Hospital has a patient in the emergency room that has enjoyed some adult beverages. Patient becomes difficult and says unkind words to staff. Staff calls police and wants the patient to be arrested for public intoxication from the hospital bed.
The diagnosis is he is an a$$ and therefore needs to go to jail.
Thoughts on the emergency room as a whole being a public place?
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I'm not looking for legal advice. I'm asking for a discussion on the issue. I've had conversations with folks that think it is and think it isn't.
On one hand someone could argue that a substantial amount of the public has access to the emergency room. On the other it's access is tightly controlled.
(40) "Public place" means any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways, and the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities, and shops.
So an emergency room is absolutely a public place.
"Common area of hospitals." The lobby is a common area, the ER waiting room is a common area, the treatment area of an ER is tightly controlled. Access to the nurses stations are where patients and guests walk to and from rooms is controlled but significantly less private than individual treatment rooms.
It seems that an individual treatment room an ER would fall under similar parameters as if the patient was admitted to a room in the hospital.
And the search for the "bright line" continues. Your question is really for the fact finder, be they a jury or judge.
If the fact finder has ever been in an emergency room as a patient or with a loved one, the though of dealing with all the associated emotional issues of an injury or death while listening to some drunk patient who "becomes difficult and says unkind words to staff," will make the question as to the element of "public place," easy. Prepare your voir dire very carefully.
Posts: 261 | Location: Lampasas, Texas, USA | Registered: November 29, 2007
Control over access does not prevent a place from being a "public place". State v. Gerstenkorn, 239 S.W.3d 357 (Tex. App. - San Antonio 2007, no pet.) (gated community is a public place); State v. Nailor, 949 S.W.2d 357 (Tex. App. - San Antonio 1997, no pet.) (hotel parking tower); Kapuscinski v. State, 878 S.W.2d. 248 (Tex. App. - San Antonio 1994, pet. ref'd); Woodruff v. State, 899 S.W.2d 443 (Tex. App. - Austin 1995, pet. ref'd), Perry v. State, 991 S.W.2d 50 (Tex. App. - Fort Worth 1998, pet. ref'd), and Grantham v. State, No. 05-01-000187-CR, 2001 W.L. 1256443 (Tex. App. - Dallas Oct. 22, 2001, no pet.)(not designated for publication)
