hitchhiker
03-10-2006, 11:32 AM
Appeals court interprets 'pee-nal' code section
<TABLE class=articleBody width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle colSpan=3></TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleBody align=left colSpan=3>So much for the "when you've gotta go, you've gotta go" defense.
The state Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday in a Berkeley case that public urination is a state crime: There's no specific law against it, but it qualifies as a public nuisance.
An Oakland police officer saw David McDonald urinate in a parking lot along San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley late one night in January 2003. The officer intended to cite McDonald for this, placed him under arrest while confirming his identity and found cocaine base in his pocket.
McDonald at his preliminary hearing moved to suppress that evidence, arguing there's no specific state law against public urination so the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to detain, cite and search him. A judge disagreed, finding urine could be "waste matter" in the state's littering law.
The appeals court said public urination isn't littering because urine is carried within a person, not "on or about" a person as "waste matter" must be under state law's definition. And urine isn't "nauseous, sickening, irritating or offensive to any of the senses" as defined by another state law section that also makes it a crime to "manufacture or prepare, or to possess" such substances - just making urine can't be a crime, the court found. But by endangering public health, as well as being "indecent" and "offensive to the senses" when viewed by others, public urination does qualify as a public nuisance under state law.
Ain't Dat Nice!
:D
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE class=articleBody width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle colSpan=3></TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleBody align=left colSpan=3>So much for the "when you've gotta go, you've gotta go" defense.
The state Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday in a Berkeley case that public urination is a state crime: There's no specific law against it, but it qualifies as a public nuisance.
An Oakland police officer saw David McDonald urinate in a parking lot along San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley late one night in January 2003. The officer intended to cite McDonald for this, placed him under arrest while confirming his identity and found cocaine base in his pocket.
McDonald at his preliminary hearing moved to suppress that evidence, arguing there's no specific state law against public urination so the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to detain, cite and search him. A judge disagreed, finding urine could be "waste matter" in the state's littering law.
The appeals court said public urination isn't littering because urine is carried within a person, not "on or about" a person as "waste matter" must be under state law's definition. And urine isn't "nauseous, sickening, irritating or offensive to any of the senses" as defined by another state law section that also makes it a crime to "manufacture or prepare, or to possess" such substances - just making urine can't be a crime, the court found. But by endangering public health, as well as being "indecent" and "offensive to the senses" when viewed by others, public urination does qualify as a public nuisance under state law.
Ain't Dat Nice!
:D
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