| I'm imagining myself in your shoes, choc, and as a godmother. Especially since he's planning to plead not guilty, he needs a lawyer so he will actually stand a chance of winning in court. The lawyer might also dissuade him from that plea position, and he should LISTEN to his lawyer on how to plead.
Compliment him on not signing the police statement if he saw big errors in it. Tell him he handled himself pretty well once he realized he was in trouble. If they didn't "let" him talk, he's lucky because "anything he said might be used against him in court," right? Maybe the police were actually helping him protect his Miranda rights..just wondering. How unusual for the police to do such, and if they did, LUCKY they didn't let him "speak."
I'd like to see him grow up from this moment. Can you tell him he had a different choice when walking with his friends, of turning and departing from them as soon as they began to carry the fire extinguisher? Or the choice ofr not taking the booze his dad stupidly supplied.
If he wants to handle it himself and then someday inform parents of the result, he is in a way trying to show maturity, not evade his parents.
So talk to him about how he will finance his OWN attorney fees. Let him become very responsible here. At the point he's already hired the lawyer and made a payment plan with the lawyer (summer job that he didn't expect to perform this summer?), then he might feel it's more in hand and can tell his parents what's happened more like a young adult than a baby.
Those are my thoughts. |