Newport Beach news: the Newport Beach Police Department posted body camera footage Wednesday morning of a June 20 fake-ID arrest outside Mutt Lynch's, then removed it a few hours later. The video briefly put Elizabeth's arrest in public view before the post disappeared from the NBPD's Instagram.
Mutt Lynch's arrest footage
The footage shows an officer questioning two college-aged women about the identification cards they were carrying outside Mutt Lynch's on West Oceanfront. One of the women said she was from Washington and went to Illinois State, then later said her family was in Massachusetts.
She pointed to an ID card and said, "That's Washington." The officer replied, "This says Massachusetts." She answered, "Well, isn't that in Washington?"
The woman later said she attended USC, not Illinois State, and added, "Dude, I'm smarter than Illinois." One of the women admitted to being 20-years-old, and Elizabeth was arrested for carrying the fake ID.
California fake ID penalties
In California, getting caught with a fake ID carries a minimum $250 fine, at least 24 hours of community service, potentially up to a year in jail and a possible one-year driver's license suspension. That makes the arrest more than a social-media moment for a college-aged driver or student; it can reach the courthouse, the community-service requirement and the driver's license record.
The video was part of Newport Beach's "Not in Newport" campaign, which aimed to crack down on underage drinking and DUIs from spring break through the summer. The post turned a routine enforcement encounter into a public warning, then disappeared from view.
NBPD Instagram removal
The video's removal hours after it was posted is the unresolved part of the episode. The city put the footage on Instagram in the morning, then took it down later the same day, leaving the public record of the arrest without the post that first carried it.
For anyone carrying another person's ID or a card that does not match their own details, the immediate risk is the same one Elizabeth faced outside Mutt Lynch's: an arrest, a fine and possible penalties that go beyond the night itself. Why the video was removed from the NBPD's Instagram a few hours after it was posted is the question left open by Wednesday's post-and-delete sequence.
