Public Intoxication Forum

[mrlawyer22]

Last night I got arrested for public intoxication at a casino in Oklahoma. I recently have been admitted into a law school in a different state for fall 2014. I have no prior arrests or criminal history.
Public intoxication is a misdemeanor, and since I have been admitted I am not sure what to do going forward. Only 2 people know about my arrest and I am trying to keep it under wraps as much as possible.

What do I do? ? I'm in college right now and it was just a night of drinking that got carried away. I don't drink often and right now I'm having a panic attack.

[Dr. Review]

Rule of thumb: if something happens, especially if it results in an arrest, tell your law school, tell the bar examiners, and stop doing it.

[TheSpanishMain]

Don't panic. This won't sink you.

Notify the law school. Don't write a dramatic novel, just give them the basic who, what, where, when, and why. Stuff like this generally isn't a problem UNLESS it becomes a pattern. As long as this stays an isolated incident, you're fine.

[JuTMSY4]

Don't panic. This won't sink you.

Notify the law school. Don't write a dramatic novel, just give them the basic who, what, where, when, and why. Stuff like this generally isn't a problem UNLESS it becomes a pattern. As long as this stays an isolated incident, you're fine.

Credited. I had a friend in law school who I think also got a public intoxication in law school. He's barred in NY. Disclose per above and don't do it again.

[bp shinners]

Don't panic. This won't sink you.

Notify the law school. Don't write a dramatic novel, just give them the basic who, what, where, when, and why. Stuff like this generally isn't a problem UNLESS it becomes a pattern. As long as this stays an isolated incident, you're fine.

Credited. I had a friend in law school who I think also got a public intoxication in law school. He's barred in NY. Disclose per above and don't do it again.

Similar anecdotes, only for friends who did things much worse. Get in touch with the school, let them know, and you should be fine.

[mrlawyer22]

Do you see any likelihood that they would revoke my admittance?

[guano]

Do you see any likelihood that they would revoke my admittance?

Not if you're honest

[TheSpanishMain]

No, unless there's a hell of a lot more to this story than you originally described.

[mrlawyer22]

I will tell you the story.

My buddy and I decide to go to the casino for the night, he had money to blow- I mostly just came to hang out and have a couple drinks as he offered to pay. I ended up having way too many shall we say, over the course of about 5 hours. At about 1:30 my buddy gives me a $25 chip to go buy 3 drinks, which I go to the bar and order. I take my drink and the hostess follows me back our table with the others. However, she refuses to serve my buddy and the girl he was buying a drink for as they had drinks in front of them already. She walked off rather quickly, so I found her and asked her for the drinks or the money. Honestly, I was pretty drunk and probably came off as rather rude, even though I wasn't angry or trying to be rude, and her supervisor became irate and this attracted the attention of a nearby security guard who comes up and starts engaging me. At the time it seemed to me that I was being unfairly treated, and my memory is poor from the drinking, but I argued with the guy who threatens to call the US marshalls (this is on an indian reservation). I go get my friend and tell him we need to leave. The marshalls stop us at the door and security points me out and I talk to them. I'm apologetic at this point because I just wanted to leave.

I'm placed under arrest for public intoxication. I spend the night in the slammer, which was awful. I get booked and released in the morning. I talked to an attorney today who said I should plead no contest after speaking with the prosecutor before the court date and explain my situation to them and hope to get a deferred sentence so it stays off my record. I have no prior record whatsoever.
So long story short, I got drunk and argued with the wrong people. I feel pretty bad about this whole deal. I'm usually quiet, introverted and routine oriented but you know how the drinking goes. The marshalls told me it really wasn't a big deal and that they've arrested attorneys for the same thing and they continue to practice. I'm very freaked out about this all the same.

I was not at all violent or destructive.

[TheSpanishMain]

Yeah, this is really not a huge deal. Relax.

[mrlawyer22]

Thanks bro I was considering getting prescribed some valium earlier.

[guano]

Yeah, this is really not a huge deal. Relax.

[Void]

It hasn't been mentioned here yet so I'll just quickly note that if you don't disclose this, it almost certainly will come up during the character & fitness examination for bar admission, and you will be seriously fucked- not for the arrest but for failing to disclose it to your school. You absolutely must disclose this ASAP and be as honest and straightforward as possible if you eventually want to get a law license. Like others have said, your school probably won't care about the arrest. The bar examiners also won't care about the arrest, but failing to disclose it to your school is definitely a huge problem.

