When a person becomes inebriated, that person can act irrationally and out of character. One woman was arrested for various criminal charges after reportedly becoming combative with Maryland police officers who were attempting to arrest her. She has accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in exchange for the other charges to be dropped.
The 23-year-old was apparently extremely inebriated when she exited a pub in Bel Air in March. It is unclear what led police officers to arrest her initially, but when they began trying to handcuff her, she became very combative. By the time the woman arrived at the Harford County Detention Center to be booked, she faced four counts of second-degree assault, failure to obey a police officer and trespassing. Those were in addition to her disorderly conduct and resisting arrest charges.
Once she was in the detention center, she earned two additional charges — fourth-degree sexual assault and second-degree assault — for allegedly groping a police officer. She accepted her plea deal on May 5, and eight of her charges were dropped. After three years, she can have the charged against her dropped. She was also sentenced to two weekends in jail and one year of supervised release.
The young woman aspired to join the Peace Corp, and this behavior seemed extremely out of character for her. It is likely that this fact as well as her clean arrest record led the prosecution to offer the plea agreement and drop so many criminal charges. In this Maryland woman’s case, she presumably chose to accept the plea because she thought it was in her best interest; however, a plea deal may not always be in the best interest of the accused, and that individual can always choose to fight his or her charges in court.
Source: The Baltimore Sun, “Woman in confrontation with police in Bel Air pleads guilty to disorderly conduct”, Krishana Davis, May 13, 2014
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