What is the name of your state?Pennsylvania
Hi,
I've been wondering about a couple of citations I received. My brother and I had been out drinking, he drove us home, we got out of the car and walked to the front porch where we were looking for the key to open the door when all of a sudden a police car pulled up in our driveway and asked us who was driving the car. This was at least 2 minutes after we arrived home. The police car was not behind us while we were driving home. My brother told them he was driving and with that, they threw him down on the ground and got very rough with him and told him he was being charged with a DUI. How they were treating him was so upsetting to me that I started arguing with them and yelling to them to stop hurting him. Well...that wasn't the thing to do obviously because the next thing I knew, I was ripped off the porch and my face slammed onto the ground (which later resulted in a blackeye) and handcuffed and taken to jail. I was issued a citation for drunk in public as well as one for disorderly conduct and trying to interfere with a DUI arrest.
The whole thing seems wrong to me that they would be able to arrest my brother, first of all, because they didn't even see him driving...they had to ASK because they had no idea. Second of all, I've never heard of someone being charged with a drunk in public when they're just standing on their front porch trying to get into their house. Have you?
When we got the police report a week or so after the incident, it stated that they (the cops) received a complaint from someone in some area that we hadn't even been that night.
It says the person making the complaint stated that a man got in a car, got back out, fell on his face, knocked off his glasses and then got back in the car and drove away. The report also says that the person who made the complaint wrote the license plate number down and when the cops ran the tags it came up as my home address....that's why they say they showed up here.
Well...then the report also says that when they arrived, there were 3 people standing on the front porch...whenever there was only my brother and I. Anyway, the cops are the one's who threw my brother down and broke his glasses and brush burned a layer of skin off his face...he didn't get those marks on his face and broken glasses from falling out of the car and getting back in and driving away as the report is trying to make it seem. I know, because I was with him from the time we left the bar until we got home. He wouldn't have even been able to see to drive if his glasses were broken.
The whole thing seems fishy to me.
My theory is, I think the cops were casing the cars and taking down license plate numbers in the area where my brother and I were that night. It's a bar not far from where I live and cops are always hanging around there. I think they took our license plate number down (I think they run random plates of cars parked nearby and around the bar). Although it was neither myself or my brother, the car we were driving had been operated by a person who received a DUI about 2 months earlier.
Later when everyone was leaving the place they noticed our car was gone. Realizing they missed us leaving, they rushed over to this address hoping they would catch up with us before we got home. Well...they were too late to catch either of us operating the vehicle...but they said they knew we had been drinking because they said they could smell alcohol on our breath so they figured they'd still get their arrest. And hell...why not just beat us up too and take us both in? Sounded good to them.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is it legal for the cops to do what they did? Can a person standing on their front porch trying to open the door to go inside be cited for a drunk in public? I've never heard of it...has anyone else?
Hi,
I've been wondering about a couple of citations I received. My brother and I had been out drinking, he drove us home, we got out of the car and walked to the front porch where we were looking for the key to open the door when all of a sudden a police car pulled up in our driveway and asked us who was driving the car. This was at least 2 minutes after we arrived home. The police car was not behind us while we were driving home. My brother told them he was driving and with that, they threw him down on the ground and got very rough with him and told him he was being charged with a DUI. How they were treating him was so upsetting to me that I started arguing with them and yelling to them to stop hurting him. Well...that wasn't the thing to do obviously because the next thing I knew, I was ripped off the porch and my face slammed onto the ground (which later resulted in a blackeye) and handcuffed and taken to jail. I was issued a citation for drunk in public as well as one for disorderly conduct and trying to interfere with a DUI arrest.
The whole thing seems wrong to me that they would be able to arrest my brother, first of all, because they didn't even see him driving...they had to ASK because they had no idea. Second of all, I've never heard of someone being charged with a drunk in public when they're just standing on their front porch trying to get into their house. Have you?
When we got the police report a week or so after the incident, it stated that they (the cops) received a complaint from someone in some area that we hadn't even been that night.
It says the person making the complaint stated that a man got in a car, got back out, fell on his face, knocked off his glasses and then got back in the car and drove away. The report also says that the person who made the complaint wrote the license plate number down and when the cops ran the tags it came up as my home address....that's why they say they showed up here.Well...then the report also says that when they arrived, there were 3 people standing on the front porch...whenever there was only my brother and I.
Anyway, the cops are the one's who threw my brother down and broke his glasses and brush burned a layer of skin off his face...he didn't get those marks on his face and broken glasses from falling out of the car and getting back in and driving away as the report is trying to make it seem. I know, because I was with him from the time we left the bar until we got home. He wouldn't have even been able to see to drive if his glasses were broken.The whole thing seems fishy to me.
My theory is, I think the cops were casing the cars and taking down license plate numbers in the area where my brother and I were that night. It's a bar not far from where I live and cops are always hanging around there. I think they took our license plate number down (I think they run random plates of cars parked nearby and around the bar). Although it was neither myself or my brother, the car we were driving had been operated by a person who received a DUI about 2 months earlier.
Later when everyone was leaving the place they noticed our car was gone. Realizing they missed us leaving, they rushed over to this address hoping they would catch up with us before we got home. Well...they were too late to catch either of us operating the vehicle...but they said they knew we had been drinking because they said they could smell alcohol on our breath so they figured they'd still get their arrest. And hell...why not just beat us up too and take us both in? Sounded good to them.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is it legal for the cops to do what they did? Can a person standing on their front porch trying to open the door to go inside be cited for a drunk in public? I've never heard of it...has anyone else?
