Wright v. State

772 N.E.2d 449, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 1112, 2002 WL 1481047
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided July 11, 2002·No. 49A04-0108-CR-341·Published·Cited by 62 cases

Opinion

OPINION

BARNES, Judge.

Case Summary

Jesse Wright appeals his conviction for public intoxication, a Class B misdemean- or. We affirm.

*453 Issues

Wright raises five issues for our review, which we restate as:

T. whether a hotel hallway constitutes a "public place" for purposes of the public intoxication statute, Indiana Code Section 7.1-5-1-3;
IL whether Indiana Code Section 7.1-5-1-3 is unconstitutional on its face;
whether Indiana Code Section 36-8-10-10.6, which authorizes a private person employed by a private TIL. employer to have government arrest powers, is unconstitutional;
IV. whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction; and - © '
V. _. whether he was denied his right of appeal under the quiana Constitution.

Facts. 1

At approximately 8:80 a.m. on January 21, 2001, Wright and Roy Kelly en *454 tered the Embassy Suites Hotel ("Hotel"). Wright asked for the room number of a guest named Melissa, who had rented a room on the tenth floor. Wright said that they knew her and that she was expecting them to stay in the room. Although Wright had a cardkey, the hotel clerk, Raylene Hardin, refused to give him the room number because he was not listed as a registered guest.

Wright told Hardin that he would just try the doors until he found the room and walked across the lobby toward the elevators. He was stopped by a security guard, Jeffrey Reynolds. Wright showed Reynolds his room key, and Reynolds took Wright back to the front desk because Wright could not remember Melissa's last name.

Wright became verbally abusive, and Reynolds informed him the police would be called for backup. After Reynolds called his employer, Premier Security, for assistance, two special deputies of the Marion County Sheriffs Department were dispatched to the scene. In the meantime, Wright and Kelly were detained in the lobby. The deputies, Rex Thompson and Paul Shepard, arrived, and Wright became verbally abusive toward Thompson. Thompson observed that Wright smelled of aleohol, had slow and slurred speech, and was unsteady on his feet.

The deputies escorted Wright and Kelly to Melissa's room and knocked several times on the door. The people in the room identified Wright and Kelly as their guests. Wright became more agitated and abusive when the deputies escorted all of the guests out of the room because they were not registered. Thompson arrested Wright for public intoxication.

Prior to trial, Wright filed a motion to dismiss challenging the constitutionality of the public intoxication and special deputy statutes. After a jury trial, Wright was found guilty as charged.

Analysis

I. Public Place

Wright first argues that a guest or a guest-of-a-guest of a hotel who is in the hotel lobby or hallway is not in a public place or place of public access as required by Indiana Code Section 7.1-5-1-8, which provides that "[i]t is a Class B misdemean- or for a person to be in a public place or a place of public resort in a state of intoxication caused by the person's use of alcohol or a controlled substance...." Wright contends that because he was not in a public place at the time of his arrest, he did not commit the offense of public intoxication. i

Our standard of review for the interpretation of statutes is de novo. Parkview Hospital, Inc. v. v. Roese, 750 N.E.2d 384, 386 (Ind.Ct.App.2001), trams. denied. We review legal determinations to ascertain whether the trial court erred in application of the law. Id. When a statute is clear and unambiguous on its face, we may not interpret the statute. Id. Rather, words are to be given their plain, ordinary, and usual meaning unless a contrary purpose is clearly shown by the statute itself. Id.

The term "public place" is not defined by the public intoxication statute. However, some cases have offered definitions of the term. An early definition of "public place" is found in State v. Tincher, 21 Ind.App. 142, 51 N.E. 943, 944 (1898), which states, "A 'public place' does not mean a place devoted solely to the use of *455 the public; but it means a place which is in point of fact public, as distinguished from private,-a place that is visited by many persons, and usually accessible to the neighboring public." Because a private residence is not "usually accessible to the neighboring public," the court reversed Tincher's conviction for being found intoxicated while attending a party at a private residence. Id.

The word "public" was further defined in Peachey v. Boswell, 240 Ind. 604, 167 N.E.2d 48, 56-57 (1960), in discussing the phrase, "[in any place accessible to the public" in the context of a gambling statute. Our supreme court stated:

Webster defines "public" as "open to common and general use, participation, or enjoyment" of the public. It has been held that the term "public place" as used in statutes pertaining to gambling includes any place which for the time being is made public by the assemblage of people who go there with or without invitation and without restraint.
A place may be accessible to the public for gambling notwithstanding that every person who desires is not permitted access thereto.
It has also been held that in a case involving a prohibition law that by "pub-lie" is meant that the public is invited to come to the place and has access to it for the purpose within the scope of the business there maintained.
"Accessible to the public" as used in the Act here in question has not been defined by either of the courts of appeal of this State, nor have we been able to find definition by the courts in other jurisdictions.
From a consideration of the terms "accessible," "public", and "public place", as defined hereinabove, together with the purpose of the Act, we have concluded that the phrase "in any place accessible to the public" as used in § 10-2330, supra, means any place where the public is invited and are free to go upon special or implied imvitation a place available to all or a certain segment of the 00 ~ >

Id. at 57 (internal citations omitted) (emphasis added).

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Wright v. State, 772 N.E.2d 449, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 1112, 2002 WL 1481047 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002).

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