By Deandra Grant & Griffin Grant

Welcome to The Defense File where we examine the criminal cases of public figures through the lens of Texas criminal law. Each entry looks at what happened in court, what the defense argued, and what a defendant would have faced (and how they might have been defended) if the same facts had occurred in Texas.

There is a Texas connection here from the start. Baker Mayfield was born in Austin. He went to Lake Travis High School. He started his college career at Texas Tech before transferring to Oklahoma. When the events of February 25, 2017 unfolded in Fayetteville, Arkansas, they involved a future NFL quarterback with deep Texas roots and the legal analysis is instructive precisely because the Texas treatment of these charges is meaningfully different from what he faced in Arkansas.

 

The Incident

At 2:29 a.m. on February 25, 2017, a Fayetteville police officer was flagged down to investigate a report of assault and battery near Dickson Street. Baker Mayfield, then a 21-year-old redshirt junior at Oklahoma, was on the scene. He told the officer he had been trying to break up an altercation.

The officer asked Mayfield to remain at the scene to give a statement. According to the police report, Mayfield began yelling profanities and causing a scene, appeared intoxicated based on slurred speech and difficulty walking, and had food on his clothing. When the officer instructed him to approach, Mayfield walked away. When the officer pursued, Mayfield sprinted.

Officers tackled Mayfield into a concrete wall. During the arrest, he resisted keeping his arms locked, requiring additional force to handcuff him. He was booked on four misdemeanor charges: public intoxication, disorderly conduct, fleeing, and resisting arrest. His bond was $1,535. He was released the same morning.

 

What Happened in Court

The case proceeded in Fayetteville District Court. Mayfield initially pleaded not guilty to all charges. On June 14, 2017, he entered a plea deal: guilty to public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and fleeing. The resisting arrest charge was dropped. He was fined $100 per charge plus court costs and restitution, totaling $943.20.

The University of Oklahoma added its own sanctions: 35 hours of community service including work with law enforcement, and completion of an alcohol education program before the fall semester. Coach Lincoln Riley confirmed Mayfield would not miss games. Mayfield apologized publicly, calling the incident the biggest mistake of his life. He won the Heisman Trophy that fall.

The dashcam footage released on March 10, 2017, showed the tackle and arrest sequence. It drew significant media attention but did not derail the case’s favorable resolution. The record was not expunged but the total penalty was modest by any measure.

 

The Texas Analysis

Public intoxication in Texas is a Class C misdemeanor which is a fine-only offense. On that single charge, Mayfield actually would have faced less in Texas than in Arkansas. But the fleeing charge is a different story. Evading arrest on foot in Texas is a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail. And if the officer who tackled Mayfield into the concrete wall suffered bodily injury, the evading charge could have been a state jail felony.

Public Intoxication: Texas Penal Code §49.02

Texas Penal Code §49.02 makes it a Class C misdemeanor to appear in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger themselves or another. A Class C misdemeanor in Texas is a fine-only offense (maximum $500, no jail time, no possibility of incarceration).

This is actually a lighter charge than what Arkansas imposed. Arkansas treated public intoxication as a misdemeanor with a fine, but the combined fine structure and court costs in Mayfield’s case exceeded what a Texas Class C would typically produce. In Texas, a first-offense public intoxication is routinely handled with a fine at or below $200. The charge itself carries no jail exposure whatsoever.

Texas public intoxication also has a specific field alternative: a person who appears publicly intoxicated may be taken into protective custody rather than arrested and charged. This is not a right the defendant can invoke, but officers have discretion to release an intoxicated person to a responsible adult or a treatment facility rather than booking them. Whether this option would have been exercised for a 21-year-old college football player who was cooperative before the sprint is a judgment call the officer on the scene would have made.

Disorderly Conduct: Texas Penal Code §42.01

Texas Penal Code §42.01(a)(1) makes it a Class C misdemeanor to use abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place in a manner calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. Yelling profanities at a police officer during an active investigation fits squarely within this provision.

