Fake IDs Are Common in Hudson County Schools
Parents of Hudson County high school and college students should appreciate the hazards their student faces from the temptation to acquire, hold, and use fake identification. Fake IDs are indeed a hazard, one of those issues about which Hudson County underage students need to learn to avoid facing serious, life-altering consequences.
Every parent and student knows that New Jersey law restricts certain privileges for adults-only use. Under New Jersey law, Hudson County underage students do not generally have access to alcohol, vaping materials, tobacco products, prescription and over-the-counter medications, bars, and clubs. Hudson County students may also find that they do not have access to high school, college, or university transportation services, recreational facilities, computers, library resources, and sporting or entertainment events without student identification. Hudson County students thus face significant temptations to buy, beg, borrow, or steal identification from others, or to make or alter their own driver's license or state identification, for unauthorized access to those privileges.
College students at Hudson County Community College, New Jersey City University, Saint Peter's University, and Stevens Institute of Technology, and high school students in Jersey City, Union City, Bayonne, North Bergen, Hoboken, West New York, and other Hudson County locales all face that temptation to use fake IDs for illicit purposes or laudable purposes illicitly. Fake IDs are a significant temptation and problem for high school and college students in Hudson County.
Fake IDs Are Big Hudson County Student Problems
You may think, so what's the big deal? Think again. Using a fake ID to buy beer or other alcohol at a Jersey City retail outlet, or to get into a Hoboken bar or club, or to get on a New Jersey City University computer or into a Bayonne high school or Saint Peter's University sporting event, pool, gym, or other recreational facilities can seem like harmless or trivial misconduct. It can also seem almost like a rite of passage through which every student or most students will, may, or even should go. But Hudson County high school and college students would do far better to forgo such rites because fake ID misconduct in New Jersey carries very stiff potential penalties and harsh collateral consequences. Retain a skilled and experienced fake ID defense attorney if your student faces Hudson County fake ID issues. Get the professional help your student needs to preserve your student's future against harsh consequences.
Hudson County Prosecutors Charge Fake IDs Crimes
Hudson County law enforcement doesn't treat fake ID misconduct as a mere civil infraction. Your Hudson County high school or college student won't just receive a ticket and pay a small civil fine if arrested for using a fake ID for beer in North Bergen, cigarettes in Union City, or vaping materials in West New York. New Jersey law criminalizes fake ID misconduct. Those criminal laws mean that your Hudson County high school or college student may face a criminal prosecutor's criminal charges in criminal court if arrested for a fake ID, resulting in a criminal sentence including jail, a fine, and even prison time. You and your Hudson County student should also beware that virtually any fake ID activity constitutes a New Jersey crime. Your student doesn't have to actually buy beer or wine in Jersey City or Hoboken to face fake ID criminal charges. Hudson County prosecutors can also charge your student with a fake ID crime simply for standing in line with a fake ID outside a West New York club.
Hudson County Fake ID Crimes Harsh Penalties
New Jersey's criminal penalties for fake ID crimes are indeed harsh. Your Hudson County high school or college student may not suffer a stiff criminal penalty, especially if you retain premier Hudson County fake ID criminal defense counsel to represent your student through New Jersey's criminal process. But in the worst case, without adequate representation, your student could face up to ten years in prison and a $150,000 fine for committing the most serious fake ID crime. Even the lowest-level fake ID crime carries up to two years imprisonment. And frankly, fake ID crimes can be like a doorway to more-serious charges involving a minor in possession of alcohol and even crimes of sex or violence. Your Hudson County student needs to know these fake ID risks before starting a senior year in high school or heading off to college. And if your student already faces Hudson County fake ID charges, then you need to retain the best available Hudson County fake ID defense attorney to preserve your student's promising future.
Hudson County ID Tampering Charges
Tampering with state identification or a driver's license, such as altering the birth year on a driver's license to make it look like the student is of legal age to buy beer, is New Jersey's least-serious fake ID crime. While tampering is only a disorderly persons offense under New Jersey law, a disorderly persons conviction can nonetheless result in up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Hudson County prosecutors may charge tampering for an otherwise earnest high school or college student's first offense, even though the arrest circumstances warrant a higher level fake ID charge. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:28-7 defines tampering as when your Hudson County high school or college student does any one or more of these acts:
"(1) Knowingly makes a false entry in, or false alteration of, any record, document or thing belonging to, or received or kept by, the government for information or record, or required by law to be kept by others for information of the government; (2) Makes, presents, offers for filing, or uses any record, document or thing knowing it to be false, and with purpose that it be taken as a genuine part of information or records referred to in paragraph (1); or (3) Purposely and unlawfully destroys, conceals, removes, mutilates, or otherwise impairs the verity or availability of any such record, document or thing."
