No Drugs? We’ll Find Something to Charge You With

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   ArtK

   August 24, 2011 at 10:33 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Is “disorderly house” a 19th century euphemism for a whorehouse? Or, can they actually cite you for not putting your dishes back on the shelf?

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   Jeremy Shaffer

   August 24, 2011 at 10:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   What does “disorderly house” even mean?

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   Sanjiv Sarwate

   August 24, 2011 at 10:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   To paraphrase an excerpt from the wonderful book “Uncommon Law,” it is the obligation of the person detained by the police to bring their conduct within one of the recognized categories of offenses. It’s simply intolerable to force the police to invent a rationale for finding the detained person’s conduct offensive.

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   wheatdogg

   August 24, 2011 at 10:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Disorderly house? Shouldn’t they read the house its rights, and haul it down to the pokey till it sobers up?

   My daughters lives in CR. I’ll tell her to be careful with her housekeeping from now on.

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   MFHeadcase has a headache, finding it hard to control urge to kill.

   August 24, 2011 at 11:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Feh, why do i suspect that the “evidence of drug use” is rolling papers, the loose tobacco is ignorable, as well as the lack of anything actually illegal.

   As far as “disorderly house” Of course, after the swat team searched it.

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   Abby Normal

   August 24, 2011 at 11:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Kudos to the SWAT team for not planting drugs when they failed to find any. Perhaps there’s something to this “new professionalism” after all.

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   DaveL

   August 24, 2011 at 11:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   What does “disorderly house” even mean?

   Just as “disorderly conduct” is when you make the police look stupid by your lack of illegal conduct, “disorderly house” is when your inanimate possessions make the police look stupid through their lack of contraband.

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   Stevarious

   August 24, 2011 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   I can’t find the Cedar Rapids law specifically, but Iowa City 20 miles away has this on their books:

   ‘Noise/Disorderly House. It is a simple misdemeanor (punishable with a fine of $50 to $500 plus surcharge and court costs) to keep a “disorderly house.” Under Iowa City City Code section 8-5-5, a “disorderly house” is:
   No person shall permit or suffer to continue, without talking legal steps to prevent the same, any quarreling, fight, disorderly conduct, or other conduct or condition that threatens injury to person or damage, or loud, raucous, disagreeable noises to the disturbance of the neighborhood, or to the disturbance of the general public, upon a premises owned by the person or in the person’s possession. For purposes of this Section, “to the disturbance of the general public” includes the disturbance of persons beyond the subject premises and/or to the disturbance of person upon public places, including peace officers.’

   So what I get from this is, the guy had a SWAT team over at his house, and they were loud, raucous, disagreeable, and threatened injury or damage, which disturbed the SWAT team (who I GUESS count as ‘peace officers’, though that feels Orwellian). He COULD have taken legal steps to prevent it – that is, he could have confessed to having drugs or something in his house – but he didn’t, so he’s guilty.

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   Eamon Knight

   August 24, 2011 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   “Disorderly house”? OK, we’re screwed. Our approach to housekeeping is that things should be sanitary, but clutter just means you have a number of projects on the go. And seriously — the dishwasher and drainer rack are an integral part of the dish storage system, right? Why put stuff back in the cupboard if it’s going to be taken out again within a few hours?

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    Eamon Knight

    August 24, 2011 at 11:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    @Stevarious: OK that makes more sense. There could be neighbours’ noise complaints in the history here. Or not.

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    llDayo

    August 24, 2011 at 11:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    @Stevarious

    I’m guessing the SWAT team barged in and started tearing things up. Jose said “WTF are guys doing?” and got charged with a disorderly house.

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    Bronze Dog

    August 24, 2011 at 11:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    From what I’ve gathered of other incidences like this:

    Empty pizza boxes, for example, are considered “drug paraphenalia” (sp) and thus could be considered evidence of drug use because people get the munchies when they’re on marijuana, and pizza is a preferred item to satisfy those munchies. As we all know, no one ever gets hungry for any other reason.

