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Va. Bar Patrons Arrested for Being Drunk
Jan. 10 -- Mike Heidig was dressed as Santa Claus and had just finished a rousing karaoke version of "Jingle Bell Rock" at a Reston, Va., bar when a police officer asked him to step outside.
Heidig, who was at the bar Champps with a group of his work colleagues, complied. After failing a breath test designed to test his sobriety, Heidig was loaded into a van and taken to jail on charges of public intoxication.
"I was in a public place drinking," Heidig said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "I was not driving, I didn't even have a car."
Heidig, who hired an attorney to contest the charges, said he left his car, wallet and keys two miles away at his office, and he had made arrangements to stay overnight at a friend's place in Reston.
Heidig insists that he was not acting obnoxious in the bar when he was pulled outside. While reciting the alphabet he stumbled on the letter "Q" and was given a breathalyzer test.
Heidig was just one of the restaurant and bar patrons were swept up last month in a joint operation of the Fairfax County police and the Virginia Department of Alcohol Beverage Control — an operation authorities say they may repeat. The agencies are trying to crack down on drunken driving by picking out drunks before anyone gets behind the wheel.
Nine People Arrested
Over the recent holidays, undercover cops went into bars in Reston and Herndon, Va., to see if bartenders were overserving customers. Police ended up raiding three bars and arresting nine patrons who failed sobriety tests. Patrons who failed were charged with public intoxication, a misdemeanor.
"If the law says that if you are in a public location and intoxicated, you are subject to arrest," said Lt. Tor Bennett of the Reston District of the Fairfax County Police Department.
He said that in practice, people who are a little intoxicated but minding their own business are probably not going to be bothered by police.
The person "must be drawing attention to themselves," said Bennett, who supervised the operation.
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