Met with my attorney.

His name was Tucker C. Stanclift, Esq., part of "Silvestri & Stanclift, LLP". His office was very nice and he gave me a pen. He gave me a business card also, which has instructions for what to say if I got arrested again, as follows:

• I want to call a lawyer and call a member of my family.
• I want to exercise my right to remain silent and to consult with a lawyer without exception.
• I do not even want to talk about giving up my rights until I have consulted a lawyer.
• I do not consent to a search of any kind.

Hopefully I don't need to use these lines at any point in the near future, but I guess it's possible!

He explained to me the different levels of legal difficulty, felony through violation, and the different penalties associated with them. He explained that the penalties he was talking about were maximum penalties and usually they were not so severe. For example a speeding ticket has a maximum penalty of 15 days in county jail. No one goes to jail for a speeding ticket.

We then talked about my case in particular and he asked me questions to clear up some things in my statements. He told me about a similar case he had defended, where a 21 year old girl bought liquor for her brother's prom party and one of the kids crashed his car and died on the way home. Even though there was a fatality involved, she pleaded down to a violation which doesn't go on your criminal record.

All in all I am optimistic about my chances of getting out of this without permanent damage to my good name. I found Mr. Stanclift to be reassuring.