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So as bad luck might have it, I could be facing a misdemeanor from Wed. night (selling alcohol to a minor). Long story short, it was a sting, I was working about a 12 hour day and it happened towards the end of that, IDed her and just had a brain fart when I read the birthday. The vertical ID should have been a dead giveaway but like I said brainfart. Mixed up where it said Under 18 until XX-XX-2009 vs. under 21 until XX-XX-2011. I even like an idiot since I asked her why she still had a vertical ID.

I wasn't arrested or anything. I could just mail in the ticket after I get the fine amount, which would essentially be a guilty plea and a misdemeanor conviction on my record. Obviously, I will be disclosing and writing an addendum unless the charge is dismissed. It's a small town so I'll be talking the Sgt. on the issuing officer's recommendation today. I otherwise have a clean record, actually passed sting operations in the past personally and have cooperated with a different officer when I was a witness to an assault so I'm hoping he might take it easy and allow to me to avoid that conviction on my record. I'll be talking to a lawyer at some point today or Monday as well.

I guess my main question is how bad could this affect my cycle? I have a couple apps submitted and was going to submit a couple more after the December LSAT. I don't want to disclose right away until I'm 100% sure I have to. From what I understand, the misdemeanor conviction itself isn't the hugest of deals as long as I disclose and write an addendum.

I guess I'm just more worried about the timeline. Schools usually like to see some time in between something like this. Should I be worried about its impact due to how recent it might be?

Not sure how I'd address it in an addendum either without making it seem seem like I'm making an excuse. The usual narrative is "I did blah blah blah when I was younger, convicted of a misdemeanor, etc. I've grown since then and have no intention of making the mistake again". Can't really say I've grown if it's only a few weeks old.

I'm just basing this one off one of the articles on TLS.

Standard Safe one:

On XX-XX-2011 while helping out family at work, I was issued a citation for selling alcohol to a minor. This is considered a misdemeanor in the state of Michigan. I plead guilty to the misdemeanor offense and received a $XXX fine. I have a clean criminal record except for this offense, accept responsibility for this offense, and do not intend for it to happen again.

Different approach:

On XX-XX-2011 while helping out family at work, I was issued a citation for selling alcohol to a minor. This is considered a misdemeanor in the state of Michigan. I plead guilty to the misdemeanor offense and received a $XXX fine. I have a clean criminal record except for this offense, accept responsibility for this offense, and do not intend for it to happen again. I want to stress that was not an intentional act and made an error while I was reading the driver's license due to exhaustion and I also have a history of passing control buy operations in the past.

I guess my logic for the latter is to try to mitigate the recentness factor.

I prefer the 2nd one.

I would use the second version since it notes that you passed similiar tests in the past. Try consulting with a local attorney before paying the fine. An experienced lawyer may be able to get your citation reduced to a warning (or to a similiar non-permanent & non-conclusive disposition).

WTF? I always thought this just looked bad on your company / you got shit with them (similar to how cigarettes are)... I never knew you could actually get a misdemeanor while working (unless you're purposely selling it to friends)... seems a little overboard

Clerks always get cited; the stores also usually get a hefty fine.

ThreeRivers-CW got it. I got a personal fine. Liquor license got a separate ticket but nothing comes of that for a couple of months. From what I understand, it's like a $200-$300 fine or face a suspended license for X amount days. It varies depending on if you're a repeat offender or not. Logically, everyone just pays the fine.

CW-Just got off the phone with my dad's attorney. She said try talking to the Sgt at first but don't just plead guilty--there's always a way to mitigate. Obviously if it get's written off, I wouldn't need to disclose but if I go to court and mitigate, would that still be something I'd need to generally disclose (depending on what the application asks for)?

Thanks for the tips on the addendum too. Didn't sound kinda excusey? I don't want to seem like I don't understand why what happened was wrong but I also want to stress that it wasn't an intentional act on my part.

Lastly, worst case scenario, and I do plead guilty and have the conviction on my record, how much of a factor does the recentness come into play?

Law schools ask the question in different ways but if your applying to one that asks whether you've been CITED or CHARGED for anything you would have to disclose it even if you are able to ultimately get it dismissed. If it asks whether you've been CONVICTED of a felony or misdemeanor (or any crime) than you would not have to disclose it unless you plead guilty or are found guilty by the court. In my opinion you should always err on the side of disclosure, it is unlikely to hurt you on the application while failing to disclose is very likely to hurt you somewhere down the line.

Just talked to the Lt. The issuing officer messed up on the ticket when he checked off misdemeanor. It's only a civil infraction and he's getting the ticket corrected and sent to the courthouse around Monday. Essentially, he said it boils down to the same category as a traffic ticket and there are certain non-traffic violations that fall into the C/I category (loitering, being in the park after dark, etc). I just basically have to go in, accept responsibility, and pay the fine sometime in the week. Huge releif.

Still probably disclose right? I was issued a civil infraction sounds a lot better than I plead to a guilty to a misdeameanor.

I'd disclose it and expect that most schools won't really care.