Ah, yes ... officer makes contact with large group of people consuming alcohol.
Nobody is consuming alcohol outside, including me, it is the end of a student dorm party where people are leaving, standing around, and i am sitting down quietly and waiting,
He approaches you, he sees you spill liquid onto the ground. The odor of an alcoholic beverage emanates from the ground, from you, and from the empty cup.
I spill the last half inch of warm flat coke in my cup I was just holding on to cause i couldn't find a trash can, while waiting for the friends to leave. (Cause i realize how it
looks at that point, i wanted to throw the cup away)
There is no odor coming from ground or the cup, cause it is not alcoholic beverage and he didn't wanted to smell the cup or the ground , he stands 3-4 feet from me while i am sitting down. I might smell alcohol (cause I drank that night ,NOT in public, but no one made any comments on any smell coming from me or cup or from the ground(!). He said "I have enough experience to believe when you spill something on the ground when you see an RSO officer, it must be alcohol"
He now has probable cause to believe you have violated the municipal code and can cite you for it. As such, you are required to identify yourself and even to provide satisfactory ID. Failure to do so can result in a custodial arrest until such time as you are properly identified ... and the officer can search you incident to arrest to find that ID.
I understand this part. I didn't resist detention or anything like that. I repeteadly asked i was free to go, if not to tell me the crime and/or suspicion. No one said anything solid like "you smell, your cup smells, we saw you drink etc"
So, you are free to go into court and argue that it was soda, tea, or even Calistoga water on the ground. The officer will testify to what he observed and smelled. The court will render a decision.
He observed from 20 feet that i spilled a small amount of liquid from a paper cup on the ground , he didn't smell the cup or the floor, or made any comments on how i smell
Oh, yeah, I have experience with this scenario in San Diego County courts ... wanna hear how these tend to turn out?
I really do.
Thanks