Expert: Robin Sexton - 5/26/2008

Question
My name is nick and i recently threw a party in Pa and me and my friends were caught with underage drinking. There were 7 minors and one adult. I am 20 years old. The state cops let me go with just a fine and a citation in the mail because i was not drinking, i was just around the alcohol, they said. But later they found out that i was the one that supplied the alcohol not the adult that was there. 2 minors were drinking and the one adult was too i was not. The police want to charge me with supplying alcohol to minors. Could they charge me as an adult since the legal drinking age in 21 and im only 20? What kind of charges will be filed against me? Also, how much are the fines going to be in total, and i know you said not to ask about jail time but what do you thing would happen cuz i do not want to go to jail for this, but is that a possibility eventhough i wasnt drinking ,i just supplied it?

Answer
Nick,

Jail is probably unlikely unless you have a serious history outside of this incident.  Interesting quirk in the law though, an underage person being charged with supplying other underage persons with alcohol. Truth is yes you probably can be charged and since you are over 17 or 18 which ever is the age of majority in PA you would be charged as an adult.  Only a judge can tell you what the potential fines could be, could be probation also.  Another thing you may want to be aware of so that there is no next time.  If one of those underage kids had left and had been hurt in a car accident you could have been held civilly liable and possibly even criminally charged.

Hope this helped, at least a little

Good Luck


Robin