What can I do if I am being accused of buying alcohol for an underaged girl? 11 Answers as of January 12, 2012

If from this incident you are charged with providing beer to a minor and you are convicted you could go to Jail. If the investigation continues forward you need to hire an attorney. Follow your attorneys advice on this incident. Do not submit to questioning from anyone without your attorney present. Do not talk with anyone about the incident. This includes the police your family and the family of the other girl.

You can be charged with a variety of offenses including contributing to the delinquency of a minor. You might want to contact and retain an experienced criminal law attorney to interface with the police and others on your behalf.

The police, contrary to what you were taught as a child, are NOT your friends. They can charge you andyou can go through awhole lot of anxiety provking crap. Get a lawyer right away and STOP TALKING TO THE COPS.

Your first mistake was in talking to the police in the hopes of persuading them that you were innocent! Shut down all communications and efforts to talk the police. In this situation, they are only interested in putting together a report that they can submit to the DA to file charges against you for providing alcohol to a minor and child endangerment. Suggest you call me to help you, unless you want to end up with a criminal record, which will follow you forever!

At this time there is nothing more to do other than wait and see if you receive a citation from law enforcement or a notice to appear based on a misdemeanor complaint being filed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. At that time you can ask for a court appointed lawyer or hire counsel of your choice. Hopefully, the whole thing will blow over and the police won't refer to the DA's Office for review, or in the alternative that the DA's Office decides not to file charges. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a violation of California Penal Code Section 272, which carries the possibility of up to one year in the County jail + 5 years probation.

You need experienced criminal defense counsel, either retained or Public Defender, on your side. The difficult thing to explain is the 'text msg' on someone's phone. "Something about me buying the beer" is not very informative. If the statements of you daughter and the friend match up, and did not appear to be 'shakeable' when the officers first talked, then your attorney might have an argument for all of this to just go away. Back to the cell phone, ?how and?why were the police clued in to this msg? I think there could be trouble here. Work with your attorney.

Obviously STOP talking/texting to the cops.

You were foolish to have e-mailed the officer. You have the right to remain silent and should always exercise that right. Talking never helps unless it is to your hired attorney. Stop now before it gets worse, and maybe you won't be charged with anything at all. Talk more and you will need to spend a couple grand to hire a lawyer to get you out of this jam.

It is unlikely that you will be charged with a crime. If you are you need to seek good legal counsel. Don't say anything else about this to anyone till you determine if you are going to be charged.

You can be prosecuted. Does not mean DA will win. Would probably need to know what is in the text. May want to start looking for an attorney and do not say anything more to cops.