Over the weekend, the Iowa City
Police Department issued former Iowa football player Micah Hyde a ticket for “disorderly
conduct.” This “disorderly conduct” incident was initiated when a neighbor
called the Iowa City police around 2:45 A.M. complaining of a loud music at
Hyde’s house. Unfortunately, this is not
Hyde’s first run-in with the law.
Back in October he was arrested for public intoxication and interference
with official acts. He pled guilty to
the interference charge and paid a fine of nearly $400, but he is planning on fighting both the public intoxication
charge and the disorderly conduct charge in court. Since we have already discussed public
intoxication in a previous post, let’s take a look at the
disorderly conduct charge.
“Makes
loud and raucous noise in the vicinity of any residence or public building
which causes unreasonable distress to the occupants thereof.”
In Hyde’s case, it
could be argued that his alleged behavior fits this definition. His loud music was arguably “loud noise,” and
it was being played arguably “in the vicinity of any residence" (i.e. his neighbor's house). However, it may be of significance that Hyde was playing the music from within the privacy of his own home--it wasn’t like he was standing
with a boom box in his neighbor’s front yard a la John Cusack in Say Anything. Furthermore, the element in which Hyde seems to have the strongest argument is the “causes unreasonable distress” element. Without knowing the specific facts of his
case, it’s hard to say for sure; but it would seem difficult to prove that the
neighbor suffered unreasonable distress based on Hyde playing his music too
loud on one occasion.
It looks like we
will have to wait until January to see how Hyde’s disorderly
conduct charge plays out. In the
meantime, for more information on this charge or others, please visit us at the
Stowers
Law Firm.
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