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Kentucky Disorderly Conduct Laws

Created by FindLaw's team of legal writers and editors | Last reviewed June 20, 2016

This article has been written and reviewed for legal accuracy, clarity, and style by FindLaw’s team of legal writers and attorneys and in accordance with our editorial standards.

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Each state has its own laws that criminalize disturbing the peace. In Kentucky, these laws are called the disorderly conduct statutes, and they criminalize various forms of unruly conduct in public. The disorderly conduct laws are meant to discourage people from acting in a disruptive manner in public. The following tables highlight Kentucky's disorderly conduct laws.

Code Section

Kentucky Revised Statute section 525.055: First-Degree Disorderly Conduct

What's Prohibited?

First-degree disorderly conduct is committed in Kentucky when the following four element are all present:
  1. Engaging in any of the following acts in a public place with the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm:
  • Fighting, or acting in a violent, tumultuous, or threatening way
  • Making unreasonable noise, or
  • Creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition without any legitimate purpose
  1. While within 300 feet of a cemetery during a funeral, a funeral home during the viewing of a deceased person, a funeral possession, a memorial service, or a building in which a funeral or memorial service is being conducted
  2. At any point in time between one hour prior to the event until one hour after the event has concluded, and
  3. Knowing that he/she is within 300 feet of such an occasion

Penalties

 Class A misdemeanor.

Code Section

Kentucky Revised Statute section 525.060: Second-Degree Disorderly Conduct

What's Prohibited?

Intentionally causing public inconvenience, annoyance, alarm, or wantonly creating a risk thereof in public while:
  • Engaging in fighting, or violent, tumultuous, or threatening behavior,
  • Making unreasonable noise,
  • Refusing to obey an official order to disperse during a fire, hazard, or other emergency, or
  • Creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition without any legitimate purpose

Penalties

 Class B misdemeanor.

Public Intoxication

Kentucky also has the related crime of public intoxication. A person is guilty of public intoxication if he is under the influence of a controlled substance, or other intoxicating substance (excluding alcohol), that isn't therapeutically administered and is acting in a way that endangers himself, other people, property, or that unreasonably annoys people around him. Public intoxication in Kentucky is a Class B misdemeanor.

Misdemeanor Penalties in Kentucky

  • Class A misdemeanor: Punishable by imprisonment for up to 12 months and/or a fine of up to $500.
  • Class B misdemeanor: Punishable by imprisonment for up to 90 days and/or a fine of up to $250.

Additional Resources

Other related laws in Kentucky:

State laws change frequently. For case specific information regarding Kentucky's disorderly conduct laws contact a local criminal defense lawyer.

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