This summer I wrote about the case of Alma Martinez-Cooley. Ms. Martinez-Cooley was the driver of a truck that struck and killed Texas A&M student Lindsay Walters in a Northgate parking garage early in the morning of March 1st. Marintez-Cooley claimed she was the designated driver that night, and passed the roadside circus act/field sobriety tests the police administered. One working theory of the police was that the passenger riding in the middle seat of the truck, Michael Cooley, stuck his foot over and pressed the gas pedal. A warrant for a blood draw was signed, but the blood draw did not take place until some eight hours after the accident. Mr. Cooley was no-billed by the grand jury.
A while back, I went to legislative update CLE put on by the Texas District and County Attorneys Associate. Sometimes its good to hear things from a prosecutors point of view. I did enjoy the speakers talking about how they’ve changed the laws before too many of those sneaky defense attorneys were using the law to get their clients off. The horror! The comment that stuck with me was about how most of the new laws come about because of one horror story. I can’t help but wonder what sort of parking garage related crimes we’ll get in the next legislative session.
Like before, the citizens of Brazos County have no need for things like trials, due process, rights, etc. Because so many of them KNOW what happened and KNOW what the appropriate punishment is.
To James “No evidence of alcohol”: Did you read the report? Both Alma and Michael were leaving a BAR. Alma had alcohol on her breath and Michael had an “overwhelming” odor of alcohol on his with bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. The police botched this one by not getting Michael’s blood sample and even Alma’s at the scene..not many hours later. Makes you wonder what else they screwed up. The Cooley’s are both getting off easy in criminal court. Now they are taking it further by getting married to jump through some more loop holes. The criminals have more rights than the victims. Even if alcohol wasn’t involved, they reved the engine, peeled out and recklessly mowed down several innocent people including Lindsay. Are they still trying to blame the truck? Give me a break. This should have been reckless manslaughter at the very least. After they get their slap on the hand in criminal court, Lindsay’s lawyers need to seek real justice in the civil courts. God can handle the rest.
Give me a break! THese people were driving fast, irrisponsible and in bars all night drinking. You should have control of your truck in a parking garage. I know a girl that was there and she said they were driving fast and laughing….then Lindsey was in their way!!! I’m praying for the Walters family. Some reckless fun caused a sweet girl to lose her life. Quit making excuses and own up to what you did.
I would like for everyone to know that Lindsay’s family has never been contacted by Alma or anyone in her family to say they are sorry for what happened that morning. NOTHING, not even a sympathy card! Not to mention Alma got married 6 days after killing someone. They were celebrating while we were at Lindsay’s funeral. That is insane!!! What kind of a human being runs down a crowd of people in a truck and kills someone and never says they are sorry to the family? I think that has been very difficult for the Walters’ family to know their daughter was killed by such a thoughtless person.
Tragic, all the way around. We hope that justice can now be served for ALL involved in this horrible event. This hope includes JIM JAMES (‘The Cooley’s’ attorney) who needs to be run out of town, in my opinion. He more than likely was the attorney who gave the Cooley’s the legal advice to MARRY to avoid having to testify against each other!? SICK. Mr. James, on a side-note, was also the original attorney for Stephen ‘Bruce Unger’ (the former BISD teacher who FLED prosecution for RAPING CHILDREN in a school, at home, and in other locales). I’ve got $50 that says Mr. James gave him legal advice, too! SICK SICK SICK, patterns, patterns, patterns. The ‘judge’ that married these two, also used POOR judgement, just plain WRONG.
To Concerned Citizen: I am sure the police would have loved to have been able to force blood from the driver at the scene as well as the passenger. Unfortunately legislature has not caught up with the times…please talk to your local representatives to get stricter laws in place for serious/fatality accidents so that officers can investigate these accidents more thoroughly without breaking the law themselves. Maybe we can call it the Lindsay Walters law…someone should start a petition or something.
Like 99% of the internet commenters, I wasn’t there that night. I cannot say with 100% certainly what happened. Unlike the internet commenters, I am not going to presume that I know what happened and that I know what should happen.
Sometimes an accident is just an accident. Not a crime. It may be an utter tragedy that kills sometime and shatters the lives of the people who loved her. But that doesn’t make it a crime.
A little less than a month ago, Fort Worth attorney and fellow Detroit Tigers fan, Shawn Matlock, questioned the rumors of the Tigers shopping Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson. I commented that I didn’t believe the Tigers were actively shopping those players and they probably wouldn’t be traded. Especially Grandy.
