Raise a Glass, Not a Ruckus
Video Transcript: What is public intoxication? My name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa lawyer with the Wirth Law Office, and I’m going to talk to you today about one of the common nuisance crimes you see in municipal court; public intoxication.
A public intoxication essentially is if you are in a public place, i.e. a sidewalk, a street, a park, and you are intoxicated, whether it’s on alcohol, or weed, or any other substance that’s an intoxicated, you could be charged with public intoxication.
It does not require the prosecutor to prove a particular state of intoxication like a BAC, like for driving under the influence. The mere fact that you look drunk is enough to get you convicted potentially. Now, if you were able to demonstrate you weren’t drunk, like for example, let’s say that you were really tired, or let’s say you have some kind of a neurological condition that makes you look drunk, that could be a defense.
But public drunk, the key thing to take away from this is public drunk, does not mean that you have to prove… That the prosecutor has to prove a certain measure of intoxication, like for a DUI. Now, I will tell you, for the most part in Oklahoma in my experience, if you leave a bar and you’re a little buzzed and you’re walking home and you’re not causing problems, usually the police won’t mess with you.
If you get arrested for public drunk, or cited for public drunk, it’s generally speaking, it’s because you were causing trouble, or you were so falling down drunk, that you’re a safety threat to yourself. Now, if you do get arrested for this, I’m going to advise you right now, that you need a good lawyer and one place you can find a good Oklahoma criminal defense attorney is it makelaweasy.com.
