Amarillo teen arrested for possession in school parking lot

[srothstein]

Though the charges were dismissed, the teen remained in the Potter County Jail on Thursday night on two misdemeanor charges: minor in possession of tobacco and possession of drug paraphernalia, jail officials said. Bond has been set at $500 on each.

Wait, what? Jail with $500 bond on each count?

technically, it is for two class C misdemeanors, even if one has a lower than normal maximum punishment. But that is also irrelevant to the bond.

Bond is not punishment. Bond is solely to ensure that the person will appear in court for the trial. To the best of my knowledge, the 8th Amendment has not yet been incorporated fully against the states so excessive bail is still possible. Bond can be any amount the judge thinks is necessary to ensure the person shows up in court.

Yes, a bond amount equal to the total possible fine is possible and probably not deemd excessive by the courts. If I were him, I would probably plead guilty to the two class C's and pay the fine. It will get him out of jail and get it cleared up quicker than any other way I can think of.

[HGWC]

What a railroading! They just can't accept that having a gun on school district property isn't necessarily illegal. I bet they lose on the tobacco and paraphernalia too, because I bet they didn't search his car when he had immediate control over it. The car was in the parking lot, and the kid was in school. They either searched it without his presence or permission, or they pulled him out of school to search it. I wouldn't be surprised if they have issues with the legality of the search, and I bet they have trouble tying him to possession when he wasn't in immediate control over the car. With the trumped up felony charge, the harassment, the jail time, and these two other trumped up charges, I bet this family is getting a lawyer. My bet is they win big time.

[KD5NRH]

Wanna bet it was a pipe for the tobacco they also found? A surprising number of younger people ore taking up pipe smoking.

Is there still a big tax difference between pipe tobacco and manufactured cigarettes?

Yes. Pipe tobacco doesn't have the $24/lb tax that was added to handrolling tobacco last year, nor does it have the per-pack tax of pre-rolled cigarettes. That makes it about $1.50-$5/oz depending on quality.