The Iowa Supreme Court ruled this June that a person cannot be convicted of public intoxication if that person becomes drunk on their own front porch. The state Supreme Court ruled twelve years ago that public spaces consist of the front steps of an apartment and its public hallways. However, the issue of whether the front steps of a single-family residence could be considered a public area was not addressed until this year.
The case involves a 32-year-old woman named Patience Paye, who called police in June 2013 about domestic violence. She went outside her home to speak with police because she did not wish to upset her children at home. Kendrall Murray, the person who allegedly abused her, told police that Paye had punched him after Murray refused to give her the car keys. Murray claimed that she was inebriated and she didn’t have her driver’s license.
When police asked Paye if she had consumed alcohol that day, Paye said she hadn’t but later stated that she had one shot earlier that day. Police tested her blood alcohol levels, which were 0.267 and 0.264. The legal limit for driving in Iowa is .08. Police charged Paye with public intoxication and domestic assault. The domestic assault charge was subsequently dropped.
Legal Arguments For Getting Drunk In Front of Your Own House
In a trial before a judge, Paye contended that the steps in front of her home did not constitute a public place, and thus, there was no basis on which to convict her of public intoxication. Moreover, the objective of the public intoxication statute is to avert a nuisance to the public. Paye argued that on the night in question, there was no evidence that Paye was bothering anybody in her neighborhood.
The trial court disagreed with Paye’s contention, and determined that her porch was public because any passerby could view it. The court also decided that the porch was public because it was accessible to the public. However, the state Supreme Court sided with Paye, ruling that Paye’s porch is not a public place. The only exception is if the residents of the home invite the public to go onto the property. Although Paye had called the police to their house, a call for emergency assistance cannot be considered a general invitation to the public at large.
The Supreme Court reasoned that if the front steps of a single-family home are a public area, then it would be a criminal act to drink an alcoholic beverage or a mixed drink while sitting on one’s steps, or to grill meat using barbecue sauce that contained alcohol, without first acquiring a liquor license. The justices refused to extend the law so that even innocent activities would be criminalized.
Authored by Roxanne Minott, LegalMatch Legal Writer and Attorney at Law
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