Edit: shit, ended up being so much longer than I thought. 5 months ago I got in trouble with some friends.. I'll try to keep this part short because I have a question about it. Quickfacts: I was a minor when this happened, did not have a license (I do now) and live in Massachusetts. I drove to this place (without a license) and got into another friends car where we all had weed/a pipe on us. We smoke for a long time, I take my stuff and get back into my car when the cops show up. Their story is that I drove my friend there, call him K, who then sold drugs to my 2 other friends P and M. They confiscated weed/paraphenilia off every single person and arrested my friend K, sent P and M home, and had me drive myself home because they said they thought I was a good kid and didn't want to get me in trouble. Their story is 100% bs about the distribution, but either way my friend is in court and his trial is coming up in about a month. I was just talking to K's lawyer and they said I may be summoned into court to testify as a witness for K. Anyway, if I'm called into court and tell my version of the story it is going to include me driving without a license, driving while under the influence of marijuana (the cops told me too..), and possession of marijuana + paraphinelia. Is there any risk of me getting in trouble? I already gave the lawyer an unofficial statement saying exactly what happened that night but i don't think i can get in trouble for that. Yes, they read me my miranda rights before doing anything to me at the crime scene. They let me go the first time around but honestly it makes the cops look bad telling me to drive home under the influence without a license and I feel like they would go after me with charges. The reason they had me drive was they never asked for my license/registration and didn't notice I didn't have my license (or wasn't on the registration for that car.. it wasn't mine..) and they didn't think I was stoned - they thought that I had driven my friend there to do the deal quick then leave. Which makes no sense because he said he saw me pull in there (which I was alone for, and did 25 minutes before he said he saw me) and we were there for 45 minutes at least and he said we were there for 20 minutes. He said he saw K in my car but he was never in my car.. nobody was.
Might I suggest familiarizing yourself with the fifth amendment of the us constitution? You don't have to give testimony that would incriminate you in a crime. talk to the lawyer about it, he probably knows more than me. if i'm right and they make you a defense witness then the prosecution can't bring up anything the defense doesn't, so you shouldn't even need to plead the fifth. e: sorry i keep editing posted too soon
Thanks, when I talked to the lawyer I made sure it was all off the record and unofficial. He said he mainly wanted to talk to me to make sure that my story matched K's and that K wasn't lieing. I didn't realize that if I was brought in as a witness for the defense I wouldn't be forced to answer questions from the prosecution that the defense didn't ask for or approve first or w/e.