Reese Witherspoon lied about being pregnant when she was arrested last month. The actress was charged with disorderly conduct after losing her temper when her husband Jim Toth was stopped by police for DUI.
In law enforcement, there are few situations that are clear cut, and disorderly conduct is one of the fuzziest. As Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. now knows all too well, the misdemeanor charge can be used to corral people who are simply uncooperative or rude.