TheAgitator.com
Damned If You Do…
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009An Illinois teen knew he was too drunk to drive home after a Dave Matthews Band concert south of Milwaukee. So he fell asleep in his car, only to be awoken by a state trooper.
Travis Peterson, 19, of Dixon, Ill., said even though he told the officer he was drunk and sleeping it off, the trooper ordered him to leave because the lot was being cleared.
Once out of the parking lot, Peterson was arrested for drunken driving. He was subsequently found guilty and ordered to spend 60 days in jail.
Fortunately, his conviction was thrown out by a state appeals court.
He’s lucky he didn’t get a DUI for being in the car, drunk, with possession of the keys.
When I was in the Air Force (this was in California, tho), one of our pilots was arrested for DUI after an Oktoberfest party in Chico, CA (home of Sierra Nevada Ales) because he was in the car (sleeping in the back seat) and had possession of the keys (so the cops and court claimed that he was in position to drive drunk).
From then on our Squadron commander ordered us to leave the keys in the trunk (if we had a release from the inside of the car) or hide them behind a wheel and sleep off our drunkenness if we didn’t have a designated driver.
I recall them nailing people for sleeping it off in their car with the ignition on just so they can get some heat. We have certainly come a long way from the laudable goal of keeping shitfaced assholes from driving to arresting people who are trying to avoid driving intoxicated. Thanks MADD.
That happened to my dad. The cops told him he couldn’t sleep in his work van. So he went to go to his business 2 blocks away to sleep but they said he couldn’t leave his van and walking is public intoxication. So he had to spend a night in jail. WTF?
Wow this really stunned me.
Since when did courts agree with defendants with regards to entrapment?
@ Nando
They’ll bust you for that in Wisconsin (sleeping in the car). A friend had to bail out his cousin a couple weeks ago because of this. The cousin was out late drinking and decided that it wasn’t safe to drive the country roads back home. So he climbed into his car to sleep it off.
The sheriff came through the parking lot around 7:00 the *next morning* and arrested him for DUI.
I guess when a cop directly orders you to break the law, then you get arrested for it (probably after he radios it in) even our dumbass statist thug judges can’t ignore that kind of entrapment.
be nice to the police….they let us live in their country.
I guess it depends on what state you are in, I had a cousin who got a DUI for just such a thing about 5 years ago in Maine. She was at a bar and too drunk to drive and a fight broke out in the parking lot after closing and the police instructed everyone to leave. She complained that she wasn’t able to drive and he told her to leave now, she did, they arrested her down the street for a DUI.
In CA you can also get slammed for ANY alcohol in system if you’re under 21….
Predators and prey. It just goes to show they’re looking for an excuse to lock you up and extort money from you.
I don’t know how the trial judge passed the bar, given that this is a textbook case of entrapment. Literally. I seem to recall being given that exact fact pattern during criminal law.
I wonder if in this case the cop had to have him move because perhaps the car was parked on private property but had it been public property the cop could have arrested him for sleeping in the car after drinking?
“In CA you can also get slammed for ANY alcohol in system if you’re under 21….”
When i was in california i was told that it was illegal to drink a beer on your own porch (property) if in public view. I never tested that, but i asked many others in california and most said that it was true. Unreal.
That cop should have been arrested for conspiracy.
A (now-former) police chief in New Hampshire is facing trial for sleeping in his car while intoxicated. The keys were in the console, not the ignition.
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=9562c14c-66c1-41aa-a57e-83294d2a2647
#9 Tim,a a few years ago my step daughter got a dui for .02 because she was under 21.This is in Ohio.How do you teach a kid right from wrong when their being punished and did nothing wrong.She was stopped for a burned out tail light.
I got a DWI because I followed a cop’s direct order. It was basically “get in your truck and drive away or we will arrest you now, and maybe even shoot you” kind of thing.
I followed orders and as soon as I was on the road instead of the parking lot, they nailed me.
I guess I’ll just lay down on the ground all spreadeagled next time.
Shouldn’t the cop have been arrested on an accessory charge? DUI-by-Consent, I’ve seen it called, when someone gives their drunk buddy the keys.
In California, you can indeed get a DUI for being in your car drunk if you have your keys on you. If you want to sleep it off, don’t do it anywhere near your car.
Nice try, though.
this sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy story…
This kid’s first mistake was attending a Dave Matthews concert.
Of course it sounds like something from a comedian, Marty. Half of the stories on this site are so bizarre that you wouldnt believe they were facts.
Another one today. http://www.abovethelaw.com/
Cops called to control kids at a shelter for adolescents, tase and threaten to sodomize 11 and 12 yo who werent even the trouble makers, then arrest and threaten to kill 17 yo girl who questions their excessive force.
They’ll bust you for that in Wisconsin (sleeping in the car). A friend had to bail out his cousin a couple weeks ago because of this. The cousin was out late drinking and decided that it wasn’t safe to drive the country roads back home. – M. Blaze Miskulin
Shee-it, in Wisconsin, the country roads are about the only place the police don’t voluntarily travel. Don’t want to get any dust on their cars.
Only danger on those roads is the deer. I got photos.
OMFG!!
This happened to me twenty years ago.
I was asleep outside a video rental store sleeping off part of a bottle of Beam.
Only difference is, I managed to sleep enough of it off not to blow over the legal limit.
They arrested me for reckless driving anyway. I slept that night at the County bed and breakfast. To which – they totally got to work on their cheese omelets, not to mention the service. Both sucked.
Cheers.
I’m pretty sure MADD had a hand in taking away that “sleep it off in the car” option several years ago. It isn’t just that the neo-MADD doesn’t want you to drink and drive. They don’t want you to drink at all.
The simple solution is remove immunity for police officers from civil actions for their abuse of power.
A lawyer friend of mine defended a guy for DUI because of his being asleep in the bunk of his Winnebago, that was parked in a bar’s parking lot. He had permission to park overnight from the bar’s owner.
No different from the state police in NY pulling you over, ordering you to unbuckle your seat belt, then writing you a ticket for no seat belt.
They’ve also tried to bust ham radio operators for cell phone tickets (the law applies specifically to cell phones). Is it any wonder why people want cops on videotape 24/7?
About a year ago in Olympia, Washington I was a DD for three of my drunk friends. We were pulled over, I was arrested (prosecutor dropped the charge), and then the State Troopers attempted to talk my obviously drunk friends into driving my car home.
#7, hahahah, best comment