What is urinating in public in Scottsdale, Arizona?
Video Transcript: Urinating in Public Charges in Scottsdale - R&R Law Group
Urinating in Public is classified as a Class 1 Misdemeanor category in Scottsdale, Arizona; it is denoted S.R.C. 19-19, meaning that the defendant has been accused of “[urinating] or [defecating] in a place exposed to public view”. It is not uncommon in Scottsdale for bouncers and security guards to encourage people to break this law, since they themselves are often legally required to be trained by the Scottsdale Police. This provides a breeding ground for situations that make it very convenient for police officers in Scottsdale to convict citizens of crimes such as UIP. Under the Scottsdale code, the mandatory minimum punishment for a UIP charge is a fine of $150, though it is most often much more than that. The court may also require the citizen charged to pay restitution for any clean-up costs that they may have induced on the City. Then there is also the lasting consequence of having a Class 1 Misdemeanor on your permanent criminal record.
The best defense for a UIP charge is built on varying situations such as the officer’s ability to observe the act, timing, body camera footage, witness statements, security footage, co-defendants, medical conditions, and mitigation. The most common Scottsdale City Court Case Progression is as follows: 1. Arraignment, 2. Pre-trial, 3. Case Management, 4. Trial Readiness, and 5. Trial. While this may seem like a straightforward and simple process, in actuality it can be very complex. If you are looking for legal help from a team that is knowledgeable and well-practiced in navigating this procedure, be sure to give us at the R&R Law Group a call.
We see it most commonly charged in Downtown / Old Town Scottsdale in these general areas:
The scenario is usually people are in old town, at the bars, enjoying an evening. Due to crowds or due to bar operators or bouncers not letting people use the restrooms, people will leave the bar and find an area to relieve themselves.
The police know this, and wait in back roads and allies to wait for people.
In many cases, the police are riding around the area on bikes and come upon individuals in the act or immediately thereafter.
What are the urinating in public laws in Arizona?
The City of Scottsdale in particular is very aggressive with enforcing this law. They have their own city code, the Scottsdale Code SRC 19-19a, which is the statute that prohibits urinating in public:
A. It shall be unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate in a place exposed to public view, except by proper use of a toilet or other suitable facility provided for this purpose.
As you can see, the law is not complex. It identifies urinating specifically and includes any areas in public view.
This covers virtually all of downtown Scottsdale.
What is the penalty for urinating in public?
The Scottsdale City code classifies urinating in public as a class 1 misdemeanor, which means technically the maximum penalty can be up to 6 months in jail!
Here is what the law says regarding the fine and fees for urinating in public:
B. A violation of this section is a class one misdemeanor and shall be punished by a mandatory minimum fine of one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00).
C. In addition to the penalties proscribed in subsection B above, the court may require that a person convicted of this section pay restitution for any clean-up costs incurred by the City.
In practice, we have never seen any of our clients have to serve additional jail time as a result of a conviction.
In most situations, the individual who has been arrested has already served jail and the judge rarely imposes more as part of the penalty.
Instead, there is usually only a monetary fine, potential for community service, and a criminal conviction.
Is urinating in public a sex offense? Do I need to register as a sex offender?
Legally, urinating in public, public indecency and exposure have many elements in common and a urinating could theoretically be elevated to a more serious offense.
However, in reality, we have never seen any urinating in public charges with our clients originating out of Scottsdale ever elevated to a felony or sexual offense level or require registration.
Scottsdale treats these as Class 1 Misdemeanors charges that do not require any registering as a sex offender obligations.
Is it possible to avoid having a criminal record for urinating in public?
Of course! That is what we fight for in every case.
However, it is important to understand that Scottsdale does not make it easy.
As a result of the policies of the prosecutor’s office, this offense is highly enforced and the prosecutors in Scottsdale are reluctant to negotiate the charge down without a fight.
People often believe these cases will be easy to handle on their own, given that this is their first offense. This is not an approach you should rely upon or gamble with your future on.
