Probable cause/Reasonable suspicion?

[WiSeIVIaN]

I am currently a college student living in a dorm. Last night me and my buddy were trying to bring alcohol into the residence hall. I had a big leather purse type thing with a handle of vodka and of a 5th of captain in it, and he had a backpack which contained a 12 pack. I am 19 and he is 20, and hence are underage to possess alcohol.

Normally when entering the hall late at night there is a student resident on duty, who asks for your student ID and hall entry card, but last night there was a cop there. In the "purse" I was carrying you could see a little bit of a brown paper bag. She asked me what was in the back and I dumbly responded "nothing", and she then asked my buddy what was in the backpack and he told her the outright truth, after which I of course told her about what I was carrying. She then gave us the "choice" of being arrested or going to the bathroom to dump it out in front of her partner. We of course dumped the alcohol out (took like 2 minutes to dump out the vodka, what a shame) and then we were on our way (after she tried to coax me into admitting buying the alcohol with a fake I.D. of course, which I didn't even do).

Now I am not asking you if you condone underage drinking, because honestly a whole lot of drinking goes on at college and in the dorms and the point is irrelivent in this situation. I do however realize that once I saw the cops inside the building I should have turned back with my bud and either stashed it in his car for the night, or simply killed some time until the cops were no longer checking people in.

What I am wondering though, is if the brown paper bag was not visible from the purse I was carrying, what are the chances of me and my buddy being able to get the alcohol upstairs? I know that I can refuse to awnser the police questions, but also if they have probably cause and reasonable suspicion I am screwed anyhow because they will search my bag. So is simply walking into a dorm at midnight carrying a purse while your buddy has a backpack on reasonable suspicion or probably case? I would like to think that it wouldn't be, but I also have a very hard time imagining me saying a line like "I am kind of in a hurry and don't really have time to answer your questions right now, am I free to go?" work when responding to "whats in the bag".

So do any of you beleive I had any actual chance, given the situation, of successfully getting past the cops with my alcohol? And if so, what responses and actions would have given me the best chance?

[mbillie1]

Your buddy's a [censored] pansy caving right away to some useless campus rent-a-cop. You tell them it's your schoolbooks and keep walking. It's not even a crime - just a violation - so even if they throw the book at you it's like $180 and no record. You both probably got all nervous and [censored] and looked uncomfortable. The correct play is to pay no attention to the cop whatsoever and act completely indifferent and bored. Obviously also keep the liquor concealed next time too...

Edit: my friends and I used to have a suite (3 rooms, 2 people per room) and would throw parties in the dorm. We had a beer pong table, several bongs, etc. Our RA (who was cool) tipped us off that the cops were coming, so being on the first floor, we all jumped out the window. One kid got caught. Here is an approximate transcript of his conversation with the cops, so you can adjust your campus-cop-dealing-with-attitude:

Cop: "Where did this beer come from?"
Steve: "I dunno"
Cop: "How did this beer get in here?"
Steve: "Are these questions going somewhere?"
Cop: "Did you buy this beer?"
Steve: "I didn't buy it, no. I might owe some people some money for this beer, though."

[GDadsForever]

I think it would be, coupled with your friend's admittance, you're f'ed.

[Oski]

Neither one is relevant here. Your dorm contract probably states that alcohol/drugs, etc. is forbidden in your dorms. The university probably reserved the right to search your room or your person.

Its just like when you go to a football game and they check your bags for stuff.

Without knowing more, I would say that you were going to be searched no matter what.

[Brainwalter]

Yeah your friend is dumb.

[Nepthu]

Well you don't have to answer any question that may incriminate you. And they normally can't search you without probable cause/reasonable suspicion by law. But an officer may search you anyways. Your real battle is in the courts. No evidence may be submitted to the courts that came from an illegal search. In practice I don't know how successful barring evidence due to illegal search is. Probable cause and reasonable suspicion may be open to interpretation as to what constitutes it.

Also Oski brings up a good point about private university property and I don't know how that works.

[bunny fufu]

Your dorm lease contract probably states that you consent to searches of your room or person. Refuse and you can get kicked out of the dorm, legal search or not. Problem here is not getting busted by the cops, they don't want to deal with the paperwork for an MIP that you will get off on probation for, anyway. You have to worry more about discipline from the university student affairs office. Part of your enrollment in the college is agreeing to comply with a student code of conduct. They can try you in front of a student court, convict you, and sentence you to community service and/or fines, or suspend you or expel you from school for some infractions, and your only recourse is probably an appeal to another student committee or a faculty administrator. I had a client that I got off on a DUI charge in city court, but without telling me he pleaded guilty in student court to voilating the student code of conduct, and got sentenced to 100 hours community service by the office of student affairs, for an offense that did not even happen on campus. Just getting your booze dumped occasionally is probably the price of living in a dorm. Could have been worse.

[WiSeIVIaN]

Thanks for your input guys. Thank you for reaffirming my suspicion that I had a 0% chance of pulling this off...

[mbillie1]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for your input guys. Thank you for reaffirming my suspicion that I had a 0% chance of pulling this off...

[/ QUOTE ]

WTF, wrong dude! What happened to the old college try? You just bluff your way through it man. Unless you look suspicious, why the hell would a cop assume you have contraband in your bag? Is it not a college? "We just came from the library, I just have books, you can take a look if you want to though" in a disinterested way. Bonus points for wearing a scarf and/or beret and mentioning Levinas on the way in, to set the tone properly.

Seriously though... it's not a concentration camp. You should be resourceful enough to sneak a small amount of booze past a cop.

[DrewDevil]

The best thing to do is to say, "None of your goddamned business, you pig. Now [censored] off."