Disorderly Intoxication

Under Florida Statute 856.011 disorderly intoxication is defined as a person that is intoxicated and who endangers another person’s safety or the safety of someone else’s property, or who is intoxicated in public or who drinks any alcoholic drink in public, or in or upon any public conveyance, like a train or bus or Metro Mover, and who causes a public disturbance.

Disorderly intoxication, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. Only in Miami, the beholders are only the police.

Disorderly intoxication is a second degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail.

The statute under which police arrest people for disorderly intoxication is vague. Being drunk in public by itself is perfectly legal. Being loud or obnoxious is not crime either. What matters is whether or not you endanger the safety or others and cause a crowd to gather.

This is an arrest frequently seen when the police don’t know what else to do, or feel threatened by you in some way, and often goes hand in hand with Miami’s famous nightlife scene.

If you or someone you love are facing this charge, contact Grant Dwyer, an experienced Miami criminal defense lawyer. We can often make these cases go away. It is not worth the risk of having to jail time and suffer the embarrassment of a conviction.

Call us at (305) 215-7586 or click HERE.