A woman's conviction for public intoxication, when she was a passenger in a vehicle, has been reversed by the Indiana Court of Appeals. This public intoxication case creates an exception to more than thirty years of case law that has held generally that a passenger in a vehicle is in a public place. This public intoxication case does not eliminate the possibility of a public intoxication charge for a passenger in a vehicle. However, the case holds that for a passenger in a vehicle to be convicted of public intoxication, the State must prove that the person actually behaved in a bothersome way, such as causing a distraction to the driver of the vehicle.
Public intoxication is defined by Indiana law as being "in a public place or a place of public resort in a state of intoxication caused by... use of alcohol..." In 1966, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the public intoxication conviction of a man who was in his running tractor-trailer cab parked alongside the highway, finding that he was in a public place. This precedent confirmed that a person inside a vehicle can be considered to be in a "public place" for purposes of the public intoxication statute. The Court of Appeals has now distinguished the 1966 case, finding that the truck driver was in a running and dangerously parked vehicle, whereas the sleeping passenger’s vehicle was stopped for an equipment violation. The Court of Appeals reasoned that the policy of the public intoxication statute is to prevent intoxicated persons from bothering or threatening the safety of others in public places. Thus, the case has created a new legal rule in Indiana public intoxication cases. For a passenger in a vehicle to be convicted of public intoxication in Indiana, the State must prove that the person was not only intoxicated, but behaved in a bothersome way because of it.
To convict someone of public intoxication in Indiana, the State must prove that the person was in a public place within the meaning of the public intoxication statute. The above Court of Appeals decision has added protection to intoxicated persons riding in vehicles. If you are charged with public intoxication, when you are a passenger in a vehicle, the specific facts regarding the police encounter are critical to your defense. If you are charged with public intoxication, you should contact an experienced criminal attorney immediately. You may have a valid defense to a public intoxication charge, if you did not create a distraction to the driver.
