Summary: Australian lawyer Leon Monastirski was banned from entering 225 venues in the Sydney area for one year after being arrested for a drunken disorderly incident.
After being kicked out of a Thai restaurant in Sydney, police are trying to keep the attorney from entering over 200 other bars and clubs for a year. Lawyer Leon Monastirski, 49, was arrested at the restaurant for his drunken behavior.
Monastirski was then charged and found guilty of assaulting police, using offensive language, resisting arrest and ignoring a move-on direction after an incident outside the Darlinghurst Pad Thai restaurant in February 2016.
Police wanted more than just a $700 punishment from Monastirski. A magistrate originally slapped him with the fines and an 18-month good behavior bond. They were able to get his punishment increased to include a 12-month ban from all ‘high-risk’ venues. This meant he was not able to enter 225 venues that sell alcohol after midnight in the areas of Kings Cross, The Rocks, CBD, Surry Hills or Woolloomooloo.
Monastirski fought the ban in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, getting it down to only three months long. The police are apparently appealing that reduction.
Monastirski is also appealing the severity of the sentence for using offensive language and ignoring a move-on direction by police. He is appealing the convictions of resisting arrest and assaulting police. His barrister Bruce Levet explained that his client was “hopelessly drunk” when he showed up at the restaurant. Monastirski annoyed the customers there until one customer couldn’t take it anymore and called the police. Levit said, “If I can use the vernacular, Your Honour, my client was as p***ed as a parrot.” He had been stumbling between tables, annoying customers by putting headphones on them as they tried to enjoy their meals. He had already been denied entry at the nearby Midnight Shift.
Two officers in plain clothes showed up around 10:40 pm. When they found him swaying, slurring and smelling strongly of alcohol, he confronted them. The officers claim that Monastirski said, “get the f*** out of my face,” “just f*** off,” “I’m not going anywhere” and “you’re not real cops, you can go f*** yourselves.”
He was charged with assault when he dug his fingernails into the hand of one officer and went to jab his elbow in the face of the other, but missed. The resisting arrest charge was for dropping to the ground when he was being handled by the police. Levit contends that his client did not intentionally do this, “He was just too drunk to even know what was happening.”
Monastirski even used his position as a lawyer to threaten the police, telling them when he was placed in handcuffs, “You’re not real cops. I’m going to have you discharged from your duties as police. I’m a lawyer.” Instead, the police are going after him by asking for the 12-month ban from certain venues.
Do you think only someone with an alcohol problem would challenge such a ban? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
To learn more about lawyers getting in trouble because of their drinking problems, read these articles:
- Drunk Judge Sucker Punched Legal Aid Attorney
- Personal Injury Lawyer Suspended for Stabbing Man in Bar
- Hollywood City Attorney Caught Driving While Drunk
Photo: en.mogaznews.com