Public Intoxication in Indiana
Transcript:
In this video, I'm gonna be talking about public intoxication in Indiana and how you can challenge a public intoxication charge. For a lot of people, a charge like this can be someone's first experience in the legal system, and you may not be sure about what you should be doing or what you can expect with the process. And what you find out is that doing your homework early can help you have a better outcome in the end. So about me, my name's Nathan Vining, I'm a criminal defense attorney in Indiana, and I represent individuals in criminal cases throughout the state of Indiana. By the end of this video, you should know more about public intoxication in Indiana.
So with any case, one of the first thing you do is review the statute. In Indiana, that public intoxication statute is Indiana Code § 7.1-5-1-3 . And what it does is it prohibits a person from being in a public place in a state of intoxication when that intoxication endangers a person's life and endangers another's life, breaches the peace or harasses or alarms or annoys another person. There's really three factors to the statute. There's being in a public place, being in a state of intoxication and then having that action where the person is an endangerment or they're breaching the peace or causing some type of disruption.
So this is the kind of charge that comes up if you are excessively drunk in a public place and you're stopped by the police for creating a disturbance. And the penalties for it, a Class B misdemeanor, is a fine of up to a $1,000 or 180 days in jail. Sometimes if a person's arrested for public intoxication, they may just be issued a citation, or if they're unreasonable, causing problems or unable to function, they're taken to the hospital or to jail. This is also the kind of offense you see in college towns or areas like downtown or Broadripple where people may be out late and have taken things too far. It's important, if charged with this, to understand your defenses. And what it comes down to is, is the statute satisfied.
First thing to look at is were you actually intoxicated and did the state get evidence of your intoxication through a breath test or blood test or some other means. What does the state gonna do to show that you were intoxicated? Or maybe your conduct can be described as breaching the peace or endangering anybody or yourself. If the statute, in those particular manners, aren't satisfied, then you could have a good case. Also, maybe you have a different version of events than what you're reading in the police report. Maybe you have some witnesses in your favor who can actually explain that maybe what the officer observed isn't exactly what they thought they were observing or there's more to the story. Having some witnesses in your favor can help. The third thing to look for is whether or not you're in a public place. If you're on private property or outside a private residence, that's not illegal, and you cannot be arrested. The other thing to look at is whether or not you were on prescription drugs, or there was something else going on that made you appear intoxicated, but in fact, you weren't. There could be more to the story there, and if there is, you're gonna want to let your attorney know so that you can use that to explain what was happening in the offense.
If you're watching this video, you've likely been charged with public intoxication or maybe you're helping someone who has, and you don't want them or yourself to see a conviction on your record. A lot of times, this isn't the type of offense you see people go to jail for, but it can happen, and you can also see people end up on probation. You're also likely gonna have to do some kind of substance abuse class, counseling or treatment. And sometimes with a public intoxication charge, you actually can keep it off your record through a process known as a pre-trial diversion, which is an agreement with the state that usually has some combination of paying a fine, doing some community service, taking a class, and then staying out of trouble for a period of time. If you get into a pre-trial diversion program, ultimately, you can see the charges dismissed, so your record is preserved. So if you've been charged with public intoxication, you should first see if they can prove you were intoxicated, then see if they can prove you were in a public place, and then last, see if the kind of conduct that they observed is a conduct prohibited by the statute. And if you have questions, you can give me a call or text me, I'd be happy to help, or you can watch more videos to understand more about the misdemeanor court process in Indiana.