MIP Citation in South Carolina

[outoftimemom]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: SC
Last Saturday night my son, (who is 15), went to a “sweet sixteen” party. After checking with the Mom of the girl, I let him go with 3 of his friends. One of the boys is 17 (a junior), and the other 2 are 16 (sophomores like my son). Having said that, they have a later curfew than my son, but all agreed to in by his curfew @ 10:30 and actually made it home on time. They were spending the night together at D’s house. Around 11:00 they asked D’s Mom if they could go up the street to see a friend that was home visiting his Dad. She said yes, but come back in 30 minutes. My son who we’ll call W, knew if he asked me I would say NO…… so he didn’t tell me he was leaving D’s house. Now for the real matter at hand……………….. At 1:30am I received a phone call from the local police department….. W is here at the station because he and a bunch of his friends built a bond fire and had 2 cases of beer. I asked, “was he drinking”? The officer replied, “ from everything I have observed he has not. He has no alcohol on his breath, and only one beer was missing and B (the boy down from NC) admitted he drank it. B also admitted he had a cousin get the beer from a boy that was 21, and that W or the other boys didn’t know he was getting it. He said that he had offered them one but told them they had to pay $5 bucks each for them. After being there for about 10 minutes the police showed up, (the boys were in B’s back yard down by the creek). The police put them in the patrol car, took them to the police department, placed them in a cell while they asked each of them questions alone. He was charged with a citation 20-7-8920, fined $496.00 each, and given a court date next month.
Now, I am not a stupid parent and I can’t tell you if he remained at the creek, that possibly he would not part with $5 to try a beer with his buddies and then think he could get away with it!
The officer told us…. Go to court, talk with the judge, worst case…he’ll lower the fine and you’ll get off with community service. So, I’m thinking a little community service may do him some good! Right?
Monday morning, W calls me from school. The SRO (school resource officer), has called all the boys out of class…. Made them go tell their coach…. Then told them that they had 3 options: 1- Go to court, plead guilty, pay a fine & do community service. 2- Go to court, fight the charges, be found guilty, have SR-22 insurance…. Or 3- give him a statement admitting guilt, he’d get the court date moved up, and they could do community service at the school with him and the citation would not be on their record. He didn’t give a statement, telling him wanted to talk to me & his Dad first.
Sorry for dragging this out…. But I am SO confused. I only want to do what is best for him. I am not trying to get him “off” or “make excuses for him”, but I am looking out for his future.
Questions:
1- Can they put a 15 year old in the back of a police car, take him to the station & question him without me present?
2- How can they cite him for MIP when B told them they had no knowledge he had the beer, that he purchased it?
3- Why is the school’s resource office involved when it wasn’t on school property, or during school hours?
4- Will he really have SR-22 insurance? He doesn’t even have a license!
5- Can the citation really “just go away” by choosing the SRO program? This is the most important question…. He is being looked at by two different division 1 universities for a baseball scholarship…. Can this charge keep him from getting a scholarship?
6- Do I need a lawyer? Could we have a prayer the charges would be dropped?
Any help is appreciated! And Thanks for reading this LONG post.

[Mr. Knowitall]

1. Yes. Did you expect them to leave him unattended at the location where they built the bonfire?

2. Because he was at a party with a couple of cases of beer, knew about the beer, and stayed there.

3. You can ask the resource officer what her policies are, in relation to when she takes this type of action.

4. A license sanction can be imposed even before a license is formally issued.

5. Possibly; ask a local lawyer about local sentencing policies and court practices.

6. I would suggest consulting a lawyer. You can probably get a free consultation, and decide where to go from there.