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Charles Thompson v. The City of Oklahoma City,
No. M-2007-0118 (Okl.Cr., February 13, 2008) (unpublished): Public Intoxication: I love this case! Thompson was inside a large suite at a hotel in OKC. He rented the suite to host a youth football team while they ate pizza and watched film for the championship game the next day. Although about 21 kids had been in the suite earlier, all of them were picked up by parents at around 10:00 p.m. This left Thompson and six or seven adults in the suite to make banners and talk about the game plan. At around midnight, police knocked on the door in response to a "noise complaint." The cops said that Thompson was belligerent and that they could detect a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath. When Thompson stepped across the threshold of his suite door and into the landing, the cops immediately placed him under arrest for public intoxication (Thompson and three other adults who were in the suite testified that no on was drinking; and the cops found no visible evidence of alcohol). The case went to trial in Oklahoma City municipal court before judge William J. Manger who found Thompson guilty and fined him $69.00. In this appeal, the Court REVERSED with Instructions to dismiss because "the evidence does not show Appellant was drunk in a public place."
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City of Norman v. Taylor,
2008 OK CR 22 (July 11, 2008): Public Intoxication: This case deals with a quirky statute governing public intoxication. 43A O.S. 3-428 indicates that an officer must take an intoxicated person either home or to a facility (detox) to sober up if the municipality has such a facility. Taylor was arrested in Norman and charged in Norman municipal court with Public Intoxication. The arresting officer did not take him anywhere but to jail. Taylor appealed to the district court in Cleveland County which acquitted him on this basis. In this appeal, the State pursued a reserved question of law, articulated by the Court as: Can an intoxicated person in a public place be arrested and prosecuted for public intoxication under a local municipal ordinance? The answer is a qualified yes, with this qualification: Municipal ordinances criminalizing public intoxication are unenforceable when either the municipality or the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has approved a program that provides an alternative to statutory or municipal criminal prosecution of publicly intoxicated persons, provided the intoxicated person consents and there is space available for him the the approved program
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