[Texas_Jarhead]

man that sucks, best of luck to you

[MikefromOhio]

I would at least talk with a lawyer if you want to beat it. AS it stands, you probably wont be paying the 10 grand that is the fine or facing any type of time sentencing. But I would suggest that you make the story known as much as you can.

[CindyDawg]

Can't offer you any legal advice but you left a bar and drove your "boat" home? :')

[So Cal Rocket]

You know the story's not going to be pretty when it starts "my buddies and me went into a bar and..."

[Bobber58]

I'd send them a copy of what you just wrote...you never identified yourself as a police officer, nor intimated to anyone that you were going to...

[martinidon]

get an attorney

[JRPerry]

Get a lawyer. You have to do that no questions asked. Secondly, if you never said anything to the effect that you were police officer, as in, "Open up buddy, I am the law," or anything like that - then you have no worries. But if you said something to that effect and if anyone heard you then you are in trouble. Also, you need to contact the mother, who you helped, and ask her what is going on. It is either her or her son bringing this complaint. If it is her then you have problems because something is up with her and you are going to find yourself between a rock and a hard place on this one unfortunately.

PS: Never get involved in something like that.

[Itzlzha]

Ok...how did ANYONE know who you were? Did you give your name to anybody there?

Did you EVER say "I'm a police officer/LEO/FBI/BATF/CIA"? If not...the act of flashing your valid driver's license is NOT "impersonating anything"...if the drunk/dumb kid INFERRED that you were, it is HIS problem...not yours or the States.

I advise you to get a SHARK lawyer...if his parents or the kid are behind this, then they have to admit UNDER OATH that their delightful cherub was ILLEGALLY behind the wheel of an auto...so he hangs for it! That should take the starch outta them...

[fizziwig]

I am not a lawyer so I can't help you with this problem, but I am curious, did you state to the kid that you were an Officer? I will bet that the kid told the authorities that you did.

Is the complaint only by the kid or is his mother joining him? I would think she would be supporting you.

[Djarum]

I don't see the problem if you never identified yourself as a cop. The kid was obviously so intoxicated that he thought your credit card was a police badge.

[South40]

Get a lawyer and depose on videotape any and all witnesses who said they saw you impersonating anyone.

Chances are their story will fall apart upon questioning under oath.

[Dianna]

I can't help at all, I just want to give you my sympathies. It stinks when you try to help people and you get stung for it.

[CindyDawg]

If it had been my kid , my husband or I would have broken the window and hauled his butt out. Can't be much different than kicking a locked door in :') Good luck with this. I hope you weren't set up. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be the good guy, huh?

[Kirkwood]

Not only was that the wrong thing to do, it was also kinda dumb. The guy in the car could have had a gun and blown you away. Anyway, get a good lawyer and hope you can bargain down to community service. I presume you have had no problems with the law in the past.

[FairOpinion]

Get a lawyer, get a lawyer, get a lawyer.

Don't be cheap -- getting a lawyer now will be far better investment, than having any criminal conviction on your record ( it will ruin your credit, among other things, adversely effect your current and future job prospects, etc), not to mention the fine you end up paying.

Let me repeat:

Get a lawyer, get a lawyer, get a lawyer.

And get a good one.

Good luck!

[Drango]

OK, I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV, but my advice is to dump your drinking "buddies" and look for some chicks.

[sport]

As the old saying goes,"No good deed goes unpunished."

Get a good lawyer is all I can say.

[EvenStevens]

By using your wallet to appear to be a badge, you impersonated a police office in the state of Wisconsin. There could be video tape evidence of you doing this. Although our small towns are often though of as being hick towns, many establishments in small towns in Wisconsin do have cameras that can view certain areas. My guess is that this is how the found out, because if the kid wasn't suppose to be out drinking and had just gotten charged, there is no way he is going to go to the cops with this and risk stiffer penalties or probation being revoked.

I do certainly hope that when you left the bar you had not been drinking there. Kind of scarey to think that you would drive drunk.

Point blank and rather bluntly, take personal responsibility for your actions. Of course you knew you were impersonating a police office, why would you use your wallet to appear to be a badge?

[July 4th]

This is from the Wisconsin Statutes, wisbar.org:

125.105 Impersonating an officer.

(1) No person may impersonate an inspector, agent or other employee of the department or of the department of justice.
(2) (a) Whoever violates sub. (1) with the intent to mislead another may be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than 9 months or both.
(b) Whoever violates sub. (1) to commit, or abet the commission of, a crime is guilty of a Class H felony.

I would suggest hiring a local defense attorney who actually knows the prosecutor. This is usually the easiest way to get out of stupid charges. If you want to try and defend it on your own, which I don't recommend, you've got several options.

As you can see, intent is a necessary element of the crime. Did you intend to mislead the kid? Make him think that you were a cop? If so, you violated the letter of the statute. If not, demonstrate with facts that you did not intend to put yourself forward as an officer.

Second, I think since the maximum jail term is 9 months, you are entitled to a full jury trial. (6 months is the minimum). I doubt the prosecutor will want to actually try a case where he has to argue against someone who successfully and safely got the car keys from a drunk driver.

Just my two cents on the matter. I offer you no offical legal representation with this advice.

[HAL9000]

I did some looking online and found statute 946.70, Impersonating peace officers, that by my reading I probably am guilty of.

Your attorney will cringe when he reads that line. Good luck.