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Drunk and disorderly
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hi, my boyfriend was arrested on saturday night for drunk and disorderly. He was with two other friends that were also arrested but none of them were charged even though one of them had illegal drugs on him. My boyfriend didnt resist arrest but was thrown into some scaffolding outside a club and had to have a medical examination at the police station for his injuries. He was an innocent by-stander to a verbal argument between his two friends and another guy. He has refused to pay the fine as he is innocent, they have now gave him a court hearing and hes really worried as hes never even been in trouble with the police before in his life, he has no criminal record and is a really honest hard working guy.
I think the police have pinned it on him as hes the only one who has injuries and said he was filing a complaint about the 5 officers than pushed him to the ground and threw him into the scaffolding.
I was just looking for some advice on what will happen at court, will he need a solicitor? What kind of sentence will he get? Any help would be great, thanks Kay.
I think the police have pinned it on him as hes the only one who has injuries and said he was filing a complaint about the 5 officers than pushed him to the ground and threw him into the scaffolding.
I was just looking for some advice on what will happen at court, will he need a solicitor? What kind of sentence will he get? Any help would be great, thanks Kay.
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He will of course need a solicitor, it would be rather stupid not to have one.
But, not judging. The maximum fine he can get in court is a £1000 fine and a criminal record.
I'm surprised the cops are pursuing it at court, the fact that they're doing so suggests that perhaps they have some evidence that he was doing more than being an innocent bystander. Get a solicitor.
Ive heard you can use the on duty solicitor...is that right?
I think they have charged him as they know they treated him like an animal, after they threw him into the scaffolding he was nearly knocked out and dazed. When he was at the station he said he was filing a complaint about the officer that did it. I have taken pictures of his injuries aswell. They knew they did wrong otherwise they wouldnt have made him see a doctor and have a medical, the other two didnt have a medical. I think the whole reason for charging him is to cover their own backs as they know they did wrong. He admits to being a little arsey at the station, but he was not being disorderly in a public place.
Anyway thanks for your advice. Kay.
To issue a penalty notice the officer has to have as much evidence as if he was going to take you to court, so statements/witnesses e.t.c. in case the person accepts the notice but then changes their mind and requests a court hearing.
A police officer can't MAKE you accept the fine, but for low level offences like this it's normally a good idea, the magistrate will be informed he was offered a fixed penalty but declined, and generally if found guilty they will impose a larger fine (at least double in my experience).
They've charged him because he refused to accept the fine, the fact he is making a complaint is irrelevant and won't be admissible in court anyway. Charging someone to "cover your back" makes no sense whatsoever. If they wanted to cover their backs they'd just release him without charge, rather than run the risk of having it all spill out into a formal complaint.
Plus he would have made the complaint even if he wasnt charged, so it makes sense to me.
I don't quite understand what you want me to tell you. As it stands unless you get a solicitor who can explain everything to you properly you've got no chance of being believed at court.
Just because he wasn't drunk at 8am, doesn't mean he wasn't drunk at 1am when they arrested him.
Him having spent £9 is proof of nothing, the police don't have to prove how he got drunk, only that he was drunk.
He could have sustained his injuries whilst resisting arrest.
The officer being different on the charge sheet is irrelevant, some forces employ extra staff to charge people who have been nicked.
Your boyfriend making a complaint isn't going to make the cops want to charge him, if anything they'd want to drop the charges in the hopes that he forgets about it.
I'll tell you this again, simply. Drunk and disorderly is one of the simplest offences to prove. All the police need to prove is that your boyfriend was drunk, and that he acted in a disorderly manner. The fact that your boyfriend recieved injuries during the arrest doesn't disprove it and is inadmissible in court. Your boyfriend is the one on trial, not the police.
Something several of us have mentioned, maybe she should take notice.....
We are trying to find the CCTV from outside the nightclub to prove his injuries were made by the "arresting officer" and the fact that he did noting wrong. It makes you realise when you are on the other side of the law that everything is against you. Thank you again, and by the way my name is Kay not she.
I'm not saying that you stand no chance. I am saying however that it is very difficult to disprove a charge of drunk and disorderly. It'll boil down to your boyfriend's word against that of the cops. They will say he was drunk, your boyfriend will deny it. It's up to the magistrate to pass judgment.
However, the fact that they're willing (and the CPS have authorised a charge) to goto court means that the evidence is probably fairly strong.