Contributing to Delinqency - MIP with No Ticket

My question involves criminal law for the state of: nebraska

my 15 yr old daughter is being charged with contributing to del of a minor. She got caught drunk at school with a friend and admitted to securing alcohol for them both. She got the alcohol from a guy at school but decided to cover for him. I'm pretty sure she is screwed on this one.

She was also caught 2 months later with alcohol in a car she was riding in and failed a breathalyzer test. The officer released her with no ticket and told her she got lucky that she wasn't being charged with mip. The court documents arrive today and she is being charged with the mip now as well as the contributing charge.

My question is can they charge you later for mip? I thought you had to get a citation at the time of the event. I wondering what kind of fines she is looking at for these charges. Also thought it was weird it took over 90 days to file the first charge and over 30 for the 2nd. Is this normal?

Thanks for any advise.

They can file charges any time with in the statue of limitations. She lucky that all these screw ups are as a juvi b.c they will be sealed once see turns 18.They probably backed up thats why it took so long. The contributing to a del of minor is the more serious of the charges she probably looking at fines plus probation for that charge. How much fines I have no idea. Maybe someone noticed she has a pending charge then decided to charge her w. a mip.

That was part of what i didn't get. The officer at the scene saw the pending contributing charges and told her she wouldn't give her the mip because of it. Then a month later the da adds this to the original charge. My only guess is the da was waffling on charging her with the contributing offense, then saw the mip in a police report and decided to go ahead.

Is it worth getting a lawyer for these charges or should she just take her lumps? I'm going to call the da next week and discuss things with her to see what our options are.

Thank you for your help!
Buc

Yea then I guess the da decide to add the charges ,it's always a good idea t.o have a lawyer when you go to criminal court. Either the da felt like since she got in trouble before she shouldn't get a pass and/or he wanted to just stack on charges.

max charge for contributing is 1 yr in juvie and $1000 fine
max charge for mip is 3 mo in juvie and a $500 fine

Guess it is definitely time to get a lawyer. I've called the da's office a couple times with no call back. This is going to be a long couple weeks till this goes to court....

Waiting for the girl she got in trouble with both times to get back from vacation to see if she got nailed as well. They dropped her first mip, i doubt they will her second...

Thanks again for the advise

Still waiting for the outcome of this ticket. Are juvenile cases always drug out like this?

Appeared in court. judge told her she denied her charges without asking her. we were sent to the public defender. Spoke with pub defender and were told that the process was the same either way you plead.

2nd court date, we were told not to go by pub defender. It was a meeting between her, the county da and the judge. Heard nothing from the pub defender afterwards.

Get notice of 3rd court date. An adjudication hearing of some sort. Called the pub defender and said this was basically a meeting between the judge, da and pub defender to interview myself and daughter (discovery phase, i think she said)and come to terms of a reasonable punishment. Then we will go to the judge on the next court date to present our plea to the judge.

Why in the world does it take 4 court dates for someone who doesn't want to deny the charges? The pub defender said the case being drug out is beneficial to our case and that's just the way it's done. No wonder our city is going bankrupt....

Court in general sometimes can take awhile,having it drag out does benefit you. It helps if she stay out of trouble b.c then it's a longer time of her not doing anything wrong. The court could be back up and are hearing more serious charges 1st,it sucks but just go along with and follow the lawyers advice. So your daughter can get the best outcome.

I had some minor issue and i had to go about 7 times. It such a waste of time,on the last time my lawyer talked to the da for about a min or 2 and arrange a good deal for me. I said to myself why couldn't this be worked out the 1st or 2nd time,who knows,lol. About 3-4 times they just rescheduled it. Besides avoiding a record and money,all the time wasted makes me realize doing stupid stuff just isn't worth it.