John Matthews
ROANOKE — (WMAL) If someone becomes addicted to alcohol, should that person lose some of his or her civil rights?
A legal rights group has filed a class action suit in Virginia on behalf of more than 1,200 people who have been deemed “habitual drunkards” by courts over the past nine years. The plaintiffs have been arrested and jailed thousands of times for possessing alcohol, smelling of booze or even being found near empty alcohol contaners, according to the suit.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who are mostly homeless, claim the label “habitual drunkard” carries the presumption of guilt with it, and subjects those who are labeled as such to more severe punishment than public intoxication charges. Those typically result in a fine and no jail time.
The plaintiffs also claim they are denied due process because they have neither the right to an attorney nor the right to be present when a court deems them to be habitual drunkards.
“This is a civil rights violation, plain and simple,” Mary Frances Charlton, an attorney with the Charlottesvill-based Legal Aid Justice Center, said in a news release.
The laws “create a crime where none exists, and place criminal sanctions on individuals who are guilty of nothing more than being homeless and addicted to alcohol — ultimately placing even more obstacles between them and the help that they severely need,” Charlton said.
Donald Caldwell, a Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney representing himself and his cohorts across the state, says the law is meant to keep drunken people off the street, and he concedes it’s possible a better system can be developed, but he insists the law does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, because those arrested under the law are typically picked up several times a year.
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