Bogus Minor in Possession charge

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Dakota

I am 20 years old and was at South Dakota State University for their homecoming. I was with 4 friends and 2 of them were drinking, Me and another girl were sober and the other friend was 21. There were 2 backbacks with beer in them with our group but were only being consumed by the 3 friends who were drinking. We were walking into a dormitory when we got stopped by a resident assistant who made us show him what was in the backbacks. We tried to walk out when he grabbed on to a bag and pulled the kid back in the dorm. He opened the backbacks and found beer in them. He asked us for our I.D.'s and I showed him mine so he wrote down my information. He asked my friend for his I.D. and he didnt have his so the RA said he was going to call the cops. I got up and left thinking my friends would do the same because they were going to be in trouble. They decided not to leave with me. Before the cops got there I was gone. I never saw a cop or spoke to a cop the whole time., The cop gave my two friends minors and let the 21 year old and the girl off., It is now about 2-3 months later and I just recieved a letter in the mail saying I have a warrant for my arrest on a minor charge and it said I skipped a court date. I was never given a ticket or even talked to a cop., How can I fight this?, Can I get off of the charge considering no cop even talked to me and I was given no ticket. No cops were on site at the time I left.,

plyrallstr7 said:

He asked us for our I.D.'s and I showed him mine so he wrote down my information.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you got busted.

I'm not sure why you gave your information to someone who had no power to demand it, but then got the brass to bolt after it was too late...

I gave him my info because he said if we did and cooperated he would just write us up with the school and not get the police involved.

Can somebody please help here...? I'm trying to find the "bogus" part.

What's bogus is I was not drinking and the alcohol was not mine. I never recieved a ticket and now have a warrant for my arrest. What grounds do they have to give me a minor in this situation? I don't see how they can.

plyrallstr7 said:

What's bogus is I was not drinking and the alcohol was not mine. I never recieved a ticket and now have a warrant for my arrest. What grounds do they have to give me a minor in this situation? I don't see how they can.

Click to expand...

You weren't charged with consuming the alcohol and the charge has nothing to do with ownership.

Still looking for the bogus...

How can I be charged with it when the alcohol was not mine??

Had you remained at the scene, you could have probably cleared it up for the officers. Since you left, the clear implication is that you were part of the drinking.

Understand that possession is not about ownership it is about dominion and control. Your friends were apparently passing some booze around between them and that provided a reasonable inference that you were also in possession as they were. It is not a game of hot potato where the person holding the booze is out when the cops arrive.

At this point your best bet would be to secure legal counsel, turn yourself in, and make the state prove the elements of the offense in court. If your friends did not drop a dime on you at the dorm ("Yeah, plyrallstr7 also held the bottle ...") then it might be tough to show possession.

It also depends on the specific offense for which you were charged. Do you have that code section handy?

It should be impossible to hold you accountable for an FTA if no citation was issued (unless a summons or citation was mailed to the address on your license or ID) but you still have to deal with the original offense.

Thank you. Do you think if I got legal counsel there is anyway I can get out of the possession charge?

plyrallstr7 said:

Thank you. Do you think if I got legal counsel there is anyway I can get out of the possession charge?

Click to expand...

Maybe.

It depends on what evidence the state has. They have the RA who says he/she saw you with the people with the alcohol, everyone saw you walk away, and you might have friends that ratted you out to the cops or the RA. An attorney can get a copy of the police report and advise you on the best way to proceed.

This might be a math problem, though. If the fine is a simply $50 or something, and an attorney will cost you $1,500 or more, you might want to think twice about it.

Without knowing the code section you were cited for, it is impossible to know if it is something that is akin to a traffic ticket or something that is a misdemeanor for which you can do jail time or lose your license.