So now it’s illegal to get drunk? Not that I understand the thrill of it but I don’t see how the responsible use of a designated driver falls into the conversation.
The way that its always been handled in my neck of the woods is that you would be charged if it is a “reaosnable assumption” (I won’t go into the legal definition of this) that you had been driving drunk…i.e - if you were found blind drunk in a layby with a hot engine, you would be charged - if you were found asleep in the back seat with a cold engine in the pub parking lot, not so much (but the copper might take you home if he was in a good mood)
Better those folks get off than innocents getting busted who don’t deserve it. That’s the entire foundation of our judicial system after all.
Yeah, in the article, it states that the cop touched the hood and it was cool. What is the point of checking that the hood is cool, if you are going to arrest him anyways? He was clearly just hoping it was hot so that the charges would be that much stickier.
Bingo.
Nothing chaps my hide more than judges that refuse to do an ounce of “judging”.
Yeah, we don’t want rampant judicial activism where they just do what the hell they feel like regardless of what the law says, but on the otherhand a little use of actual judgement to keep the law from a being a total ass would be nice.
Cite (for the part that I bolded)?
I agree with the gyst of your post, Omni, and I agree that there are a lot of stupid people in positions of power in Minnesota, but there’s no way I can accept this statement without a cite.
I am sure glad I don’t live in that awful state. Was this a jury trial? I can’t imagine a jury convicting a person under these circumstances, I bet it was a judge, which I would never rely on to do the right thing. Did the guy get up and testify he was not driving but sleeping only?
Word.
This decision flies in the face of common sense in any number of ways. Say you’ve driven to a bar and gotten drunk, and you know you need to sober up. But if you stay in the bar, you know it’ll be hard to resist the temptation to have another drink or two. So you go outside, but it’s winter. Where do you go? Your car: it’s either there, or back into the bar, or into some other bar, or stand out in the cold. The car wins.
And then you can get busted for DUI, when you weren’t even driving, and had no intention of driving. And based on instances cited in this thread, that would be true even if you never got behind the wheel, but instead sat in the passenger seat, or maybe even curled up in the back seat. (Lord help you if you turned on the ignition to run the heater. That would remove all doubt about your intention to drive drunk.)
And here we thought ‘DUI’ stood for driving while intoxicated.
Well, maybe not ALL of us thought that! 
Is there any chance that you could be bothered to read the cited article?
No such cite exists, obviously, but I think we can all agree that a person sleeping in a parked car for perhaps 4 hours has a higher likelihood of randomly crossing paths with a cop than a person driving home drunk for perhaps 10 minutes. Assuming you’re not so drunk that you’re driving like Stevie Wonder a cop probably isn’t going to take notice of you driving home and even if you are swerving more times than not you’ll not pass a cop anyways. If you’re sleeping in a parked car, trying to make the best of a bad situation, it becomes exponentially more likely that a cop will see you during his beat with every passing minute.
This seems a bit like automatically giving a ticket to a guy who buys a hot sports car. You can call it" intent to speed’. I am sure stats could justify that ticket too.
Contra, I re-read it and still do not see the questions I raised answered there. I am assuming he acted like a drunk, looked like a drunk, would not speak, and then got convicted if a jury did do this. I bet he never testified, which is a sure way I’d convict (and have on a jury). If the accused does not want to say why he was there I could only assume it was to drive too. I would have issue with there being any probable cause to wake up someone in his own property, legally parked, however.
He is one of the most respected people on the Mn Supreme Court. Certainly better, IMO, than any of the appointees of the last 10 years. He was the lead on the Court for the Franken-Coleman Senate recount trials.
He & his wife also run a scholarship program for disadvantaged youth.
And I would certainly say that he and his fellow “Purple People Eaters” did better defense work than we saw in last Sundays’ game!!!
The cops were there because another resident had called them, to report that she had seen a person was passed out in a car, with the drivers door hanging open.
No, it was a jury that heard all the testimony and convicted him.
Among the various stories he told the police at the time of his arrest were:
- that he had come down from his apartment to get some item out of his car, but then fell asleep before he could get back to his apartment (but he did not have any item with him)
- that he had come down from his air-conditioned bedroom just to sit in the vehicle, and fell asleep there.
But I don’t think he actually testified to any of these stories at his trial.
As far as the car being inoperable, that is questionable. The only evidence on that is that after sitting in the impound lot for 2-1/2 weeks, it did not start. The vehicle had been used previously, before his arrest.
I don’t understand how someone can be arrested while on private property (the apartment complex parking lot) for anything related to a DUI unless it is directly related to a pursuit in progress.
because DUI laws extend past public roadways in some states?
that’s a scary thought.
How about if you beat your spouse while on private property (inside your own house)?
How about if you commit a murder on private property – can the police come onto private property and arrest you?
Of course they can!
Our criminal laws apply to all the land within our country, public or private.
One of the problems with letting people “sleep it off” in their cars is they frequently wake up still intoxicated and attempt drive home. If someone goes to sleep at three times the legal limit, they often feel pretty sober when they wake up at two times the legal limit…