Many college students consume alcohol fairly frequently, often as a major part of socialization. They go to parties and drink to meet new friends, to spend time with the friends they have and to meet potential romantic partners. This is so common that studies have found that the majority of college students have consumed alcohol in the last 30 days.
Even when these college students are old enough to drink legally, their drinking habits can lead to some very serious legal charges. This can sometimes happen when two students have a romantic encounter and then give very different accounts of what they believe happened.
When alcohol clouds judgment and memory
This can be a very tricky situation because alcohol can cloud judgment. Someone may do something that they regret or that they wouldn’t have done while they were sober. Alcohol can also make it harder to remember what happened. This can be problematic when the other person claims things went differently than you remember.
For instance, perhaps you met someone new at a party, you hit it off, and you ended up spending the night together. You thought everything was fine, but now they claim that you never got their consent and that they didn’t want to have an intimate relationship with you. They’re claiming that you took advantage of them after they were drinking, but you don’t remember it that way at all. You were both drinking, and they were just as interested in the encounter as you. So whose story is correct?
These types of allegations can have very serious ramifications, so you definitely need to know about all of your criminal defense options, even when you firmly believe that you did not do anything wrong.