The offense of Public Intoxication or Public Disorderly Conduct (which involves intoxication) – we see that a lot, especially in Myrtle Beach, which is a resort town where people are on vacation and many times they’re drinking – sometimes they’re drinking in public – or they may not be drinking at the time that they’re arrested, but they are perceived as intoxicated or drunk and are arrested. We certainly see it with a lot of young people who are here, usually Spring Break or summer breaks.
The first thing that most people say to us is, “how can I be charged with public intoxication? I was arrested and the police officers never even gave me a breath test to determine my level of intoxication.”
For whatever reason, in this jurisdiction, in all the years that we’ve been practicing here, they never, ever once have ever given anybody a sobriety test or a breath test to prove intoxication [for this charge] – it’s simply a situation where the officer says that what he observed was the person was intoxicated. Sometimes there’s evidence that the person was being loud and boisterous or that sort of thing. But that’s the norm: no one’s ever given the breath test on that charge in this jurisdiction. They probably should be, but it’s not required, and we never see law enforcement officers do that.
Complete Legal Defense Team
www.completelegaldefenseteam.com
843-279-2227
1012 38th Ave. N.
Myrtle Beach, SC
United States
