Riding While Intoxicated

A couple weeks ago Dallas/Kaufman attorney Robert Guest had a post about the Public Intoxication statute in Texas, and how it is over broad and a general catch-all type of statute for the police to use.  It got me thinking about a case I had a while ago.

We’ll call my client Defendant X.  Defendant X was stopped by law enforcement.  Defendant X was then subjected to the dog-and-pony show of field sobriety tests and subsequently arrested for DWI.  In the car with Defendant X was a sibling, Passenger Y.  This presented a problem for the police.  It may have been debatable whether Defendant X was OK to drive, but it was clear to everyone involved that Passenger Y was in no shape to drive.

So what to do?  They can’t release the car to Passenger Y.  They can’t tow the car and leave Passenger Y by the side of the road.  Well, I suppose they probably could.  Passenger Y wasn’t driving, so the police can’t arrest the person for a DWI.

But when DWI fails, there’s always the fallback, PI.  Passenger Y was arrested for Public Intoxication and everyones’ problems were solved.  The police didn’t have to worry about what to do with Passenger Y, and the local municipality stood to make a little money off of a PI citation.

Texas Penal Code § 49.02 is the PI statute, and it reads:

A person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another.

Let’s look at Passenger Y’s situation.  Were they in a public place?  Yes, the side of a state highway would be considered a public place.

Were they intoxicated?  At the very least, they appeared to be intoxicated.  The officer attempted to do field sobriety tests.  There was no breath or blood work done however.

Now, was Passenger Y intoxicated to a degree that they were a danger to themselves or another?  That seems to be a pretty board range there.  A prosecutor could probably put forth a decent argument that anyone who’s intoxicated presents a danger to themselves.  And as Robert Guest notes, the Courts seem to agree with this line of thinking, citing two cases.

Where defendant was walking down the middle of the street in the middle of night, appeared glassy-eyed and unsteady on his feet, arrest for public intoxication in violation of Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 49.02(a) was proper. Williams v. State, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 3314 (Tex. App. Houston 14th Dist. June 26 1997).

And

A person commits the offense of public intoxication if that person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that he may endanger himself or another; the danger need not be immediate, it is sufficient if the accused renders himself or others subject to potential danger. Null v. State, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2646 (Tex. App. Houston 14th Dist. May 15 1997).

Potential danger?  Unless you’re a bubble boy, there is potential danger in just about every single action we take every day.  Just today, I could have slipped in the shower, spilled hot coffee on myself, and driven off the road into a tree, dying in a firey explosion.  And I’d be sober while doing all of that.

Was Passenger Y a danger while riding shotgun in the car?  Common sense would say no, but the courts would probably say yes.

No Refusal Weekend Wrapup

The stats are in from College Station PD’s no refusal weekend.  According to KBTX:

Operation No Refusal Weekend came to an end Sunday morning in College Station. Statistics sent out by College Station Police show there were 25 arrests over the last four nights. Here’s a breakdown of the arrests:

D.W.I. 22
Minor D.U.I. 3
Breathalyzer 17
Forced Blood Draw 8

A few thoughts.  First off, can’t they come up with a better name than Operation No Refusal Weekend?  How about Operational Vampire?  For some reason, vampires are cool right now, there’s a lot of books about them at Barnes & Noble.

Second, I’d like to know how the number of arrests compares to any other weekend.  It probably is higher than a normal weekend since there were more officers and there was Chilifest.  I’d like to see how it compares to a weekend when the Aggies have a football game.

And third, did the judges refuse to sign any of the search warrants for the blood draws?  Perhaps an open records request will be in order to get the answers.

Free Advice: Chilifest

This isn’t legal advice, you have to pay for that.  But this is some free advice that might prevent you from needing expensive legal advice.

Chilifest is this weekend, the population of Snook is going to grow from 600-odd people to 30,000 – 40,000.  There’s a great lineup too.  Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, and Reckless Kelly.  I was planning on going until my Michigan State Spartans made the Final Four and that takes precedent.

Law enforcement in the Brazos Valley also has some big plans for this weekend.  The No Refusal Weekend is coming to Brazos and Burleson Counties.  To my knowledge, this is the first time there’s been a No Refusal weekend in Brazos or Burleson County.  I’m actually surprised it’s taken this long for it to get here.

College Station PD has six officers out there focusing solely on catching people driving while intoxicated.

The College Station Police Department will utilize six officers to focus on DWI violations. If a DWI stop is made, the suspect will be requested to give a sample of their breath or blood in order to determine the alcohol concentration or presence of a controlled substance or drug in their body. If the suspect refuses, a warrant may be sought for a blood sample. If the Magistrate issues a warrant, a blood sample will be taken from the suspect to provide evidence in the DWI case.

I wonder how many warrants won’t be signed.  I’m guessing zero.

Snook PD is running No Refusal Weekend as well.

The department has assigned a seven member “DWI No Refusal” task force. The task force will be in addition to the seven officers normally patrolling the city’s streets in the evening.

“We have have two judges on Standby,” said Sgt. Couch.

The judges will ready to sign search warrants for DWI suspects who won’t voluntarily give a breath or blood sample.

I like that they say the judges are all set to sign the warrants if drivers don’t comply.  It’s not that the judges will consider the warrants, it’s that the judges WILL sign the warrants.  So much for seperation of powers.

And they’ve already stuck two needles in peoples arms.

Although police said Currie later agreed to a breath test, two others didn’t. Their blood was drawn by order of a search warrant. An idea some people may not like- but don’t necessarily have to worry about.

“If you don’t drive impaired, you wont be contacted by us, you won’t go to jail, its that simple,” said Brown.

The Texas Department of Public Safetly will have around 30 officers in various shifts patrolling Highway 60 between Snook and College Station, during Chilifest.

Chilifest offers a park and ride service that runs until two hours after the last act.  My advice?  Take advantage of it.  I don’t support vampire blood draws, and I really don’t support these weekends where the powers-that-be have gotten together for the vampire blood draws.  But if there’s a service out there that can keep you from getting a needle in your arm, it might be a good idea to use it.