Morris County Students Face Fake ID Issues
Parents of Morris County high school and college students beware: your student may face significant peer pressure and temptation to obtain and use fake identification for any number of illicit and laudable purposes when fake ID activities can bring severe consequences. Fake IDs are a significant risk that your Morris County student needs to avoid or, if already facing fake ID charges, have the best available attorney defense representation.
You and your Morris County high school or college student surely know that underage minors shouldn't be using fake ID to buy alcohol or tobacco and vaping products or to enter adults-only bars and clubs. You probably also know that your student shouldn't be using fake ID to access campus transportation services, recreational facilities, computers, library resources, and sporting or entertainment events, even though there is nothing harmful and much good about those campus activities. But appreciate that your Morris County high school or college student may face temptation or pressure to buy or borrow identification from an adult-age friend or to alter their own driver's license for the above illicit or laudable purposes.
Students at County College of Morris, Saint Elizabeth University, and other Morris County colleges, and high school students in Parsippany-Troy Hills, Mount Olive, Morristown, Rockaway, Randolph, Roxbury, and other Morris County cities and townships face fake ID issues. Help your Morris County student understand and avoid those issues.
Morris County Fake ID Student Problems
You probably already don't want your Morris County high school or college student to have anything to do with fake IDs. But your student may wonder what's the big deal over fake ID. Your student needs to know that using a fake ID to get into a Morristown, Parsippany, Mount Olive, or Rockaway bar or club, to buy wine in Roxbury, or to access County College of Morris or Saint Elizabeth University facilities or services isn't just a student's rite of passage. Even if everyone else seems to be doing it, your student shouldn't be, for all the attendant risks, punishments, and penalties. Be ready to retain a premier fake ID defense attorney to address your student's Morris County fake ID issues.
Morris County Charges Fake IDs Crimes
If your student does face Morris County fake ID issues, you and your student might wish that fake ID misconduct was a mere civil infraction, something with which a small fine would quickly dispense. But instead, your Morris County high school or college student can face serious New Jersey criminal charges for possessing a fake ID outside a Parsippany club or trying to buy beer with a fake ID in Mount Olive, cigarettes in Morristown, or vaping materials in Roxbury. Your Morris County high school or college student could face jail or even prison time. And New Jersey law criminalizes virtually any fake ID conduct, not just presenting fake ID for alcohol. Beware Morris County fake ID criminal charges. Get your Morris County high school or college student the best available criminal defense attorney if charged with a fake ID crime.
Morris County Fake ID Criminal Penalties
Criminal convictions for New Jersey fake ID crimes can bring stiff sentences. Your Morris County high school or college student may be able to avoid those penalties, especially if you retain premier criminal defense counsel to help your student navigate New Jersey's criminal process. Just know that your student could face ten years in prison and a $150,000 fine just for fake ID crime. Tell your Morris County student about fake ID penalties before your student starts a senior year in high school or heads to college. And retain the best available Morris County fake ID defense attorney to preserve your student's promising future if your student already faces Morris County fake ID charges.
Morris County ID Tampering Charges
New Jersey's least-serious fake ID crime involves tampering with state identification or a driver's license. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:28-7 defines tampering as when the defendant does 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."
An example would be altering the birth year on a driver's license to buy beer, enter an adult-only club, or buy vaping materials. Tampering is only a disorderly persons offense under New Jersey law, a low-level New Jersey crime. But the punishment for a disorderly persons conviction is still up to six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Morris County prosecutors may charge first-time offenders with tampering, even where the evidence warrants a more-serious fake ID charge, especially if the offender is an earnest young student with a promising future, represented by a skilled defense attorney advocating for dismissed or reduced charges.
Morris County Fake ID Possession Charges
New Jersey's next level of fake ID crime involves possessing a fake ID. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(d) defines the fake ID possession charge 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."
An example would be if your student joined other students congregating outside a Rockaway or Morristown club, waiting to enter using a false ID. The arrest of another underage student who had already entered or tried to enter the club could lead to police questioning and search of your student and your student's arrest for possessing fake ID. Possession is a fourth-degree offense with up to eighteen months imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Other fake ID crimes like tampering also involve possession. In those cases, Morris County prosecutors will generally choose which level of fake ID crime to charge, depending on the defendant's profile, the advocacy of defense representation, and the nature of the crime, among other factors.
Morris County Fake ID Use Charges
New Jersey's next-level fake ID crime is using a fake ID. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(c) defines a 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."
New Jersey law makes fake ID use a third-degree offense with up to five years imprisonment and a $15,000 fine. Once again, fake ID use also necessarily involves fake ID possession and may also involve tampering. Morris County prosecutors may choose the level of fake ID crime to charge, depending on factors like those just mentioned above. That discretion makes it all the more important that you retain skilled defense representation for your student to advocate for a dismissed or reduced charge. If your underage student used a fake ID to buy alcohol, Morris County prosecutors would likely charge your student with minor in possession (MIP) charges in addition to or alternative to the fake ID use charge.
Morris County Fake ID Sale Charges
New Jersey's highest-level fake ID crime involves selling a fake ID. New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(a) defines a 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."
An example would be if your Morris County high school or college student acquired or made a fake ID and then sold or gave it to a friend for the friend's use. The fake ID sale crime is a New Jersey second-degree offense punished with five to ten years imprisonment and up to a $150,000 fine. Once again, Morris County prosecutors may charge a high school or college student selling or transferring a fake ID with only a lower-level use, possession, or tampering crime, depending on the above factors, including the skilled advocate of a premier defense attorney for a dismissed or reduced charge.
Morris County Fake ID Charge Impacts
New Jersey Statute Section 2C:21-2.1(e) requires that your Morris County high school or college student give up a driver's license for between six months and two years if convicted of one of the above fake ID crimes. You can imagine how not being able to drive would impact your student's school and work opportunities and obligations. Your student may also have to perform community service as a consequence of a fake ID conviction. Morris County school districts also adopt codes of conduct to punish students for fake ID and other crimes, right up to suspension and expulsion in some cases. County College of Morris and Saint Elizabeth University, like other Morris County colleges, have similar policies providing for fake ID discipline. If your student's school doesn't kick your student out over fake ID, the school could instead deprive your student of team sports privileges and school honors and awards. Fake ID criminal conviction could also cause your Morris County student to lose admission to a favorite college or university and impact vocational training, vocational and professional licenses, and job opportunities.
New Jersey Fake ID Attorney for Morris County Charges
Beware Morris County fake ID charges. Protect your Morris County high school or college student's future by retaining the Lento Law Firm's premier Criminal Defense Team and preeminent New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento to defend fake ID charges. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now for the best available fake ID defense representation.