Our office is in Scottsdale, about 6 minutes north of Scottsdale City court and Old Town.
We have represented hundreds of people on urinating in public charges, and we have a proven record of resolving these charges.
How do you beat a urinating in public charge?
Beating a urinating in public charge requires an in depth review of the facts of your specific case.
Our office initiates an extensive review of all the evidence that is available, including:
Witness statements
Officer body camera footage
Venue surveillance footage
Police photographs
Recorded statements
Specimen samples
It is important to know exactly what evidence the police and the government have against you.
Remember, legally they have to prove their case. You do not have disprove the case.
In many cases, this evidence is incomplete or non-existent.
Often times, the police cannot articulate what they saw or when they saw it, or their testimony is not reliable because their observations were obscured or not timely.
In other words, the police did not get a direct view of what they claim to have seen.
They may have come upon you at a time when it was not possible to have seen an actual act of urination.
They may presume that the puddle on the ground of an unknown liquid belongs to you without having first hand knowledge of what that puddle is or where it came from.
This is called causation.
There may be a puddle on the ground and their may be a human standing near it, but can it be proven that the puddle was in fact caused by urination from that person?
In many situations, it is not as cut and dry as it may seem.
To make this connection, some Judges in Scottsdale require more than just an officer’s vague testimony that requires an officer to infer that something happened.
This is called circumstantial evidence.
A common example of circumstantial evidence is the example of snow on the ground.
You may come home after work and when walking into your home, see that there is no snow on the ground.
You wake up the next morning, and suddenly, there is snow everywhere.
You did not see it snow, but you infer that you the snow that you see came from the sky because that is where snow normally comes from.
However, it is possible that someone with a lot of time on their hands hauled snow in from the mountain and distributed the snow across the neighborhood.
Because of this possibility, this circumstantial evidence is not as strong as it would be if it were direct evidence.
Direct evidence is evidence that you directly observed. So in our snow example, this would be testimony that you sat by the window and observed the snow fall from the sky and land on the ground.
This same principle happens in urinating in public cases.
In many cases, officers see a puddle and see a human being, but do not see the act of urination.
They do not see a stream of urine exiting a person’s genitals, and without more, doubt can be raised about the origin of the puddle.
What if I want to get this over with and plead guilty?
An alternative to fighting for a noncriminal resolution is to plead guilty. In most cases, particularly if this is your first criminal offense, pleading guilty will only result in a fine of around $300 to $400.
You must understand, however, that you will have a reportable criminal conviction on your record.
Arizona does not have a mechanism of expunging criminal convictions. We do, however, have a motion to set aside a conviction that can be filed for this type of case.
A motion to set aside a conviction shows that you were convicted, but that your conviction has been “set aside” by a judge.
This shows that you have paid all your fines and satisfied all your obligations to the court.
It may be helpful in certain scenarios depending on your job applications, licensing requirements, or future plans, but it will depend on your specific situation.
We have heard anecdotally of other attorneys who will encourage a person to plead guilty and then complete a motion to set aside on the back end. Please be aware of the limitations of a motion to set aside before you make a decision to not fight this charge. A motion to set aside does NOT remove the criminal record.
What are my chances of beating a urinating in public charge?
We have seen a shift recently with Scottsdale offering diversion programs for people that have never had a prior criminal charge. Diversion is not a guarantee and a lot also depends on which prosecutor you are assigned, and what courtroom your case is in.
There are 4 main judges in Scottsdale, and each has different styles and leanings.
This is where R&R Law Group can provide you with the best representation available. We have a very large presence in the Scottsdale court and have a very respected reputation and relationship with the prosecutors and judges.
Our office practices exclusively in criminal defense, and we are located minutes away from Old Town Scottsdale, where a large number of urinating in public charges originate.
No other firm handles more Urinating in Public cases in Scottsdale than we do. We have a tremendous track record of fighting these charges and coming out successfully.
If you are facing these charges, please contact our office to schedule a case evaluation to discuss your options.
