By Kristin Etter
To say I was shocked when I saw the headline that local attorney Mindy Montford was arrested for public intoxication last Saturday is an understatement. Mindy is highly respected and admired in our community and I consider her to be of impeccable character -- she is held in the highest regard by all who know her. I became only more shocked and outraged as I read the story:

Attorney Pat McNelis, who is law partners with Montford, ... and is representing her, said Montford had been with friends from high school to hear a band at a downtown club. As they were leaving, McNelis said, the driver of a car
in which Montford was a passenger struck a pipe in an alley and was pulled over
moments later.

McNelis said Montford got out of the car at that time to “advise her friend of his rights.” He said an officer ordered Montford back into the car, where she sat for about 20 minutes. He said the officer then came back to the car and arrested her, as well as another passenger, on public intoxication charges. He said no further investigation was done before the arrests.

“Mindy complied with the officers when they instructed her back to the car,” McNelis said. He said his client “absolutely denies” the charge. McNelis said the driver of the car also was arrested on a drunken driving charge, but that a judge refused to sign a warrant arresting him because of lack of probable cause.

Clearly, this seems to be a retaliatory action by the officer in the worst sense. All too often, we see officers making arrests for public intoxication because the person flunked the "attitude test." Mindy's case seems even more egregious because it appears she was arrested only after advising her friend of his rights. To arrest someone for public intoxication, the officer has to have probable cause that the person was intoxicated in a public place to the degree that the person may endanger herself or another.

I have no doubt that as the case progresses, we will see that not only was Mindy not publicly intoxicated (she was sitting in the back of the car!!!), but that this was done to punish her for doing something the officer did not like -- advising someone of their rights. The outrageous treatment of Mindy only epitomizes how law enforcement reacts when people choose to exercise their Constitutional rights. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. As we have seen all too often, innocent people are arrested for invoking their rights or simply flunking the "attitude test" (thankfully, the criminal justice system usually works as it is supposed to and we are ultimately able to get these kinds of cases dismissed in most instances). This incident only underscores how important it is for us all to know what are rights are in a situation before something like this occurs. If it can happen to Mindy Montford, it can happen to any of us.

Labels: abuse of power, APD, dwi, public intoxication, rights

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