An Elizabethton man was charged after police responded to a city residence on a report of a male subject passed out in the yard.
Daniel Hyder, 25, 409 E. Cottage Ave., was arrested shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday by Elizabethton Police Department Officer Matthew Taylor and charged with public intoxication.
According to Taylor’s report, officers were dispatched to a home on East Cottage Avenue after a 911 caller reported a man lying passed out in the yard. Taylor said when he arrived at the home he saw a man at the door of the residence who appeared to be arguing with someone inside the home.
“I asked Hyder why he was talking through the door,” Taylor said. “He advised ‘the baby may be asleep.’”
Taylor said he detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Hyder’s person, adding the man spoke with slurred speech and was unsteady on his feet.
According to the report, Hyder told police he lived at the residence and hadn’t seen anyone lying in the yard.
Taylor said he then spoke with a female inside the residence, who said she was the ex-girlfriend of Hyder. The woman reported she found him lying in the backyard unresponsive and she suspected he had been drinking alcohol.
In his report, Taylor said the woman reported Hyder had previously assaulted her while consuming alcohol so she locked herself in the residence out of fear for her safety and the safety of her child.
Taylor reported he spoke with Hyder again and the man “was having trouble comprehending what I was telling him.” The officer said he admitted “laying in the yard near the steps” and said he had consumed “one drink.”
Due to his condition, Taylor said Hyder was placed under arrest and charged with public intoxication. “Hyder posed a potential risk to himself, (the woman), and the child, as well as the public at large,” Taylor said. “Hyder was in plain view of the public while being intoxicated. Hyder was in public view of several subjects/neighbors.”