<p>If you are applying for a job that has any kind of licensure requirement, you will have to disclose the incident and the outcome. You probably will also have to disclose the incident on your grad school applications.</p>
<p>You have gotten a lot of good advice from at least 3 attorneys and a couple of parents who have been through the same situation with their kids on how you should handle the situation. My advice is that you take a breath, get off of the defensive and take their advice. </p>
<p>My nephew was arrested for something very similar. He was a senior in high school, at an underage party and the cops showed up. He ran and got away. Stupidly (most likely drunkenly) he returned to the party house before all the sheriff deputies had left. He saw a deputy and took off running. The deputy caught him, tackled him (yes, varsity athlete who is now playing his sport for his college). He was arrested and charged with evading arrest and kicking a sheriff’s deputy! Lucky for him the newspaper mixed up his first and middle name so when it was written up in the newspaper, most people didn’t even know it was him. However, if you google his name, that article will always come up. His parents got a good lawyer and the charges were dropped. And he had been previously arrested less than six months prior for stealing that loco (whatever) drink from a 7-11 store but he still got off. This happened on the same day as my DS1’s 18th birthday but luckily he stayed home and celebrated with us. Unfortunately b-i-l found out about it the following morning… which happened to be father’s day.</p>
<p>I misread the original post - I thought you had a condition that caused seizures and you drank alcohol.
But to drink enough alcohol to cause a seizure?!!?
I hope you are voluntarily seeking treatment, for your health.
Showing you can take responsibility, is important whether or not your push was combative or not.</p>
<p>It’s serious. A good friend of my oldest son had a heck of a time, a really hard time, getting a visa for Spain because of a “drunk” “battery” on his record from when HE was twenty. This stuff does STICK with you and you have no idea what your future will hold. Tell your parents, get a lawyer.</p>
<p>Too, if this ends up compounded to a felony conviction, you could end up with jail time even. Plus, a felony record makes it near impossible getting a job, next to impossible getting a state or professional license in future, and you even lose your right to vote!</p>
<p>Anything can happen in a courtroom. Try to get your parents to help you more finding you a good criminal defense lawyer</p>
<p>"I can’t really afford a lawyer, and am being assigned a public defender. "</p>
<p>You and your family need to find the best lawyer you can and pay whatever it costs. Given the possible consequences to your future career, a few thousand spent now will be well worth it to avoid the serious ramifications that could follow. I don’t know your financial circumstances, but trusting a public defender with your future seems penny wise and pound foolish. If OP was my kid, I’d be finding a way to scrape together whatever a successful defense would cost.</p>
<p>The EMT can’t drop the charges - they file a complaint and the Criminal Justice system files the charges. You’d probably need to get the prosecutor to drop the charges. I would generally avoid personally contacting a witness or the accuser - if something goes wrong, it could be construed as witness tampering. I guess that a lawyer could do that but it might not be wise for the accused.</p>
<p>A good criminal defense lawyer knows what to do to best help OP and that’s why she should do everything she can to get herself out of this mess as unscathed as possible by hiring a private attorney even if it costs a few thousand dollars. A public defender may do the trick, maybe not.</p>
<p>A good private criminal defense attorney knows what to do, who to phone, and what buttons to push. A public defender might not do much other than crack open defendent’s file, take a peek, and let the chips fall where they may for the defendent.</p>
<p>Hire an attorney, even if it means taking a loan to pay the fees. Battery charges against medical personnel while doing their job is a serious charge with serious penalities. Google “California penal code section 242-243.”</p>
<p>A public defender is a real lawyer and can provide adequate legal representation. But a public defender will not see the file or work on the case in advance of the first court hearing – so there is no possibility of a public defender intervening in advance. Nor will a public defender make a special effort for one client above and beyond what he/she will do for another. So the issue of hiring a private lawyer really is, how much is it worth to you and your family to try to get a head start on addressing this case or to try to get a better than usual result? </p>
<p>If you do hire a private attorney, be sure to get one who is an experienced criminal defense lawyer in the local jurisdiction. Do not choose a lawyer base on affordability. The best lawyers will charge more. The reason I pointed out that a public defender will provide capable representation is that there are some private lawyers who are not particularly good at what they do, particularly in the area of criminal defense. So you need to be sure that you are actually going to get the services you are paying for. </p>
<p>If you really cannot afford a private lawyer, there is one thing you can do right away to help yourself, and that is to get into counseling or treatment for your alcohol abuse. If you can’t afford a private treatment program, start going to AA and documenting your attendance. (Even though it is “anonymous”, they do maintain an attendance log for purposes of recording attendance if needed to satisfy a court or probation officer). Go to AA meetings as often as possible. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that your lawyer can get a better result if you give him/her something to work with. Given that your account of what happened is not particularly helpful, but a prosecutor and judge might have more respect for a young person who shows that she has taken the arrest as a wakeup call and has been proactive in addressing the underlying problem.</p>
<p>(1) It doesn’t matter whether or not you can afford an attorney. Right now you are your own worst enemy (see below) and you need a lawyer who has enough of an investment in your case to explain to you what you should and should not say from here on in.</p>
<p>(2) Your excuse for the charges against you is that you were too drunk to know what you were doing. Believe it or not, this is NOT a good defense to a charge of underage drinking!</p>
<p>(3) Your defense to the battery charge is that you “barely pushed her.” The problem with this is that (a) pushing her (at all) IS battery and (b) this directly contradicts your claim that you can’t remember anything!</p>
<p>You have subsequently clarified that this isn’t your account of what happened, but a friend’s account. That’s fine. You need an attorney who is smart enough (a) to figure out if your friend’s testimony will help or hurt you and (b) to get you to SHUT UP.</p>
<p>Ask your parents for the money, ask your grandmother for the money, ask dear old Aunt Tillie for the money . . . but find a way to hire an experienced defense lawyer who will invest the time and energy necessary to get you the best possible outcome.</p>