“EXCUSABLY DRUNK”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 880, 25 January 1930, Page 13

“EXCUSABLY DRUNK”

EFFECT OF LIQUOR ON SICK MAN “He was drunk, but excusably drunk,” commented Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., when Herbert Cooper was charged at the Police Court this morning. “He had a drink or two but, owing to his illness, was easily knocked out.” Cooper, a labourer aged 43, was fined £l. He was charged with being found drunk in Kingston Street and using indecent language. Mr. Mervyn Adams appeared for him and entered pleas of not guilty. He had some difficulty in rousing Cooper, according to Constable Morgan, who arrested the man last evening as he was sitting on a doorstep in Kingstou Street. The constable said accused had used the language when he was arrested. He was thick in his speech, smelled strongly of liquor and was unsteady on his feet. Constable O’Sullivan, who had been in the watch-house when accused was brought in, was very decided in his opinion that the man was drunk. Counsel blamed a severe illness for Cooper’s misfortune. He had been in hospital 10 weeks, coming out less than a month ago. He had been working in the country since, but came into town yesterday to appear at the Magistrate’s Court on a maintenance affair. After visiting some friends in the evening he had been overcome by a fainting turn and sat on the doorstep to recover. At the station he had asked for a doctor, but his request had been refused as he did not have enough money in his possession to pay for one. The man was still under a doctor’s care. He was a first offender. . , . Cooper supported his counsel s statement. “The effect of the complaint from which I suffer is to make me appear exactly as if I were badly intoxicated,” he said. The Magistrate: The constables say your breath smelled of liquor. Accused: Naturally they would back each other up. I would, my own cobbers. Cooper admitted using the language in his surprise at being arrested, but “the constable never gave me a dog s chance,” he said. Cooper was fined £1 ancl costs for using the language. On the count of drunkenness he was convicted and discharged.