Iowa Supreme Court affirms right to be drunk on front porch

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed the right to be drunk on your front porch.

The court ruled Friday in the case of Patience Paye, who appealed her 2013 public intoxication conviction.

Paye called police after fighting with her boyfriend and met officers on the front porch of her Waterloo home. While investigating the domestic assault complaint an officer questioned Paye about whether she'd been drinking.

A test revealed her blood alcohol concentration at 0.267 percent, more than three times the amount considered drunk for driving.


Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2015/06/12/iowa-supreme-court-affirms-right-to-be-drunk-on-front-porch/71124754/

[snooper2]

1. well no shit sherlock LOL

Wasn't this decided law like 150 years ago?

[Eleanors38]

4. That would be at the end of the Civil War. A LOT of people drunk on their porches.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Was her Waterloo home a mobile one?

Had she been driving it around? If not, that sounds like a no-brainer. A cop with no brain who decided to arrest her for being drunk, that is.

[Eleanors38]

3. In her own home, dammit. Waste of tax-payers' money.

[cosmicone]

5. Add to this the second amendment right to bear arms and

stand your ground laws and pretty soon we'll have a made for TV movie titled "Mayhem on Front Porch"

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. Can you imagine what "Red State Update" could do with this story?

[maindawg]

7. My neighbor was arrested in her house

She was charged with DUI because her car was in a ditch where she left it when she was drunk. So she walked back to her brothers house , where she had been drinking and he drove her home and the police came and they just arrested her.
She deserved to be arrested and when she got home later she was so mad that she got out her gun and shot it off and so the police came back and took her guns.
Thats honestly all I know except that she said her brother encouraged her to drink more and be drunker before the police came for some reason. People do strange things when they dont know what to do.

[Sparhawk60]

8. That is my Go To Answer

"drink more and be drunker " is my go to answer to most of life's problems. lol

[robbob]

9. many years ago in my small town

One of the many town drunks was driving down main street at 2 in the afternoon and jumped the curb and hit a telephone pole. So he hops out of the car, runs into the local bar and starts ordering double shots of whiskey. By the time the police showed up he was well plastered, but had the bartender as a witness that he started drinking AFTER he crashed the car. They couldn't prove otherwise, he got off without charges.

Maybe that's what her brother was suggesting. How to prove when she started drinking?

[rocktivity]

12. I remember a pro athlete being found passed out in his car after he'd pulled over

Last edited Sun Jan 3, 2016, 11:00 PM - Edit history (1)

He beat the DUI charge because he hadn't been caught in the act of driving drunk.

And then there's Liz "Lizzie Lam" Gruber -- an hour after her car accident, she was found at the home of an ex-boyfriend with a lawyer she'd called, rendering the blood alcohol test useless.


rocktivity

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Remember when Dick Cheney did that ?

Shot a guy in the face, quite possibly by hunting while drunk, then went back to the house and had a few drinks.

[Karia]

10. "Be drunker"

I know someone who tried that. He & his friends thought he could get away with pretending that he didn't get drunk until afterward & that he drank only to calm his nerves. Really stupid to think that would work.

[eggplant]

11. Actually, it's quite a valid defense.

Visibly drinking *after* an accident, without direct evidence of DUI, provides reasonable doubt.

Suppose you are sober and a deer jumps out so you skid into the ditch. It freaks you out, so you walk home and drink to calm your nerves.

Yes, you are drunk, and yes you have witnesses to your post-driving drinking, namely the police. BAC levels no longer apply.

[former9thward]

15. It does work in real life court.

Normally people tell on themselves to the police and lose the case that way.

[former9thward]

14. The police have to be able to prove she was drunk when she was in control of the vehicle.

A car in a ditch does not do it. People who have never had a drop to drink have accidents everyday. If she was drinking after the incident the police can't prove she was above the legal at the time of the accident. He brother gave good legal advice assuming she did not tell on herself as people usually do.

[ManiacJoe]

13. It is a shame that this case need to go all the way to the top court.

This decision should have been easily made at the lowest court that first heard the case.