Arrested in Oxford This Weekend? Come Back on Your Schedule, Not the Court’s.

What happens next, in plain English

If you were booked into the Lafayette County Detention Center, you were most likely released on bond with a court date on the paperwork. That date is usually in Oxford Municipal Court (arrests inside the city limits) or Lafayette County Justice Court (arrests on campus, in the stadium, and in the county outside city limits).

If you were given a citation and released, the same thing is true: the citation is a criminal charge with a court date, not a traffic ticket, and ignoring it can produce a warrant.

If you live out of town, understand that most misdemeanor charges require you to appear in person at least once. What you can control is when. As your attorneys we can continue the case and set the court date around your schedule instead of the one stamped on the ticket, and we can move it again if something comes up. Tell us where you live when you call; that is the first thing we plan around.

If you are an Ole Miss student, the university conduct process is separate from the court case and moves on its own timeline. We handle both, and how the court case is resolved often matters to the university outcome.

The charges we see after every home game

Public DrunkMiss. Code § 97-29-47

Being drunk in a public place in the presence of two or more persons. Up to $100 fine and up to 30 days in county jail. Small on paper, but it is a criminal conviction if it is entered.

Disorderly Conduct / Failure to ComplyMiss. Code § 97-35-7

Failing to comply with an officer’s request or command under circumstances that may cause a breach of the peace. Up to $500 fine and up to six months in county jail. This is the charge that most often accompanies a gameday arrest.

Disturbing the PeaceMiss. Code § 97-35-15

Disturbing the peace by violent, loud, insulting or profane conduct. Up to $500 fine and up to six months.

Minor in Possession (MIP) and Fake IDMiss. Code §§ 67-3-70 and 67-1-81

$200 to $500 fine and up to 30 days of community service for beer, light wine (§ 67-3-70) or liquor (§ 67-1-81), with the same penalty for using a false ID to buy. The law also gives the judge an alternative to conviction: a driver’s license suspension of up to 90 days with the docket marked “in lieu of conviction,” and the record can be expunged one year later. Read our MIP page.

Possession of ParaphernaliaMiss. Code § 41-29-139(d)

Up to $500 fine and up to six months. Often charged alongside a small amount of marijuana.

Marijuana, 30 Grams or Less, First OffenseMiss. Code § 41-29-139(c)(2)(A)

A $100 to $250 fine on a first offense, kept in a private, nonpublic court record that the statute says does not constitute a criminal record. It still needs to be handled correctly, because a second offense within two years is treated much more seriously.

Open Container and Other City of Oxford Ordinance ViolationsCity of Oxford Code of Ordinances

The City of Oxford also enforces its own alcohol and open-container ordinances, and a city citation is still a court date in Oxford Municipal Court.

Charged with DUI this weekend? A DUI is a different case with its own deadlines, including a short window to contest the license suspension. Do not wait until Monday: send us the ticket right now or call (662) 832-7879. We will call you back today.

Keeping it off your record

Mississippi gives first-time misdemeanor defendants a real path to a clean record, and it is the outcome we work toward in most gameday cases.

Non-adjudication. Under Miss. Code § 99-15-26, the court can withhold accepting a guilty plea, set conditions such as a fine, community service or an alcohol or drug class, and dismiss the charge when the conditions are completed. The statute excludes DUI and crimes of violence, and a person who has used it before is not eligible again, so it is generally a one-time opportunity that should be spent carefully. Once the case is dismissed, the record can be expunged.

The MIP alternative. For minor-in-possession charges, the license-suspension-in-lieu-of-conviction route described above keeps the conviction off the record from the start. Other alternatives that we argue to the court will sometimes satisfy them enough to warrant a dismissal, depending on the facts of your case.

Expungement. Where a case cannot be dismissed, a first misdemeanor conviction can often be expunged later. Our expungement page explains how.

For parents

If you are reading this from Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Jackson, Memphis or the Mississippi Gulf Coast because your son or daughter called from Oxford, here is what we need from you: a photo of the citation or bond paperwork (both sides), where your child lives and goes to school, and a phone number where we can reach them directly. We will tell you on the first call what the charge is, what the realistic outcomes are, what it costs, and when your child will need to be back in Oxford, on a date we set together rather than one the court picked.