I go to a private college in PA. I was stopped by campus police and given a citation for having an open source of alcohol on campus. It is a dry campus. Will I have a criminal record? Also, assume for this question that the alcohol was in a brown paper bag, thereby making the stop illegal and the subsequent search and seizure of the booze illegal for purposes of this question. Can I get the observations and the booze suppressed?
I love a good state action question. I often get these questions and I love to hear about dry campuses. I went to college in the 1990s when you could drink on the lawn. I digress.
The college cops are not cops. They are security guards. There is no law governing the dry campus. The citation is an internal school thing because there is no state action so they can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't violate your general civil liberties, like only ticketing women or asians, etc. Therefore, you will have no criminal record as a result of this, but you will have a school record.
As far as suppression goes, you can only get something suppressed in a criminal case if there is state action. Here suppression does not apply. Good Luck.
Just for fun, a quote:
"Greg Marmalard: But Delta's already on probation.
Dean Vernon Wormer: They are? Well, as of this moment, they're on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION!"
Labels: alcohol, criminal record, motion to suppress