Houston Judge's Daughter Sues Driver She Hit
Elizabeth Marie Shelton, daughter of 313th Juvenile District Court Judge Pat Shelton, was convicted on October 9, 2007, of the Intoxication Manslaughter of Matthew McNiece. She was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but that sentence was suspended and she was placed on probation for 8 years, largely on the basis of pleas for leniency from Mr. McNiece’s family. One of the conditions of her probation was to serve 4 months in the Harris County Jail.
At her trial, the evidence showed the following: Shelton and McNiece were on US-59 in Houston at around 2 AM, when they collided with a box truck driven by Lance Bennett. Matthew McNiece, her 19-year-old boyfriend and passenger, was killed instantly. At the hospital, two blood tests were taken from Ms Shelton, showing her blood alcohol content (BAC) to be 0.26% and 0.28%, both of which are well more than 3 times the legal limit for DWI in Texas. None of that was in dispute.
What was in dispute at trial was whether Ms Shelton or the driver of the truck had caused the accident. The defense put on an expert accident reconstructionist who testified that Mr. Bennett had come several feet into Ms Shelton’s lane, and the fact that she was DWI was not a cause of the accident. The Houston Police Department's reconstructionist testified that it was Ms. Shelton who had left her lane. At the end of the day, the jury found that her drunk driving was, at least in part, the cause of the fatal accident, and so they convicted her of intoxication manslaughter.
There's a 2-year statute for Texas negligence cases, so because the accident occurred in October 2006, any lawsuits arising out of the car accident would have to have been filed by October 2008. That’s exactly what happened, but it’s not what you probably think. Rather than the one being sued, Ms Shelton, along with Mr. McNiece’s estate, have filed suit against Mr. Bennett, his insurance company, his employer, and a host of other potentially liable parties. Once again, Ms. Shelton claims that Mr. Bennett was negligent in allowing his truck to leave his lane and that he was in fact responsible for the accident. She is suing for $20,000 in damage to her SUV and unspecified personal damages. Mr. McNiece’s estate is suing for unspecified wrongful death damages.
At first glance, it sounds like a summary judgment waiting to happen, since a jury has already found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Ms. Shelton caused the accident. But bear in mind that in order to convict her, the jury didn’t necessarily find that she was the sole cause, only that her intoxication was a cause. Thus, in a comparative negligence system, another jury could find that Mr. Bennett was also at fault, and enter a verdict in Ms Shelton’s favor.
The real question is why Mr. McNiece’s family decided to let her join the suit as a plaintiff, and how long it will take for them to add Ms Shelton to the list of defendants.
Jordan Lewis is a Houston DWI Defense Attorney