Twenty or so years ago, Young Son comes home with a ticket for Minor in Possession of Alcohol. He's 17 or so. He rather assuredly advised me that he was an innocent man.
He was merely in the car with 3 other yoots who were drinking beer, but he was not.
Sigh...A victim of circumstance, in the company of miscreants, painted with the same brush.
After rather narrowly scrutinizing his story, I decided to go along with his scenario. We would go to see the PA and discuss the matter and see if we could negotiate a civilized settlement.
I tell the lad to let me do the talking, sit in the chair, look humble and repentent for the company he keeps et al. I walk the PA through the scenario, being Young Son's mouthpiece of the hour. PA is smiling and nodding his head. The story is plausible, sometimes the innocent do get scraped up with mopes. The affair appears to be headed for dismissal.
Suddenly Young Son opens mouth and words come tumbing out, unsolicited. "It's all true, sir" he says, "I never drank a drop of beer. In fact I could not have even held a beer because both of my hands were occupied by rolling a joint." He smiled innocently at the PA and at me. The silence in the room was palpable. I slowly turned my head, with an absolutely stunned look on my face to see the PA do the same. We looked at each other for a second or two. I said, "I guess he should just plead guilty to the MIP and pay the fine, huh?" To which the PA said, "Sounds like a plan."
