Jenelle Evans Arrested After Argument With Boyfriend

By Aditi Mukherji, JD on December 16, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

"Teen Mom 2" star Jenelle Evans was arrested and released Saturday after getting into a heated argument with boyfriend Nathan Griffith.

Neighbors called the police and soon after, Evans was brought out of her home in handcuffs and taken into custody in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

But why exactly did she get arrested for, and why was she released just an hour later?

Breach of Peace

Evans was busted for "breach of peace." Breach of the peace, also known as disturbing the peace, is a minor criminal offense that occurs when a person allegedly engages in some form of disorderly conduct that compromises the safety, health, morals, or overall peace and quiet of the public.

Like Evans' alleged argument, disorderly conduct includes behavior such as fighting in public or causing excessively loud noise.

In most states, the person's conduct must be willful and malicious. Despite the couple's sordid domestic disturbance history, Evans claims the two weren't fighting but are generally loud, reports E! News. Conduct that merely annoyed or harassed Evans' neighbor would not count as a breach of peace.

Evans believes the neighbor called the cops in order to sell a story to the tabloids. According to her tweet, her neighbor has a history of "constantly calling the cops on our dog and s---." (In the neighbor's defense: Excessive barking can be a breach of peace!)

Booking Process

After arrest, Evans was taken into police custody and "booked," or "processed."

During booking, a police officer likely collected Evans' personal information, recorded information about her alleged breach of peace, performed a criminal background search on her, took her fingerprints and mug shot, performed a pat-down search, confiscated any property on her (such as keys and purse), and kept her in a holding cell.

Evans was taken into custody and released on bail within the span of an hour. People arrested for minor offenses like a breach of peace are often released after signing a written citation agreeing to appear in court at a later date. But Evans had to post bail money to be released. This may be due to Evans' lengthy criminal record. This, after all, is her tenth arrest in three years, reports E!.

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