Waste Management Open Top 6 Crimes Police Charge
Video Transcription: Waste Management Open Top 6 Crimes Police Charge - R&R Law Group
It’s called the Waste Management Open.
Celebrities, professional golfers, people from all over the world come to Scottsdale, and they go to the Waste Management Open.
They spend about a week there, and it can be a big, long party. It’s one of the most trafficked events, if not the most trafficked sporting event in the whole world.
So as you can imagine, when everybody comes here, there’s a lot of alcohol involved, there’s a lot of partying, there’s the 16th hole, and the police really increase their presence all around Scottsdale.
With the Waste Management Open, we see an increase in certain crimes.
Ordinarily, we see the same types of crimes, the same type of enforcement and events, all throughout the year, but under the Waste Management event, the police look for, and they charge specific crimes.
Today we’re gonna talk about the top six different crimes that we see, or the increase in crimes that we see, as a direct result, we believe, of the Waste Management Open.
Let’s start at the bottom, let’s start with number six.
This is the number six most increased in crime that we see. And it is open container in vehicle.
This is where people are driving to the Waste Management Open, they may have some alcohol in their car, they may wanna take some shots, or have a beer, or have some sort of alcohol in the car, not while they’re driving, but while the car is parked, they’ll have some drinks before they go into the event.
If the police see an open container of alcohol within the vehicle, they can charge you with a crime for that.
We see more and more of this, specifically surrounding the Waste Management Open. Let’s jump to number five.
Number five is minor in consumption.
So minor in consumption is when somebody who is under the age of 21 is consuming alcohol.
We see this as well, people who are under the age of 21, they’ll certainly want to go to the Waste Management Open, they may be with people who are older than 21, who will purchase the alcohol, everybody will go into the Waste Management Open, people under 21 will be drinking, the police will see that, and they may charge them with a crime.
Minor in consumption is a class one misdemeanor in Arizona, it’s a serious offense. Let’s jump to number four. We also see consumption in public.
This is where people are leaving the Waste Management Open, they’re leaving the golf course, and they are still consuming alcohol outside of the permitted grounds.
When you have big events like this, or festivals, or public events, you can have licenses to have alcohol, obviously, but some people will travel, they’ll go down to a bar, they’ll go down to Old Town, they’ll go out to a restaurant, they may take a limo, they get out of the limo, with alcohol in their hand.
Police will see that, they’ll charge them with consuming alcohol in public, which is also a crime. Number three, we see disorderly conduct.
With alcohol, with golf, with competition, people tend to get a little bit boisterous, people tend to oftentimes create a ruckus, people may get into fights with one another, be screaming, shouting, we see disorderly conduct.
This is kind of a catch-all crime in Arizona, where we see this at bars or at restaurants, when people are getting into highly argumentative conversations on the golf course, police will charge them with disorderly conduct, because they are disturbing the peace and the quiet of other people around the area.
There are certain areas where, of course, that’s permitted and almost encouraged, but in certain situations, the police will emphasize being respectful, being quiet, and if you break that, if you’re causing disorder, they’ll charge you with disorderly conduct.
Number two, we see this very frequently, it’s urinating in public. Urinating in public, it’s very common. People will leave the Waste Management Open, they will use the restroom in the parking lot, they will go to bars or restaurants, and there will be lines to get in, so they need to use the restroom but they cannot find a place to relieve themselves, they will go into an alley. We see this a lot in Old Town.
The Scottsdale Police Department specifically has police on bikes, they just do laps, they go up and down the alleys, they’re looking for people who are urinating in public. It’s a crime in Arizona.
It’s not something that is looked upon favorably, specifically out of Scottsdale, they really like to enforce this charge, so be cautious that you are not urinating anywhere that you’re not supposed to be urinating.
You wanna make sure that you’re holding it, or planning accordingly, because they know where people tend to congregate in order to do that.
They enforce it very seriously. And of course, the number one crime that we see a high increase of around the Waste Management Open is DUIs.
