperate as much as possible - in hopes of leniency.

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This is why you need a lawyer.

You are under a false belief that a plea of guilty when their is significant evidence against you translates somehow into leniency.

It does not.

The judge will not say to himself "ah good kid is savin' the court a lot of trouble, I 'll go easy on him."

It does not work like that.

It doesn't.

Would you even know how to make a proper motion to the court?

Would you know how to get your sentence transferred to your home state?

Good luck.

chadwicke970 said:

If you were a gambling man, what sentence would you wager that I will be looking at?

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Smell of pot or not, dogs or not, confession without benefit of counsel is stupid. Lesson learned.

So, hypothetically, just for s**ts and giggles, and disclaiming that I have no psychic ability whatsoever nor have I ever knowingly had contact currently or previously with any person, entity, agency, etc., , living or dead from Rexburg Idaho, I put on my Sorcerer's Apprentice hat and gaze into my crystal ball at the town of Rexburg, Idaho, pop. 17,257(give or take).

Scenario 1: A kid goes in and pleads guilty. The Prosecutor smiles 'cause he's going to get credit for two misdemeanors without lifting a finger. The Judge smiles 'cause, while he's not going to make the kid do time, he's going to rake in a couple grand in fines which will look good on his record when it's time for re-election.

The kid is not smiling. Not only is he out significant bucks, he will lose his financial aid and then won't be able to get a job of any responsibility due to his criminal record.

Scenario 2: A somewhat wiser kid goes into court with his local criminal attorney who, unbeknownst to the kid, has drinks and plays poker with the prosecutor every Thursday night. The attorney approaches the prosecutor and says "Hey man, this kid is paying me, so help me out, OK. Look, the kid's got no priors, so let's fine the hell out of him for some non-misdemeanor offenses like disorderly conduct,let him blow out of town forever, and everybody wins." The Prosecutor is smiling 'cause he gets a conviction and helps out his buddy (not to mention he is now owed a favor down the line). Likewise the Judge (who sometimes sits in on the poker game) gets his revenues, helps out a local boy, and still appears tough on crime.

This kid is also smiling because even though he is out the same amount of money with fines and lawyer costs, he is now free of the encumbrance of dual misdemeanors.


Of course, I can't see the future, so maybe neither scenario is correct.

ElvinMelvin said:

he is now free of the encumbrance of dual misdemeanors.

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Dual drug misdemeanors...