Traffic violation procedures
in Criminal and Misdemeanor Law ·
So, last night I ended up at the police station with three buddies because of some alleged "disturbing the peace" nonsense. Basically, my friend pulled the car over, and cops swooped in out of nowhere demanding IDs. My friends had rolled down the back window and were being loud—the music was definitely cranked up—but I was just sitting up front, totally uninvolved. The whole thing lasted maybe a few seconds around 1 AM. Since nobody but the driver had an ID on them, they hauled us all down to the station to run breathalyzers and drug tests. Now they’re hitting me with a charge under Section 13 for disturbing the peace. My BAC came back at 0.08. We admitted we were being loud, and I basically went along with it since I thought they’d just let us go, but this cop started acting like a total jerk, threatening us and being super unprofessional before finally writing everything up. He let us go but told us we'd likely see him in court. What am I looking at here? How long until I actually get the official notice? What kind of penalties are we talking about, and what should my next move be? Any advice helps. I’m 22, a senior in college, and I’ve never even had a brush with the law before. Also, will this mess up my ability to get a clean background check for job applications? Does this specific charge affect that? Thanks in advance.