My question involves criminal law for the state of: Illinois
Son was arrested for cannibis possesion (in univ dorm). Quantity was less than an ounce. Due to small quantity, we expected charge to be dropped.
Due to the arrest, my son was let go from team sport and lost his atletic scholarship. Without scolarship he is unable to afford tution and was forced to withdrawl from univ.
On court date, univ police (witness) was present but arresting officers did not show. Defender suggested to have the evidence tested, as the tech doing the testing would need to be present in court and 9 times out of 10 they are unable to be present to state their findings and charges are dropped. If the tech shows and confirms cannibis, will my son have an option to take probation without the conviction going on his record? Classes of some sort?
Judge questioned the prosicution "quantities of this small size are dismissed, the State wishes to Pursue?" Which they said yes and asked for a couple days to gather student records which the judge stated "if they are relevant".
The Univ officer is probably aware of the dismissals and why he made a point to show (out of the 7 cases, we were the only case where a witness was present and case was not dismissed). Appears school is looking for conviction, probably for use of an example of no tolerance but it just seems excessive (the arrested, removal from team, loss of scholarship, and forced to withdrawl from school). Would a conviction null any chance of filing a law suit to reinstate his scholarship? Not that my son is interested in such a thing, he doesn't even want to play ball.
We're just trying to make sense of all the trouble to get a conviction on such a small quantity. Seems like a waste of resources, tax payer dollars, time and effort, etc. Should we seek a private lawyer?
Your thoughts appreciated.