Edited to add: the bar examining committee can/will find out about this arrest; particularly if you're being formally charged (which you are, since you're negotiating a plea with the prosecutor). So while it might seem like only 2 people know and you're keeping it under wraps, there is nothing you can do to hide this from the bar examiners. Not trying to scare you- just making sure you understand the consequences of failing to disclose this.

[ms9]

Last night I got arrested for public intoxication at a casino in Oklahoma. I recently have been admitted into a law school in a different state for fall 2014. I have no prior arrests or criminal history.
Public intoxication is a misdemeanor, and since I have been admitted I am not sure what to do going forward. Only 2 people know about my arrest and I am trying to keep it under wraps as much as possible.

What do I do? ? I'm in college right now and it was just a night of drinking that got carried away. I don't drink often and right now I'm having a panic attack.

You are totally fine. Update your file we an explanation that covers the event but does not make excuses or gets carried away in detail. It is a huge hassle to rescind someone's admission (I've had to do it for much worse than this) so you are totally fine.

[mrlawyer22]

I emailed my admissions lady yesterday and sent them a little word document with what happened. I was very apologetic and said I was embarrassed to have to send this, I wanted to be honest. etc.

I feel badly because these people accepted me into their school, the premier school in the state like 10 days after I submitted my application, they sent me a personalized letter about how much they liked me, and are currently looking for me a job in the area so I can move up there in January.

They're probably thinking they made a mistake and wondering what the hell kind of guy they've accepted.

[northwood]

Don't beat yourself up too much about this( easier said than done, I know). You made a mistake, informed the necessary parties about it. Not much else you can do besides make sure it doesn't happen again.

[Ramius]

Don't beat yourself up too much about this( easier said than done, I know). You made a mistake, informed the necessary parties about it. Not much else you can do besides make sure it doesn't happen again.

Worrying about it is not TCR, this is. The admissions people aren't going to hold this against you if you never do it again. Sure, it'll go in your file because it has to, but because you disclosed and you're never going to do it again, this will be their ammunition come Bar C&F time because you fully disclosed it.

It's easy to be critical of yourself, but you just need to work on letting it go and learning from it.

[Void]

I emailed my admissions lady yesterday and sent them a little word document with what happened. I was very apologetic and said I was embarrassed to have to send this, I wanted to be honest. etc.

I feel badly because these people accepted me into their school, the premier school in the state like 10 days after I submitted my application, they sent me a personalized letter about how much they liked me, and are currently looking for me a job in the area so I can move up there in January.

They're probably thinking they made a mistake and wondering what the hell kind of guy they've accepted.

Nah- you're fine. All you did was get drunk. You weren't even driving/otherwise endangering anyone. You were at a casino, and casinos are basically designed to get people drunk. If you had been blowing more money on the craps tables they probably wouldn't even have called the cops. Seriously though- don't worry about it.

[TheSpanishMain]

They're probably thinking they made a mistake and wondering what the hell kind of guy they've accepted.

Dude, what? How are you this skittish? Calm down. Yeah, you screwed up and it sucks, but it's not going to ruin your life.

You're not an axe murderer or a child porn distributor. You're just one more person in their early twenties who got too drunk one night. Ultimately, no one is going to care or look at you as some kind of hardened criminal. In the end, this'll just be a funny little anecdote you tell at parties.

[guano]

As an aside, who pays for drinks in a casino?

[AnonymousAlterEgoC]

Most likely, this will have absolutely no effect on your life beyond the initial legal consequences and your own anxiety.

[DrStudMuffin]

As an aside, who pays for drinks in a casino?

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[ms9]

it is more likely your offer would be rescinded for calling her "my admissions lady" than from the incident.

[mrlawyer22]

Haha
Looking at it from a different perspective does make it seem funny. I had quite literally over 20 drinks that evening.

Being a lawyer is my life's work and anything that might threaten that is of serious concern to me. Especially since I was arrested. Virtually everyone has told me that it's going to be fine. I'm not worrying as bad now.

On a side note, my friend lost 12 grand that evening and probably is still worrying.

And I spent 5 dollars total for the evening on a slot machine. My buddy was buying all the drinks/gambling.

[Dr. Review]

As an aside, who pays for drinks in a casino?

Depends on the state. In PA, they can't give you the drinks for free. You have to buy them.