Beer lands tourist in jail
Man locked up for drinking in public; police say they get constant complaints
By Andy Paras
The Post and Courier
Friday, June 25, 2010
Ted Zellman thought a horse knocking over his wife on Wednesday would be the most excitement the couple would see on their two-day trip to Charleston. That was before he spent nine hours in jail for walking along Rutledge Avenue with an open bottle of beer.
Ted Zellman spent 9 hours in jail after police arrested him for violating the city's open container law.
The 50-year-old retired commodities trader from Coral Gables, Fla. said it didn't occur to him that sipping from an open bottle of Red Stripe in a brown paper bag would be illegal. He said he politely explained that to officers as they cuffed him and put him in the back of a police car on a charge of having an open container.
He pleaded with officers to give him a warning or even a ticket. They took him to jail.
"Slapping handcuffs on me and taking me off to jail is not a little bit excessive. It's a lot excessive," Zellman said Thursday. "I've been fingerprinted and photographed like a criminal."
Initial response to the situation among city officials was mixed Thursday. Charleston police officials defended the decision, saying it's the officer's discretion whether to give a warning or a ticket or to take the offender into custody. In this case, the arresting officer is the community officer for the neighborhood and was responding to residents' complaints that drinking in public is constant, Lt. Kevin Boyd said.
Boyd said officers shouldn't be in the business of putting people into categories.
"I apologize if this individual is from out of town," Boyd said. "At the same time, I don't want the message to get out that we only lock up locals."
James Lewis, who represents that area on City Council, said he understands officers have discretion but in this case the response seemed a bit harsh.
"To treat an out-of-towner like that seems a little excessive," he said.
Zellman and his wife of 17 years, Sandra Gordon, said they have traveled the world together, including several U.S. cities where open drinking is legal, or at least gently enforced. They said they have never been treated like they were in Charleston.
"It's sort of like living in a police state," he said.
Zellman was confronted by police at the corner of Spring Street and Rutledge Avenue about 7:40 p.m., shortly after the couple said they had a traumatic experience while waiting for a horse carriage ride. Zellman and Gordon said a horse had broken loose from its harness and knocked her to the ground, causing her to hit her head and bloody her knee.
The couple were still shook up when they arrived at Hominy Grill for dinner. As they were waiting for a table to open, Zellman told his wife he was going to check out the neighborhood and that he would be right back. He stopped at a neighborhood store, bought a bottle of Red Stripe to help him relax and figured he could drink it down real quick while walking back to the restaurant a block away.
"I was in a happy mood," he said. "I was in Charleston about to have dinner with my wife. I still can't believe it happened."
What happened next is in dispute.
Zellman said he took one sip of beer and suddenly a patrol car sped right up to him, causing him to utter a curse word.
"I took one sip and the officer came in a diagonal like he had been following me for days, like he had caught me doing a drug deal," Zellman said.
The incident report said Zellman took multiple drinks from the bottle and let out the curse word when the officer approached him and pulled the bottle from the bag.
Zellman said the first patrol car was quickly followed by another and then two more. He said he was calm and polite when addressing the officers, which is not disputed in the report.
Zellman said the officers were heavy-handed and unreasonable, refusing to answer questions and telling him to shut up when he tried to yell to his wife who was still at the restaurant a block away, unaware her husband was about to go to jail.
"When I politely explained I'm a visitor, that's when they cuffed me," he said.
The next thing he knew, he was on a highway being driven to the Charleston County Detention Center. He was released at 4:45 a.m. after posting his own $226 bond.
Gordon said she began to panic when her husband didn't return to the restaurant. It wasn't like him to disappear and she had ordered a drink but didn't have any money to pay for it, nor did she have the key to the bed and breakfast. She was frantically looking for her husband when, about 45 minutes later, a police officer arrived and told her Zellman had been arrested for drinking a beer.
Gordon put her hands on her head and cried. She told the officer, "Don't you have anything better to do than to pick up a 50-year-old retired taxpayer for drinking a beer?"
Boyd said an officer drove Gordon back to the bed and breakfast and that the arresting officer brought her the keys.
He said officers aren't targeting tourists but at the same time they shouldn't treat people differently based on where they're from.
"There's probably things in Coral Gables that you can't do," Boyd said. "That doesn't mean that since I'm from Charleston I can go there and do those things and not get in trouble."
To prove his point, Boyd called police in Coral Gables, Fla., where Zellman lives, and confirmed that drinking in public is illegal there.
Boyd said from every indication, Zellman knew what he was doing was illegal.
He noted that the report said Zellman told the officer at the jail, "Yeah, I know I was wrong. I admit it."
Zellman said if he did say that, it was taken out of context. He's not contesting he broke the law, he said he's upset with how it was handled.
"They could have just told me and given me a fine," he said. "That would have been sufficient for me not to do it again."
