M is for Misdemeanor

Flash back to 2002. I was a sophomore in college, just a few months shy of my 21st birthday.

According to RCW 66.44.310 it is illegal for a person under the age of 21 to enter a restricted area where alcohol is being served or represent their age to be 21 for the purpose of purchasing liquor or secure admission to an area classified as off-limits. Well… yeah. I probably knew these things were illegal… but I did them anyway.

My friends and I decided to spice up a Saturday evening by going to a local club that was notorious for letting in minors. We showed our real IDs and lo and behold, we were let right in. I was just enjoying a sip of my first drink when some unexpected visitors arrived… the cops. Of course my underage friends and I panicked, hid in the bathroom for about 45 minutes, and then tried to slip out the back. Our plan did not work.

We were cornered, read our rights (very scary!) and handed tickets for “minor frequenting a tavern or lounge.” To this day I still don’t see how they can call it “frequenting” when they catch you in there one time, but I digress.

Of course did not want a misdemeanor on my record, so my friend Sheena and I contacted a local attorney with a reputation for getting college students out of MIPs, DUIs, etc. For $300 he agreed to represent us in court and guaranteed that the citation would be dropped with a warning, a fine, and one year’s probation - thus ensuring that the violation would not end up on our permanent records. This seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me. The day of court arrived and everything went according to plan. I was let off with a warning, paid the fine, and did not receive any more alcohol related charges for one year. (In fact, I have not received on since).

Fast-forward to 2009. I was chatting with my office manager recently, talking about “the good ol’ days” in college (God, I’m getting old) and was fondly remembering this little story. Her response? “Oh, I’ve totally been meaning to ask you about that. It showed up on the background check we ran before hiring you.”

Excuse me, what?! I paid $450 (quite a large sum for a broke college student) to make sure that this thing did not end up on my permanent record, was assured that it wouldn’t, and then here it is!! To this day I can’t figure out what happened… Did the attorney misrepresent his abilities? Was there a mistake in how the court filed the paperwork? I think I shredded all the documentation last year in a cleaning frenzy so unfortunately I can’t go back and reference it.

Sure, this doesn’t seem like such a big deal now that years have passed, and obviously having this on my record hasn’t affected my ability to get a job, but I’m still semi-annoyed. Maybe I can sue the lawyer… I’ll have to look into that.