Hudson County Fake ID Possession Charges
Possessing a fake ID is New Jersey's next level of fake ID crime. Of course, tampering necessarily involves possession, illustrating how Hudson County prosecutors have discretion as to which level of fake ID crime to charge. You might also wonder how police would find your student possessing fake ID when not actually using it to buy beer or for some other illicit purpose. But students will often congregate outside bars, clubs, or retail liquor outlets, where the arrest of one student for presenting a fake ID may result in the questioning and search of other students for fake IDs, resulting in simple possession charges. And watch out: New Jersey law defines possession as a fourth-degree offense carrying up to eighteen months imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(d) defines possession charges as follows:
"A person who knowingly possesses a document or other writing which falsely purports to be a driver's license, birth certificate, or other document issued by a governmental agency and which could be used as a means of verifying a person's identity or age or any other personal identifying information is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree."
Hudson County Fake ID Use Charges
Using a fake ID is New Jersey's next level of fake ID crime. New Jersey law makes fake ID use a third-degree offense with up to five years imprisonment and a $15,000 fine. As the above discussion suggests, Hudson County prosecutors may decide to charge fake ID use only as a lower-level tampering offense, to preserve an otherwise earnest student's promising future, especially if the student's parents retain a skilled defense attorney to advocate and negotiate for a reduced or dismissed charge. Note, though, that Hudson County prosecutors are likely to go ahead with minor in possession (MIP) charges if the underage student goes ahead and buys alcohol with the fake ID. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(c) defines the fake ID use crime as follows:
"A person who knowingly exhibits, displays, or utters a document or other writing which falsely purports to be a driver's license, birth certificate, or other document issued by a governmental agency and which could be used as a means of verifying a person's identity or age or any other personal identifying information is guilty of a crime of the third degree."
Hudson County Fake ID Sale Charges
Selling a fake ID is New Jersey's highest-level fake ID crime, one that you definitely do not want your Hudson County high school or college student to commit. New Jersey law makes the fake ID sale crime a second-degree offense with five to ten years imprisonment and up to a $150,000 fine, definitely, an extraordinary punishment to face for an otherwise earnest Hudson County high school or college student with a promising future. Hudson County prosecutors may charge a first-time-offender high school or college student who sells fake ID with only a lower-level fake ID crime, especially if the student's parents retain an experienced criminal defense attorney to skillfully advocate for a reduced or dismissed charge. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(a) defines the fake ID sale crime as follows:
"A person who knowingly sells, offers or exposes for sale, or otherwise transfers, or possesses with the intent to sell, offer or expose for sale, or otherwise transfer, a document, printed form or other writing which falsely purports to be a driver's license, birth certificate, or other document issued by a governmental agency and which could be used as a means of verifying a person's identity or age or any other personal identifying information is guilty of a crime of the second degree."
Hudson County Fake ID Charge Impacts
As if the above criminal punishments were not already enough, your Hudson County high school or college student would face other penalties and consequences if convicted of a New Jersey fake ID crime. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(e) requires that your student relinquish a driver's license for between six months and two years, having a potentially profound impact on your student's educational and vocational pursuits. Community service is another potential criminal penalty. High schools in Jersey City, Union City, Bayonne, North Bergen, Hoboken, West New York, and other Hudson County school districts will have student codes of conduct to punish convictions for fake ID or other crimes, as will Hudson County Community College, New Jersey City University, Saint Peter's University, and Stevens Institute of Technology. That punishment could include school expulsion or suspension or lesser sanctions like loss of team sports privileges and loss of school honors and awards. Any criminal conviction, including convictions for fake ID crimes, can also affect your Hudson County student's admission to college and university programs and pursuit of vocational training, licenses, and jobs.
New Jersey Fake ID Attorney for Hudson County Charges
Don't let Hudson County fake ID charges cripple your high school or college student's future. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Criminal Defense Team and preeminent New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento to defend Hudson County fake ID charges. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now for the best available Hudson County fake ID defense representation.
