How to Avoid Legal Trouble in College: Interview with a Criminal Defense Attorney

The police are public servants helping to maintain peace and order in our communities.

While most of us agree with this idea, as college students it can be hard to see the law as anything other than a hindrance to our right to have fun. Hopefully most people get through their time in college without running into any legal trouble and this can easily be done if you simply read your local laws and follow them.

Unfortunately there’s something about campus life – it may be our age, our independence, the stress we put ourselves under during school, or a combination of several factors – which brings the cops knocking on front doors, turning on their flashing lights, and writing tickets to college students for having too much fun.

Hopefully you’re a smart, mature, responsible adult and breaking the law isn’t something you’d ever do. But in case you happen to find yourself in a situation where the authorities want to rain on your parade, here is some helpful advice and information taken from an interview with Stephen Gustitis, an experienced criminal defense attorney who often represents students in College Station, Texas.

Photo Credit: www.smith.edu

Talking to any average college student, what’s the first piece of advice about avoiding legal trouble?

“Don’t break the law. That’s the soundest, most reliable way of avoiding trouble with the police. Just don’t break the law.”

What would you say is the most common form of legal trouble students get into?

“Usually it has to do with alcohol. So that could be either being in possession of alcohol under age, driving under the influence of alcohol, buying alcohol for other people that aren’t old enough to be getting alcohol. That also includes drugs like marijuana, things like that. I would say that’s the most common, at least around here.”

What should someone do when the police catch them breaking those laws?

“The general advice I give people is when you’re caught, keep your mouth shut. Everyone knows when they’re caught. And so they’ll never be able to talk their way out of it, and once you start talking more often then not, you make it worse on yourself. So if you’re caught, you need to exercise your right to keep your mouth shut, because everything you say is evidence that’s going to be used against you.

Typically the police only ask you questions because they need you to say something incriminating. If the police are talking to you and asking you questions they probably need you to incriminate yourself. So when you’re caught, keep your mouth shut.”

Let’s say a 20-year-old is drinking at a party and the cops knock on the door and come inside the house. What do you think that 20-year-old should do?

“Well first lets back up because the owner of the house needs to know that they don’t have to open the door. So when the police come knocking, if they don’t have a warrant then you don’t have to open the door. Now the police may try to gain entry in other ways that may or may not be legal, but the law does not say that you have to open the door.You don’t have to answer questions through the door. You can ignore the police if you want to.

So once we’re beyond that particular legal framework, once the police get in there, I guess it all kinda depends. There’s two lines of thought. One line of thought is you play hardball with the police. So if you play hardball with the police they can play hardball with you because out in the field the police have quite a bit of  discretion. So if you’ve got a 20-year-old with a beer in his hand or a 20-year old having just consumed some beer, those two offenses are Class C Misdemeanors: Minor in Possession or Minor in Consumption. The police can give you a ticket for that. Now if the police really want to play hardball with you they can arrest you for that if they want. They don’t do that very often but they can if you make them mad.

So there’s always a decision you need to make about whether or not you’re going to just not answer any questions. You have to identify yourself properly. Just give them your correct name, you have to give them your correct birthday and your age, and you have to give them your correct address. If you fail to do any one of those things they can arrest you for that.

Beyond identifying yourself, you’re not required to answer any questions. You can remain silent if you want to. But obviously if the kid wasn’t there drinking he wouldn’t have to answer to the police.”

What about things that have to do with the school specifically? Do you ever see any plagiarism or hazing cases?

“Yes.”

So let’s say a student turns in a paper that they were not thinking of as plagiarized but the teacher accuses them of plagiarism. What happens from there?

“Well that gets prosecuted within the university itself. You don’t get into legal trouble with that.”

Do you ever handle those types of cases?

“I have a couple of times. I’m personally very jaded when it comes to the university due process that they offer people when they’re accused of breaking university rules. I’ve written about it, I think it’s a sham, and I think the students get the shaft and are treated, not necessarily unfairly, but it’s an extremely biased system and the university is typically looking out for itself. They’re making decisions that protect them as opposed to protecting their students’ rights.”

Clearly the best piece of advice that students can take when dealing with the law is simply not to break the law. The government, your university, your parents, and an attorney will all say the same thing. Most people know this isn’t advice we all take seriously enough during our first years living away from home, but hopefully you decide to avoid dangerous and illegal behavior at some point before getting in trouble.

But if you don’t follow the rules and you end up having to deal with the police, it’s important to remember your constitutional rights to remain silent and say no to a search of your property. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that lying to the police and trying to hide things can get you into even more trouble.

At the end of my interview with Mr. Gustitis he added one last comment on dealing with legal trouble.

“The law is designed to help the police. So if we chose to break the law somehow, then we don’t have a whole lot of options other than being quiet. There’s no trickery, there’s no technicalities.”