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cheeks

Okay here's the deal. My roommate and I were smoking a bowl in our dorm room. (I know, bad idea...but lots of people do it without getting caught and we've probably done it 40-50 times prior with no problems) When suddenly there was an obnoxious knock on our door.

Basically, to make a long story short....we got caught with possession of a small ammount of marijuana for personal use, possession of paraphernalia, & possession of alcohol. (Luckily we didn't drink at all) The cop was a ***** and said she was going to add disorderly conduct so that we could possibly plea bargain it down a bit...but she ended up NOT adding it. I'm almost 19 & live in PA. I know the law differs from state to state...so I was just curious exactly what was going to happen to me. I've heard the judge we're going to have is a pretty cool guy...so I guess that's a plus.

My roommate is definitely getting a lawyer, & I plan on talking to my mom about it over spring break. Would it be beneficial to be represented by the same person?

As far as the college goes, we're almost definitely going to be suspended for a semester, (which I couldn't care less about at this point)

If anyone can explain the possible outcome of this to me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've never been in any kind of trouble with the cops before, either. Thanks ahead of time.

My e-mails: cheex090@aol.com

__________________
--lindsay

 

Larmer

Well, let's take a look here....

Well, for the possession charge cheeks, you'll be rewarded with 1 month in jail and a $500 fine!

Paraphernalia? Well that'll net you 1 year and a $2500 fine!

But that's not all! (note: this is good news) For both offenses, provided it's your first offense, you can get off with probation.

The alcohol charge, I dunno, check elsewhere, I'm not here to help with that.

As for the lawyer, it depends on the defence that your buddy uses. Is he a close friend? Does he care to remain that way? His lawyer, depending on the defence chosen, may declare a conflict of interest, meaning that his tactic might be to blame you. Hopefully that won't happen, but make sure you're aware of his case as well. My advice would be to ask the lawyer if he'll represent you, provided he's up to snuff, then determine whether to use the same attorney.

Good luck, welcome to cheaptalk, and let's hope your next post has a tad more good news!

cheeks

<<Well, for the possession charge cheeks, you'll be rewarded with 1 month in jail and a $500 fine!

Paraphernalia? Well that'll net you 1 year and a $2500 fine!>>

Well, I've already checked out that site. Not to be rude, but I was asking because I know in most cases it's lowered quite a bit. That's why I was asking...for someone that had a similar experience or knew someone who did.

Thanks for your help, though.

Ommamedmar

I had a friend go in to a terrible spin several years ago on a combination of alcohol, an off-topic fungus while we were experiencing an average nightime temperature 0f 90F in a cramp dorm room. I was working part-time as a crisis counselor, and had plenty of experience at talking people down at Dead shows, Renn Fayre, etc.

When the police showed up, we refused to admit them under any circumstances; they argued PC over the fact that the level of noise (screaming) was enough to come inside and check things out. I very clearly refused them and explained who I was and what I was doing to help the situation and added that their presence would exacerbate the situation further. They begrudgingly agreed to leave.

In your situation, all you had to do was ignore the knock

OMM

__________________
In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network's mind there are no limits.
~~ Dr. John Lilly

Larmer

Omman, nope he wan't the owner of the house, things change in University dorms.

When you sign the agreement at the beginning of the semester, you more or less give up your right against protection from searches. The university owns the dorms, they give you the rooms, they get to know what's going on in them.

 

Ommamedmar

Accepted; provisionally.

I never sign away my rights, and have lived in college housing on more than one occasion.

I have a gift for taking strong rhetorical stances that confuse and confound people who are locked in to a single intent; namely, subverting me. It comes down to your willingness and motivation to affect outcomes.

OMM

cheeks

Oh, I wish it was that simple. We tried to "ignore the knock" for about 5-10 minutes. Our RD just continued banging on our door. Eventually she said, "I know you're in there and if you don't let me in I'll go get the key to your door and open it myself."

Unfortunately, it seemed as though we had no other option but to open the door.

The whole concept doesn't seem quite right to me, but apparently they have the right to come in our room if they smell marijuana in the hallway.

bc_budz420

Why didnt you phone a friend that could come and take all your pipes and bud when you throw them out the window so they couldnt catch you with anything? Thats what I would of done no matter how stoned and sketched out i was.

jvthc

Well, if you KNOW already the judge is cool, that helps. There are LOTS of judges sympathetic to being young, dumb and full of .....uh, bad joke.

Anyway, you're going to get probation. You do NEED an attorney, and like other posts suggest, it's 50/50 using the same attorney. It won't hurt to ask, but you're probably going to need to get your own. That will probably cost as much as a fine.

Let the attorney check things out. Technical details can change things very quickly, and they spent a decade learning what those details are. At worst, though, you're going to be offered some kind of probation, rehab, drug education (which involves urine testing). They'll insist on verifying you're not smoking anymore, and they CHARGE for that! All things added up, you might loose between $500 (if you're really lucky and the attorney is able to work a deal), up to about $5000 (between fines, costs of probation, tests, etc.).

I find it REALLY odd that the penalty for paraphernalia is HIGHER than for the drug itself! That's just so strange it's dumbfounding! That means you DON'T use a pipe. Roll, only roll!

Of course, I think they can claim paraphernalia on papers IF they show your primary use for the papers happens to be MJ. I don't know. Considering the recent bong hunt raids, I'd think all bets are off on what extent they'll press.

Best of luck. It would be helpful for us to learn, so consider posting back to us just what does happen.

__________________
Imagination is more important than knowledge - Sounds like BS, until you realize Einstein said that.

cheeks

Thanks for your help jvthc- I really appreciate it.

About the lawyer...my mom's going to call him over spring break and see how that goes. I'm pretty sure my roommate and I are being tried together (same court date, time, etc...) so she's going to try to get the same one my roommate has.

As you said, the paraphernalia penalty is totally shocking to me, too. I mean...considering you can buy them legally mannny different places. It makes absolutely no sense. But hey, what does these days?

But anyway...I'd be estatic if my fines ended up adding up to just 500...who knows though, I guess we'll just hope for the best.

Thanks again....and the court dates March 31st so I'll be sure to update!