A man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client
The "Open Container" summons violates New York City
Administrative Code, section 10-125: Consumption of alcohol in public. While in theory, only consumption is punishable, the code does state that
I had to google the term "rebuttable presumption", to find out that when it comes to open containers, you are seemingly guilty until proven innocent. I wonder how hard such a presumption would be to rebut.
To make matters worse, the standard of proof in civil infractions is not (as we've seen on TV so many times) "beyond reasonable doubt", but "by preponderance of evidence".
We'll see how it goes down in two weeks.
Administrative Code, section 10-125: Consumption of alcohol in public. While in theory, only consumption is punishable, the code does state that
Possession of an open container containing an alcoholic beverage by
any person shall create a rebuttable presumption that such person did
intend to consume the contents thereof...
I had to google the term "rebuttable presumption", to find out that when it comes to open containers, you are seemingly guilty until proven innocent. I wonder how hard such a presumption would be to rebut.
To make matters worse, the standard of proof in civil infractions is not (as we've seen on TV so many times) "beyond reasonable doubt", but "by preponderance of evidence".
We'll see how it goes down in two weeks.