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High School Football Coach's Career Saved by "Not Guilty" Verdict in Houston DWI Case
Jordan Lewis saved a high school football coach’s career this summer when he obtained a Not Guilty verdict after the coach was charged with DWI. A football coach at a local high school was arrested at the end of a long day of coaching, scouting, and spending the evening watching a former student play against a local college. As the coach was leaving the college game, and while he was trying to call his wife to tell her that he was on his way home, he had a minor one-car accident. Within moments, police had arrived on the scene, and before it was over, there were more than a half-dozen officers milling about. After he admitted that he had a couple of beers during the game, a DWI Task Force officer with HPD was called to the scene where the coach performed field sobriety tests. His performance was not perfect, and he was arrested and charged with DWI. While the case was pending, he was informed that his job (and career) may be on the line if convicted. At trial, Jordan presented evidence that the coach’s 30-plus years of participating in football, both as player and coach, had taken its toll on his body, and that his various injuries meant that he was destined to fail the field tests that he took. The evidence also showed that, despite the officers’ testimony, his speech, gait, and general demeanor were completely normal, if a little bit nervous. After a relatively short deliberation, the jury determined that he was Not Guilty of Driving While Intoxicated. After such a stressful experience, it took a few moments for the verdict to register with the coach. With tears in his eyes, he asked Jordan, “Wait. That means we won, right?”
After stopping a Houston DWI suspect for a traffic infraction, police began a DWI investigation. The investigation included field sobriety tests and ultimately led to the arrest of the suspect for DWI - Driving While Intoxicated. After arresting the suspect for DWI, the officer reads the required statutory warning to the DWI suspect. The suspect then asks the officer if he is required to take the test. The officer responds that it is the law to take the test, leaving the Houston DWI suspect with the erroneous perception that he is required to take the breath test. When we brought this issue to the prosecutor's attention, fortunately, the district attorney handling the case agreed that the interchange was coercive and dismissed the Houston DWI case. If you need to speak to a Houston DWI Lawyer, call the Houston DWI attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P. C. at 713-222-0400.
A common question that we receive regularly is, "Can I get deferred probation on my DWI case?" The easy and simple answer is, NO. The more difficult question to answer is why and does it make any sense? Would it surprise you to know that DWI is the only crime in Texas that you are not eligible for deferred probation as a first offender? That's right. You can get deferred probation for murder, rape of a child, or any other offense in Texas, but not DWI. I guess the Texas Legislature thinks a DWI is worse than any other crime? Or maybe MADD has the most powerful lobbying group in Texas? I'm guessing its the latter - MADD has an incredible amount of power with Texas DWI legislation. If you or someone you know needs a Houston DWI lawyer, call the Houston DWI attorneys at Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C. at 713-222-0400.
As is the case with many holiday weekends in Houston, the July 4th weekend will once again be dubbed a "No Refusal" weekend. What this means is that the police officers in and around Houston will try and forcibly draw blood from anyone arrested for DWI that does not volunteer for a breath test. After arresting an individual for DWI, the police are required to read a form to the DWI suspect before requesting a breath or blood sample. If the DWI suspect refuses to give a voluntary sample of breath or blood, the officer will ask a Judge to sign a warrant that will allow the police literally strap the DWI suspect down and forcibly take his/her blood. As I have maintained, this practice of forcibly strapping citizens down and drawing their blood should be considered an unreasonable search and seizure under the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
It seems we are coming closer every day to a police state when it comes to DWI enforcement. Houston Police officers have been training to become phlebotomists so they can take our citizens blood at the time of a DWI arrest. As I have stated before, police should not be drawing citizens blood in DWI cases for any reason. The Houston Police Department began training its some of its DWI task force members to draw blood in DWI arrests. Now it has been uncovered that they have used psychiatric patients at TDCJ for their selfish purposes. Surely, someone over at HPD thought this type of DWI training was a bit suspect. Do we really want DWI cops taking citizens blood in DWI cases? Let's stop the MADDness in DWI enforcement.
Police officers pulled client over for speeding. After stopping client, the officers smelled alcohol on the man's breath and began a DWI investigation. Though there was a camera in the police vehicle, the field sobriety tests were not done in the view of the camera. The cops claim he did not perform well on those field exercises. The police then arrested him for DWI and transported him to the police station for more testing. Now there was a video camera recording the sobriety exercises - he looked pretty good on them. Officers then asked him if he would take a breath test and he responded with, "What happens if I pass the breath test." The arresting officer proceeds to tell client that if he takes and passes the breath test, he would allow client to go home. Client ultimately decided to give a breath test and registered a .12 on that breath test. The Texas courts have held this type of verbal exchange to be coercive if the suspect relies on these statements. After providing the prosecutors with the legal research on this issue, the prosecutor dismissed the DWI case. Call the Houston DWI lawyers at Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C. if you or someone you know has been arrested for a Houston DWI. Our Houston DWI attorneys are here to help you.
Houston Police pulled client over for changing lanes without signaling. After smelling alcohol on her breath, the police asked her to perform field sobriety tests - she complied. The cops claimed that she failed the field sobriety tests and arrested her for DWI. The Houston police gave her a free ride to the jail and asked her to give a breath test. She decided to exercise her right to refuse that breath test and they proceeded to book her into the Harris County Jail. After she was released, client hired our firm to represent her on the DWI and ALR cases. We obtained a copy of the video tape from the night client was arrested. After showing the video to the prosecutor, the assitant district attorney determined that there was insufficient evidence to go forward on the DWI case and dismissed the charge.
Police officers stopped Houston DWI client for traffic infraction and susbsequently arrested him for DWI. According to the report, the suspect failed the field sobriety tests and was then arrested. The officer transported client to the police station and gave him a breath test that registered a .17.
On the day of trial, prosecutors discovered what we had known all along - the cop that gave the breath test was not certified to give the breath test at the time he gave the test. They wisely dismissed the Houston DWI.
After his Harris County DWI case had been pending in the criminal courts for over 5 months, a Houston man finally received the dismissal he knew that he deserved.
Houston police pulled our client over for speeding on Washington Avenue on a weekend night. The police officer that stopped him then called for an on-duty DWI task force officer to come to the scene and follow up on the investigation. The DWI task force officer arrived and took over the DWI investigation. In his DIC-23 (a sworn report), the officer claimed that he gave client 3 field sobriety tests. In actuality, the officer only gave our client 1 field test, the Horizontal Gaze Nystgmus test.
After we inquired about the scene video in the case, the officer told the prosecutor that there was no scene video and that his video equipment must have been malfunctioning. Well, we investigated that claim and found that his video equipment has not had any malfunctions since our client was arrested. Looks like the cop got caught in a bit of a lie. Needless to say, the prosecutor was none too happy about the officer lying to him and decided to dismiss the case.
I personally think the lies in the sworn document should be investigated and potentially prosecuted by the district attorneys office. The government said they would look into it.
If you or someone you knows needs a Houston DWI Lawyer, call our Houston DWI Attorneys at 713-222-0400.
A Houston police officer stopped client for "weaving" and later arrested client for DWI. During the motion to suppress, the officer truthfully acknowledged that there was no other traffic on the road (hard not to acknowledge because the video evidence showed this) and that client did not weave "unsafely" on th night of his DWI arrest.
At the conclusion of the hearing, we submitted the relevant cases to the Judge who rightfully granted the motion to suppress the stop. The government was forced to dismiss the DWI case.
If you orsomeone you know needs a Houston DWI lawyer, call the Houston DWI attorneys at Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C. at 713-222-0400.