Like public intoxication, disorderly conduct under §42.01(a)(1) is a Class C misdemeanor (fine only, no jail time). The combination of public intoxication and disorderly conduct in Texas produces two Class C misdemeanor citations, each with a maximum $500 fine, and no custodial sentence exposure on those charges alone. This roughly mirrors what Mayfield faced in Arkansas on the same two charges.

Evading Arrest on Foot: Texas Penal Code §38.04

This is where the Texas analysis diverges significantly from what happened in Arkansas. Texas Penal Code §38.04 makes it a criminal offense to intentionally flee from a person the actor knows is a peace officer attempting to lawfully arrest or detain them.

The charge level depends on the method of flight and what happens during it:

  • Evading on foot — Class A misdemeanor: Up to 1 year in county jail, fine up to $4,000. This is the base charge for fleeing on foot from a lawful detention or arrest.
  • Evading on foot causing bodily injury to an officer — State jail felony: 180 days to 2 years in state jail, fine up to $10,000.
  • Evading in a vehicle — Third degree felony: The vehicle escalation is separate; foot evading does not become a felony simply because a vehicle is nearby.

The bodily injury question is the critical variable in the Mayfield fact pattern. Officers tackled him into a concrete wall. He resisted, keeping his arms locked, requiring additional force to handcuff him. If either officer sustained bodily injury (defined in Texas as physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition) during the chase or the tackle, the evading charge could escalate from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony. A bruised hand from the concrete wall, a sore shoulder from the tackle, a scrape from the handcuffing effort — any of these would constitute bodily injury under the Texas definition.

Arkansas charged “fleeing” as a misdemeanor and Mayfield paid $100 for it. In Texas, the same conduct would be a Class A misdemeanor at minimum with a potential state jail felony elevation depending on whether an officer was physically injured. The difference between a $100 fine and a year in county jail (or 180 days in state jail) is the difference between an embarrassing footnote and a life-altering conviction.

Resisting Arrest: Texas Penal Code §38.03

The resisting arrest charge was dropped in Arkansas. Under Texas Penal Code §38.03, a person commits an offense if they intentionally prevent or obstruct a peace officer from effecting an arrest by using force against the officer. The key element is force. Passive resistance, such as going limp, generally does not satisfy it, but active resistance that requires physical force to overcome does.

Mayfield’s locked arms requiring additional force to handcuff is a fact pattern that Texas prosecutors have used to support resisting arrest charges. Whether the specific conduct rose to the level of “force” under §38.03 is a judgment call, but it is a closer question than simply walking away. Resisting arrest is a Class A misdemeanor in Texas, carrying up to one year in county jail and a fine up to $4,000.

In Texas, both the evading charge and the resisting arrest charge are Class A misdemeanors. If both are charged and both result in convictions, the sentences can run concurrently. More practically, two Class A misdemeanor convictions on a young man’s record create a permanent criminal history that a $943 fine in Arkansas does not.

The Permanent Record Question

Mayfield’s Arkansas charges were not expunged. In Texas, a Class C misdemeanor conviction (public intoxication, disorderly conduct) is eligible for expunction after a waiting period if no further offenses occur. The expunction process in Texas under Article 55.01 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows a person to have certain records destroyed and to deny the arrest ever occurred in most circumstances.

Class A misdemeanor convictions are not eligible for expunction in Texas unless the defendant was acquitted or the charge was dismissed. A conviction for evading arrest under §38.04 would follow Mayfield permanently. When the Browns selected him first overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, the background check they ran (and every subsequent employer, licensing authority, or security clearance process for the rest of his life) would show the conviction. A $100 fine in Arkansas is a trivial blip. A Class A misdemeanor conviction in Texas is a different kind of permanent mark.

How Would the Defense Approach This in Texas?

