Law Life: Blue Valentine, or how to ruin a wedding night

By Pat Murphy The Daily Record Newswire I have great memories of the day I was married. It was a grand old time. The memories of my actual marriage, well, they're not so great. Let's hope the reverse is true for Tony and Dannel Weaver. The Weavers entered marital bliss on May 24, 2008, in a ceremony held in upstate New York. By 1:25 am on May 25, they were having their first no-holds-barred argument. Given the tension and impossibly high expectations surrounding weddings, a tiff is not so unusual. But grooms are supposed to suppress their inner idiot and try not to mar the bride's day too badly. For a groom to wind up in jail, that's a mortal sin. Tony Weaver committed the mortal sin. Tony's trip to jail began with a scene pitiful enough to break any romantic's heart. Tony and Dannel got into an argument in the parking lot of the hotel they were staying at in the Village of Newark. There was Dannel, still dressed as a bride, sitting on the curb crying her eyes out. There was Tony, still dressed as a groom, yelling and waving at Dannel. A passing police officer stopped to check if everything was okay. The officer claimed that, as she stepped out of her patrol car, Tony walked across the street and entered a mini-mart gas station. After Dannel declined an offer of assistance, the officer prepared to depart the scene. According to the officer, as she was driving away, Tony came out of the mini-mart and started up on Dannel again, shouting a string of obscenities. The officer pulled around and up to Tony, telling the groom to calm down and find someplace private for the newlyweds to continue their dispute. The officer claimed that Tony didn't take this advice too well, telling the officer to "shut the f- - - up" because she "wasn't his mother" and could not tell him what to do. Naturally, this didn't help matters. No, the officer couldn't spank Tony and take his Xbox away, but she could call for back up and arrest him for disorderly conduct when he refused to quiet down. What's more, the officer could direct a fellow officer to shoot Tony with a Taser when he resisted arrest. So Tony wound up in jail on his wedding night, charged with assault, resisting arrest and two counts of disorderly conduct. A jury acquitted Tony of assault, but found him guilty of the rest of the charges. For his sentence, Tony was given one year for resisting arrest and 15 days for each of the disorderly conduct convictions. Tony appealed the disorderly conduct convictions, arguing that his conduct did not create a public disturbance because there was no one else around in the hotel parking lot when the incident occurred. New York law provides that a person is guilty of disorderly conduct when he engages in violent, threatening or obscene behavior "with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm." Last week, the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, found that there was ample evidence to support Tony's convictions for disorderly conduct. First, the court held that "there is no per se requirement that members of the public must be involved or react to the incident." Secondly, the court said that, even in the absence of testimony from onlookers, there was evidence that there were people at the mini-mart. Moreover, it could be inferred that there were guests sleeping in the hotel. The court explained that "over a short time period, defendant's conduct escalated into a very vocal and aggressive confrontation. [The police officer] warned defendant on three separate occasions to cease his conduct and leave the area. Rather than heed these warnings, defendant became increasingly agitated and belligerent, repeatedly shouting obscenities at his wife and the officer. After the final warning, [the officer] determined that defendant was not going to cease creating a disturbance and effectuated his arrest with the help of [another officer]. ... "On these facts, we believe that the jury had sufficient evidence to 'weigh the whole incident' and logically conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant recklessly created a risk of public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm within the meaning of the statute." (New York v. Weaver) So Tony has his stint in prison to face in addition to spending the night of his wedding in jail and ruining his bride's day. Hopefully, these are trials that have made the Weavers' marriage stronger. I wouldn't bet on it, though. Published: Wed, Feb 16, 2011