Can a Person Suspected of Being Intoxicated Be Arrested at a Public Place Where He Has Been Involuntarily Brought by Police ?

In Commonwealth v. Meyer, 288 Pa. Super. 61, 431 A.2d 287 (Pa. Super. 1981), the appellant was charged with public drunkenness after engaging in a verbal altercation with the barmaid in a V.F.W. Post. He was removed from the club, and taken outside where he was arrested. The Court found that the Post was a private club to which the public did not have access, the Commonwealth did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant was intoxicated, and most critically, even if the area of the Appellant's arrest could be considered "public," he was not there voluntarily, a precondition to arrest, having been forcibly removed from the club by police.