Alcohol & Drugs: MIP, MIC, Intoxication 16 year MIP for tobacco(michigan)

[KYFballa13]

I was pulled over for window tinting today, when reaching for the regisration, some swisher sweets fell out of my glove box. They are my college buddies (20 years old), not mine, i had forgotten they were even there. They told me i looked nervous and wanted to search the car, they had already seen the tobacco, so i had nothing to hide. They searched and found nothing, but absolutely trashed my car. Gave me a ticket for windows which will be waived tomarrow (becauase im removing them) and Possession of tobacco by minor.

The car i drive, is under my fathers name. From what ive heard, they have no way of giving me a ticket considering its not really my car. Also, i have a letter from my buddy stating that they are his, and he left them their incidentally.

Will i be able to fight this? I will have a good lawyer, but id like to know what im looking at. Because this will effect me getting into my slected college(s).

 

[NYClex]

I don't know about the exact law in your state, but you have to keep in mind what "possession" usually means in law: it does not mean "ownership" or "having title to it", it means "having control and dominion" over something.

Example: You drive your father's car. He owns it, he has title to it, but when you are driving it without him in the car, you have possession of it.

Same here: You say the tobbacco is your friend's. Then you mean ownership. But the tobbacco was in the car in which you, not your friend, were present. You had control over it, you could have smoked it, thrown it away, done anything with it: so you had possession of it. Therefore it will not be a defense that "it is your friend's"

Like I said, it depends on the exact wording of the law in your state, but don't bet on it that you will get off using this defense. It is more likely, though, that the charges will be dismissed if your record is clean otherwise for just not being important enough for any prosecutor to bother with them.

 

[KYFballa13]

thanks for the help, but there were also a few things i forgot to mention

When they called my dad, they said that they only detained me for less than an hour, when i was in the back of a cop car for an hour and 40 minutes


They left my car and absolute pit, tore everything i had apart and left it all over the car
(i took pictures, would that help?)