    The same goes for things like techno and house music, because a lot of ecstasy users like to listen to techno and house when they’re high. Therefore, any rave party with techno music must be a den of drug users.

    That’s apparently the common rationale.

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    D. C. Sessions

    August 24, 2011 at 12:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    Note that “evidence of drug use” is something that is alleged when there are no “drug paraphernalia” to be presented as evidence. No bongs or water pipes of any kind, no rolling papers, no syringes, etc. Maybe they found a cigarette lighter, an ashtray, or something similar. Maybe they found a bag of milk sugar in the kitchen. Or maybe there was a working toilet for disposing of dope in case of a bust.

    There may have even been evidence of dealing: a box of sandwich bags in the kitchen.

    A hardened perp like that is fortunate to have gotten away with his life. Kathryn Johnston wasn’t so lucky.

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    KevinS

    August 24, 2011 at 1:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    My Google-fu is stronger than yours:

    62.33 – DISORDERLY HOUSES, WRONGFUL DRINKING ESTABLISHMENTS, INMATES AND KEEPERS; DEFINED; PROHIBITED; PENALTY GENERALLY.

    (a) Any building, room or other structure within the corporate limits of the City of Cedar Rapids, where illegal gaming or illegal gambling of any kind is allowed or carried on, all houses or places of ill fame, or where persons resort for the purpose of prostitution, assignation, or lewdness, or resorted to for the use of controlled substance as defined in the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, Chapter 204, of the Iowa Code as it now exists or is hereafter amended, or where prescription drugs are illegally kept, illegally sold or illegally given away, are hereby declared disorderly houses and prohibited, and shall be suppressed, and the keepers and inmates thereof punished as hereinafter provided.

    (b) Any building, room or other structure within the city where intoxicating liquor or beer is illegally kept, illegally sold or illegally given away are hereby declared to be wrongful drinking establishments and prohibited, and shall be suppressed and the keepers and inmates thereof punished as hereinafter provided in subsection (d).

    (c) Each person found in any building, room, or other structure as defined in subsections (a) or (b), whether male or female, or persons resorting thereto, shall be considered an inmate thereof within the meaning of subsection (d), and their presence in any such building, room or place at any hour of the day or night, shall be prima facie evidence that they are inmates.

    (d) If any person shall be guilty of keeping or maintaining a building, room, or other structure as described in subsection (a) or (b), or shall be an inmate thereof, or in any way connected with, or in any way contribute to the support of, or knowingly own or be interested as proprietor or landlord in such building, room, or other structure shall be deemed guilty of an offense and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in Section 1.06 of the Municipal Code, City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

    (e) It shall not be necessary to prove payment in order to prove a sale within the meaning and intent of this ordinance.

    I assume the “evidence of drug use” is enough to declare that the house was “resorted to for the use of controlled substances” even if they didn’t find any controlled substances. Which could be extremely scary depending on the definition of “evidence of drug use”. Seems entirely likely that a perfectly legal hookah could get you charged in this kind of case.

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    Hamstur

    August 24, 2011 at 2:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    So the Amityville police could have charged the Lutz’s house with possession?

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    SocraticGadfly

    August 24, 2011 at 2:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    I don’t have an ACLU card. Haven’t since I found out about Ex Dir Anthony Romero teaching the Ford Foundation (his prev. employer) how to *comply* with the Patriot Act. Some ACLU board members then complained, so Romero and then-prez Nadine Strossen organized a purge.

    No, seriously. http://wendykaminer.com/aclu.html

    I tell Greenwald the same as I’ll tell you, Ed. Promote the Center for Constitutional Rights more.

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    WMDKitty

    August 24, 2011 at 11:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    @hamstur — *groan*

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    bryonyvaughn

    August 25, 2011 at 8:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

    In Lansing if they don’t find drugs they call code compliance to get the house red tagged. If the house is in good repair they’d break a few things first. It’s horrible for families with children as a red tag and officer’s recommendation means CPS takes their kids into custody immediately without a judge’s involvement.