You probably knew that was coming, we see a lot of DUIs. The police set up different checkpoints, they do task forces, where they are really focusing on people leaving the Waste Management Open.
If they see you commit any traffic violation, a wide right turn, if you leave your headlights off, if you’re speeding, they know that you’re coming from a big party, they’re going to stop you for basically any reason that they can justify, or make up, if they want to, sometimes they’ll cause a traffic violation, and they will want to do a DUI investigation. Whether you’ve had anything to drink or not, they’re probably gonna be looking for a DUI, so of course, we encourage everybody at any of these events, please Uber, please use Lyft, carpool, have a designated driver, really no reason why you should be getting DUIs, it’s something that I’m warning you, I warn people every single year, the Waste Management Open is going to have very, very high enforcement, and so if you’ve had anything to drink, if you feel any impairment, if you feel the alcohol at all, you’re probably over the limit, wanna make sure that you have alternative arrangements when you are going to the Open.
So, open containers in vehicles, minor in consumption, consuming alcohol in public, disorderly conduct, urinating in public and DUI, we see an increase every year, if you’ve been charged with one of these, our office is five minutes north of the Scottsdale City Court, we deal with these types of charges all the time.
Give us a call, we’ll schedule you for a free case evaluation, we’ll have a conversation with you, make sure you have a plan, we’ll understand the facts of your case, make sure that we can put together a strategy that’s gonna help ensure that you are not convicted of any one of these offenses.
We look forward to speaking with you.
Thanks for watching, and have a great time at the Open.
Every year Arizona hosts one of the largest sporting events in the world: The Waste Management Open. With hundreds of thousands of people in attendance, there is always a massive police presence, which results in numerous citations and arrests. As a result, our office routinely sees an increase in certain crimes during this time.
There are specific crimes that the police look for and charge during the Waste Management Open. Here we will discuss the top 6 crimes that are charged at a higher regularity during the Waste Management Open.
#6. Open Container in Vehicle
People will often drive to the Waste Management Open with alcohol in their car with the intent of drinking before entering the event. However, having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle is illegal, regardless of whether the vehicle was being driven. Police will commonly charge people who are having drinks while parked in their car before the event.
#5. Minor in Consumption
Minor in Consumption is when someone who is under the legal drinking age of 21 is consuming alcohol. There are many people under the age of 21 at the Waste Management Open, and a lot of them are with people over 21 who may be buying them alcohol. The police are constantly on the lookout for people who are underage drinking.
Minor in Consumption is a class 1 misdemeanor in Arizona, which is a serious offense.
#4. Consumption in Public
This happens as people are leaving the golf course, but they are still consuming alcohol outside the permitted grounds.
At big public events, some entities are licensed to serve alcohol, and people will be permitted to consume alcohol within a designated area. However, if anyone leaves the area with alcohol in their hand, police will charge them for consuming alcohol in public.
#3. Disorderly Conduct
At large public events centered around competition, especially when alcohol is involved, people can get rowdy. There can be a lot of screaming and shouting, and at times fights will break out. Disorderly Conduct is a catch-all crime in Arizona. At the Waste Management Open, police will charge persons who get into heated altercations with Disorderly Conduct because they are disturbing the peace of those around them.
#2. Urinating in Public
This is a charge that is very common. People will often leave the Waste Management Open and need to use the restroom, but it can be difficult to find a place that doesn’t have a very long line. The Scottsdale Police Department has police on bikes specifically patrolling common alleyways that people use. It is a crime in Arizona, and something that is heavily enforced in Scottsdale.
#1. DUI
Police set up special checkpoints and have special task forces that really focus on people leaving the Waste Management Open. If they see you commit any traffic violation, be it a wide right turn, leaving your headlights off, speeding, or any other traffic violation, they will stop you and want to do a DUI investigation.
If you have been charged with any one of these, contact us immediately, we deal with these types of charges all the time. We offer free case evaluations, and we’ll put together a strategy that best suits your case.
