Understory
New Member
About a month ago, on Feb 12th, I was charged with an MIP. I was down in Santa Barbara's little college town of Isla Vista, which as some of you know is known for its partying. The police roam the streets on foot looking for partygoers as a nightly routine. I have to admit they are pretty fair about the partying as long as it stays indoors. However, the problem is what they consider to be a reasonable Minor In Possession charge. (Good Example) A freind of mine got an MIP while cleaning his yard of empty beer cans. Because he was handling the empty beer cans into a trashbag, they gave him a minor in possession ticket. Gives you a little idea of how the police are down there. But in my case, I was at that same residence on Saturday, Feb 12th when my friend was throwing a costume party. It was about 11:30pm and me and my other friend had been drinking a little but were by no means drunk. He needed to get some film out of my trunk and my car was only parked about 10 feet away from the property. We walked to my car and there was a disposable red cup on the trunk. So I picked up the cup to move it so that I could open my trunk and smelled it. Sure enough, half filled with hard alcohol. At that point a police officer that I hadn't seen walked up behind me took the cup out of my hand and also smelled it, and asked me how old I was. Well I'm only 20 so he charged me with an MIP for the cup that wasn't mine. Of coarse that sounds like something anybody would say but thats what happened.
The main thing that worrys me about the ticket is that over a year ago, I had an offense that resulted in probation, and this ticket is a violation of my probation. I am just starting out as a volunteer fire fighter and things are starting to go well but if I have a violation of probation, it is bound to screw up my goals. I am already struggling with getting my EMT certification through the county because of my last offense. Do I have a reasonable case to fight this ticket?
The main thing that worrys me about the ticket is that over a year ago, I had an offense that resulted in probation, and this ticket is a violation of my probation. I am just starting out as a volunteer fire fighter and things are starting to go well but if I have a violation of probation, it is bound to screw up my goals. I am already struggling with getting my EMT certification through the county because of my last offense. Do I have a reasonable case to fight this ticket?