Sharjeel Hussain
Houston Area DWI Defense Team Wins Not Guilty Verdict in Brazoria County Jury Trial
A jury needed only thirteen minutes to acquit after the defense dismantled the traffic stop and kept a key sobriety test out of evidence.
HOUSTON, TX. A Brazoria County jury returned a Not Guilty verdict in a Driving While Intoxicated case defended by David Smith Law Firm, PLLC, clearing a client who had faced the fines, license suspension, and permanent record that come with a DWI conviction in Texas.
The arrest grew out of a traffic stop built on a list of alleged violations, including swerving, speeding, an improper stop past the white line, changing lanes without signaling, and turning left from the wrong lane. That list looked serious on the police report. It did not hold up in court.
The defense spent the trial working through each alleged violation one at a time. Under cross-examination, the arresting officer conceded that the swerving he had cited was not actually illegal. Several of the other violations either were not visible in the client's own dashcam footage or were not among the reasons the officer had written down at the time of the stop, meaning the report and the officer's testimony did not match. That gap became central to the defense.
The defense also kept the State from using its strongest piece of physical evidence. Prosecutors intended to rely on the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, a standard field sobriety tool used to argue impairment through involuntary eye movement, but had failed to give proper notice of the experts needed to support it. The defense moved to exclude the results on that basis, and the motion succeeded, stripping the State of one of its two central pieces of proof before closing arguments.
With the stop's credibility damaged and the HGN evidence gone, the jury deliberated for only thirteen minutes following a three day trial before returning a Not Guilty verdict. The outcome was later featured by the Associated Press.
“Jurors take their job seriously when the evidence does not add up,” said David Smith, a Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. “An officer's report is not proof by itself. Once we showed the jury what the stop actually looked like on video, next to what he wrote down, there was not much left to decide.”
David Smith Law Firm, PLLC is a Houston DWI lawyer practice defending clients throughout the Greater Houston area. David Smith is Board Certified, Criminal Law–Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
About David Smith Law Firm, PLLC
David Smith Law Firm, PLLC is a Houston DWI lawyer. Founding attorney David Smith has been licensed in Texas since 2005 and previously served as a prosecutor in Brazoria County. The firm's practice is limited to criminal defense.
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David Smith Law Firm, PLLC
1919 Decatur St, Houston, TX 77007
Telephone +1 713-769-5000
Disclaimer: Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This release is provided for general information purposes and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney client relationship.