  • Contest the evading arrest charge. The lawfulness of the underlying detention is an element the prosecution must prove. An officer investigating an assault report asked Mayfield to remain for a statement. Whether that request constituted a lawful detention (as opposed to a voluntary encounter Mayfield was free to walk away from) is the threshold legal question. If the detention was not yet lawful, the fleeing charge fails.
  • Establish the detention standard. A Terry stop requires reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. At the moment the officer asked Mayfield to remain, the officer was investigating a third-party assault complaint and Mayfield had identified himself as someone trying to break it up. Whether there was reasonable suspicion to detain Mayfield specifically (as opposed to simply asking him to stay voluntarily) is a factual and legal question the defense would develop.
  • Officer injury: fight the state jail felony elevation. If the prosecution attempts to elevate the evading charge to a state jail felony based on officer injury, the defense examines whether any injury was actually sustained and whether it satisfies the Texas definition of bodily injury. Officers involved in a foot pursuit and tackle may report soreness or minor strain that technically qualifies. The defense challenges both the fact and the characterization of any claimed injury.
  • Article 38.23. In Texas, the lawfulness of the initial encounter, the arrest, and any search incident to it are all subject to challenge. The facts here (a late-night investigation, an officer approach, a flight and tackle) present questions about the constitutional basis for each step of the encounter.
  • Negotiate toward Class C resolutions. The defense strategy in a case with two Class A misdemeanor charges and two Class C misdemeanor charges is to work toward resolutions on the Class C level and avoid permanent Class A convictions on the record. Mayfield’s Arkansas resolution (guilty to three misdemeanors totaling $300 in fines) was essentially a Class C-equivalent outcome regardless of the technical charge classifications. A skilled Texas defense attorney would pursue a similar result: resolution of all charges at the fine-only level without convictions that carry the Class A permanent record consequences.

 

What This Case Illustrates

The Mayfield case looks like a minor incident resolved cheaply, and in Arkansas it was. Three $100 fines, community service, and a lesson learned before the Heisman. No jail time, no felony exposure, no lasting legal consequence.

The same facts in Texas produce a different framework. Public intoxication and disorderly conduct remain minor (Class C, fine only). But the sprint from the officer converts a $100 fine into a Class A misdemeanor with a year-in-county-jail exposure. If any officer was hurt in the tackle, it becomes a state jail felony. The resisting arrest charge that Arkansas dropped is its own Class A misdemeanor in Texas. Two Class A misdemeanor charges on a 21-year-old’s permanent record, in a state with no expunction for Class A convictions, is not a $200 fine and a lesson learned. It is a permanent fixture on every background check for the rest of his career.

The decision to run was the moment that made the legal situation significantly more serious than it needed to be. In Texas, it was the moment that converted a fine-only night into a Class A exposure. For anyone stopped by police in Texas and thinking about their options: the fleeing calculation never works out in favor of the person who runs.

 

  • Criminal Defense in Texas — From Class C misdemeanors to felony charges, how Texas criminal cases are prosecuted and defended.
  • Warrants in Texas — What happens after a misdemeanor arrest, bench warrants, and how to resolve an outstanding matter before it escalates.

 

Sources

  • ESPN — Baker Mayfield arrest details and timeline: espn.com
  • Fayetteville Police Department arrest report — February 25, 2017
  • The Oklahoman — Mayfield plea deal, June 2017
  • Texas Penal Code §49.02 — Public Intoxication: statutes.capitol.texas.gov
  • Texas Penal Code §42.01 — Disorderly Conduct: statutes.capitol.texas.gov
  • Texas Penal Code §38.04 — Evading Arrest or Detention: statutes.capitol.texas.gov
  • Texas Penal Code §38.03 — Resisting Arrest, Search, or Transportation: statutes.capitol.texas.gov
  • The Defense File is an educational series. All Texas analysis is hypothetical and does not constitute legal advice about any specific case.

 

If you are facing evading arrest, resisting arrest, public intoxication, or disorderly conduct charges in Texas, call (214) 225-7117 for a free, confidential consultation.