Texas v. H.J.

Client was pulled over on St. Patrick’s day night, which also happened to be the last night of Rodeo. She was pulled over by a DWI Task Force Officer, patrolling Washington Street, after mid-night, in a “ghost car”, who was working overtime for federal DWI Step program, and who had also won the MADD award for the past 3 years for making the most DWI arrests in Houston. In other words, she never stood a chance. She was pulled over for swerving to avoid potholed and busted road on Center Street. The officer knew his audio wasn’t working, so we don’t know what really happened out there. We do know that the client and her friend (female) felt so harassed that they called 911 on the officer. Other officers arrived and yanked her out of the car, straight into handcuffs and then she walked perfectly in heels back to the patrol vehicle. Client was so upset that she then made a racial slur in the back of the patrol vehicle. She asked for an attorney at the station and they withdrew her blood while strapping her down, although she never needed to be strapped down. The blood result was a 0.185 at 5am, meaning it was a 0.24-0.26 at the time of driving. However, that was absolutely impossible seeing how good the client walked and sounded. Cross examination revealed that the nurse improperly drew the blood and Sam Houston State University who is now under HPD had problems with their pipettes and the method. The jury was 4-2 Not Guilty for 10+ hours. But the 2 people voting for Guilty just wouldn’t budge. We get the retry the case and hopefully the jury will understand the disconnect again. This is why we need an independent lab and not one owned and controlled by the police. The jury was fantastic and I have to thank the 4 jurors for truly understanding the law and the science and holding strong for Not Guilty.