The Spring running of the Foxfield Races often yield a LOT of arrests for being drunk in public and underage drinking, and occasional arrests for marijuana possession, fake ID’s, and assaults on law enforcement officers. I haven’t seen news reports about how many arrests there were this year, but the Albemarle General District Court is usually deluged on Monday after the Races. The Courts set up one or two days that are especially for Foxfield cases. There are a few lessons that anyone arrested at Foxfield needs to know:
- There is no “student discount.” If you are a student, don’t expect that you will get a better disposition because of that. The “but I’m a good guy, and I really don’t want this on my record” won’t fly.
- There is no “Foxfield discount.” See above.
- Nor is there a “Foxfield premium.” You don’t need to worry about the Commonwealth’s Attorney or the judge deciding that they want to “make an example” of you to deter other such behaviors.
- For a first offense underage possession charge, there is a diversion program that you don’t need to have a lawyer to get. It will result in some community service, and that’s about it. If you call us to represent you, we will tell you up front that there may be little that we can do for you that you can’t do for yourself. It’s not that we don’t want to represent you, but we want you to be an informed consumer before you pay us our fee.
- If you go to court — probably Monday, April 30 — they will advise you of your rights, and if the Commonwealth’s Attorney thinks you are eligible, they’ll ask you if you want to go into the first offender’s program. They’ll explain the system, and you can decide then and there to do that. Or you can get the case continued to allow you to talk to a lawyer to decide; they won’t say, “You have to decide today, or the offer isn’t valid.”
If you have been arrested at Foxfield — or anywhere else, of course — please feel free to call us at 434-293-8185.
