Young, Drunk And Proud Of It – Iowa Student Brags About Drunken Revelry
Posted in General,Public Drunkenness on January 12, 2015
Whether they want to admit it or not, many people have been drunk in public, whether it was at a college bar, party, wedding reception, or other social gathering. The person then feels remorse for the public drunkenness, has to apologize, and wishes that they had a time machine that would allow them to go back in time to change what happened.
As a State College criminal defense lawyer, I have represented many college students, from Penn State-University Park, Penn State-Altoona, Lock Haven, and Juniata, that had way too much to drink, and the drinking got the person into some legal trouble. I routinely handle cases that are directly related to alcohol, like driving under the influence, furnishing alcohol to minors, underage drinking, public drunkenness, and open container violations. Many other offenses are indirectly related to alcohol, such as bar fights and assaults, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, and criminal trespass offenses.
In trying to resolve such criminal charges in a favorable manner, I often try to show the officer, prosecutor, and judge that the client is a good person, that the criminal conduct was an aberration of behavior, that the client expresses remorse for his or her actions, and that the client has learned their lesson.
Vodka Samm
An Iowa student recently got drunk, really drunk, and allegedly attempted to run onto the football field. She was stopped by security staff or police, and a breath test showed that her blood alcohol level was a .341%. Most 22-year olds would be mortified that their drunken actions caused them to be arrested, criminal charged, and a public spectacle. In this case, the young girl took to Twitter to brag about her accomplishments, and her following has increased to over 15,000. Under the Twitter handle of @vodka-samm, the young woman let her followers know #YOYO (which, according to urban dictionary means you only live once) while mentioning that she went to jail; #lmao when referencing her submission to the breath test, and then stating that she is going get a tattoo with .341% on it. If the tattoo was a reminder of her bad decision and ensure that she didn’t get that drunk again, it would be a good thing. However, based upon her attitude, I am quite sure that the tattoo is more of a bragging or showing off decision aimed to garner more attention.
The woman was charged with a criminal offense of Public Intoxication. In Pennsylvania, she would have been charged with Public Drunkenness and possibly Criminal Trespass. Hopefully the young girl is smart enough to hire a defense lawyer to help her through this because I do not trust her decision-making ability at all. The criminal defense lawyer that represents Vodka Samm will have a tough time convincing the prosecuting attorney and judge that the client has learned a lesson, changed her ways, and thereby should receive some leniency. While a person generally is not sentenced to jail time for a summary offense like Public Drunkenness or Underage Drinking, cases like this sometimes test the patience of a judge as the judge wants to send a strong message that such behavior is not acceptable.