Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Disorderly intoxification

Michigan's "disorderly conduct" statute is a catch-all list of several kinds of publicly-unacceptable behavior. The entire statute is quoted at the end of my reply.

The "drunk & disorderly" section is found below in subsection (1)(e). There are three factual issues that both must be proven for you to be convicted: First, you must have been intoxicated; Second, this must have occurred in a public place; and Third, you must have either directly endangered the safety of another person or of property, or acted in a manner that caused a public disturbance.

Proof of intoxication can come in via breath/blood tests, but also "the old fashioned way" ... how you looked & acted, and witness opinions whether you were drunk.

Proof of causing a public disturbance can occur if passers-by stopped to watch your antics, or if a neighbor called the police about you, or if the incident occurred near homes, etc. But, if it happened in an isolated area with no one nearby to see/hear the events, then you might be able to argue that the "public" wasn't "disturbed".

Here's the text of the statute:

MCL 750.167; MSA 28.364: �Disorderly person� defined; subsequent violations by person convicted of refusing or neglecting to support family.

Sec. 167. (1) A person is a disorderly person if the person is any of the following: (a) A person of sufficient ability who refuses or neglects to support his or her family.

(b) A common prostitute.

(c) A window peeper.

(d) A person who engages in an illegal occupation or business.

(e) A person who is intoxicated in a public place and who is either endangering directly the safety of another person or of property or is acting in a manner that causes a public disturbance.

(f) A person who is engaged in indecent or obscene conduct in a public place.

(g) A vagrant.

(h) A person found begging in a public place.

(i) A person found loitering in a house of ill fame or prostitution or place where prostitution or lewdness is practiced, encouraged, or allowed.

(j) A person who knowingly loiters in or about a place where an illegal occupation or business is being conducted.

(k) A person who loiters in or about a police station, police headquarters building, county jail, hospital, court building, or other public building or place for the purpose of soliciting employment of legal services or the services of sureties upon criminal recognizances.

(l) A person who is found jostling or roughly crowding people unnecessarily in a public place.

(2) When a person, who has been convicted of refusing or neglecting to support his or her family under this section, is then charged with subsequent violations within a period of 2 years, that person shall be prosecuted as a second offender, or third and subsequent offender, as provided in section 168, if the family of that person is then receiving public relief or support.