New Boston, TX
The Sneeze Defense: “The lawyer told The Associated Press that he lost control of his car during a sneezing fit brought on by allergies and black pepper sprinkled on catfish he had just eaten.”
The lawyer, exhausted from working around the clock to prepare for the trial, demanded a breath alcohol test, which the cop refused to administer.
I’m very interested to see how this case turns out…
A state district judge declared a mistrial in a murder case and ordered a defense attorney to reimburse Bowie County for jury costs after the attorney was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated on his way to court.Bryan Simmons of nearby Atlanta was taken into custody Tuesday after a car wreck near New Boston.
On Friday, he told The Associated Press that he lost control of his car during a sneezing fit brought on by allergies and black pepper sprinkled on catfish he had just eaten. His car left the road and landed in a ditch with a flat tire.
Simmons says he was “not under the influence of alcohol or any illegal drugs.” He said he was just really tired from having kept late hours preparing for the murder trial.
“I might have been too tired to be driving, but hindsight is 20-20,” Simmons said.
He demanded a Breathalyzer test but the officer didn’t administer it, he said. The results of a blood test he submitted to won’t be known for several weeks.
District Judge John Miller declared a mistrial halfway through jury selection Tuesday.
At a Thursday hearing, Miller ordered Simmons to pay the county $318 for the 53 $6 checks it had to give potential jury members, the Texarkana Gazette reported.
“I agree with that,” Simmons says of the payment. “But again. I’m entitled to the same presumption of innocence as everyone is.”
His client, Thomas “Hunter” Davis, is accused of fatally shooting Sammy Glass on Sept. 9, 2007, in a park in the Liberty-Eylau community.
Simmons says he was not the lead attorney on that case. He was scheduled to handle a suppression hearing later that day and that his co-counsel was prepared to oversee jury selection.
But Miller told Simmons on Thursday that he was considered lead counsel because he was slated to conduct direct and cross-examinations of witnesses on Davis’ behalf.
“I’d like to apologize to the court, to my partner, to my client and to the Glass family,” Simmons said. “If any wrongdoing on my part caused this, I do apologize.”
The trial is now slated to get under way Aug. 10.