For the third year in a row prosecutors are urging legislators to deal with an “oops” in Iowa’s underage drinking law.
Corwin Ritchie, executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association says a 2010 update of the law inadvertently left no penalty for 17 year olds caught possessing alcohol, but whose case hadn’t been processed through the juvenile courts by the time they turned 18.
Ritchie says in 2012 the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled there is no penalty for an 18 year old called into District Court, where adults are tried, if the teen had been picked up for alcohol possession when they were under the age of 18.
Ritchie says county attorneys tell him a “significant number” of 18 year olds who got caught with booze when they were 17 are having the charges dropped because of this situation. Two members of the Iowa House have signed off on Ritchie’s legislation, so the bill that would close this legal loophole is now eligible for debate in the House Judiciary Committee.