I was wrong. That’s why I’m an attorney and not a baseball prognosticator.
It was announced yesterday that the Tigers, Diamondbacks and the hated Yankees had reached a three-way deal, sending Grandy to the Yankees and Jackson to the D-Backs in exchange for prospects.
Trading Jackson wasn’t a huge deal to me. He was only a Tigers for one season, coming over from the Rays after Dave Dombrowski hosed them in a trade. He was a pleasant surprise, going 13 – 9 and being a good number 2 starter. While I do believe you can never have enough pitching, if they Tigers were going to move a starter, better Jackson than Verlander or Porcello. I’d like to see Robertson or Bonderman get moved, but their contracts, injuries and performance essentially made them untradable.
Granderson though, that hurts. He was my Tiger. He was a lot of people’s Tiger. Detroit has always been a city that doesn’t care for showboats and prima donnas. A-Rod would never work in Detroit. The Pistons had Dennis Rodman when he was normal. Detroit is a blue collar town and that’s reflected in it’s sports heros. Guys who go out and do their job day in and day out without asking for fanfare. Guys like Steve Yzerman. The quiet captain. Sergei Fedorov was arguably the best hockey player in the world when he came to Detroit. But he was too Hollywood, and would always be behind Yzerman in the hearts of Red Wings fans. Barry Sanders didn’t bother with touchdown dances, he’d hand the ball to the ref and that was it. Alan Trammell negotiated his own contract after talking to the GM for 5 minutes. No agent making demands in the newspaper and no holding out or anything like that.
Granderson was destined to be one of those guys. A hard working guy from Chicago who worked hard and only made headlines for his highlight reel catches. No tooling around Detroit in a Ferrari, instead he bragged about how he shopped at Wal-Mart. No reports of 911 being called to his house. No call girls coming forward with stories. None of that. All he did was patrol the vast space of centerfield and haul in fly balls that most other outfielders wouldn’t have caught. After the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, it was revealed that one of the victims was a Tigers fan and a big fan of Granderson. So after he found out, Granderson made the victim his number one friend on his Myspace page.
And he embraced the city of Detroit. So much has been written about the problems Detroit is facing, that the stories have become cliche. He started his Grand Kids Foundation to encourage education and baseball in the inner city schools. It seemed like every week there was a little blurb in the paper about how Granderson visited a Detroit area school. It wasn’t for fame or to make himself feel good, it was to help Detroit and the kids of the city.
Getting traded to the Yankees, of all teams, is just insult to injury. It’s like Luke Skywalker getting traded to the Empire for a couple of Stormtroopers. Best of luck to you, Curtis.
Even though he’s reduced to voice acting and Ford commercials these days, back in the 90’s, Denis Leary was really funny.
So what does this have to do with anything? I went to Target yesterday to buy some NyQuil. I also had to show my ID. Why? I have no idea. If NyQuil is used in the production of meth, it’s news to me. Especially since it does not contain pseudoephedrine. There is NyQuil D which does have pseudoephedrine as an ingredient and would cause Target to check my ID; but A) it’s required to be behind the counter and B) I wasn’t buying NyQuil D anyway.
Maybe it’s because alcohol is the first ingredient listed on the label. Do kids still chug NyQuil and ‘Tussin to get drunk? I’m not aware of meth being a big problem in Brazos County. Most of the cases I see are either marijuana or crack/cocaine.
After almsot 16 hours of deliberation over two days, a Brazos County jury found Dana Munyon not guilty of Injury to a Child. I only was able to watch a few minutes of the case so what I know is limited to what was in the media and what I picked up from talking to people at the Courthouse.
Long story short, on April 3rd of last year, then 14 month old Alexis Verzal was dropped off at Ms. Munyon’s daycare. The media has repeatedly said that she had run an unlicensed daycare of several years. I have no idea what the licensing process to run a day care is, and if it’s even illegal to run one without a license. But that’s neither here nor there. At some point during the day, Alexis was rushed to the hospital with bleeding in the brain. According to the paper, to this day she’s unable to walk, speak or use one of her arms. It’s a tragedy and sounds like one of those cases where nobody wins.
The State claimed Munyon was responsible.
Multiple doctors who treated the child testified that Alexis suffered from head trauma that they believed was caused minutes before Munyon called 911.
Prosecutors Shane Phelps and Kara Comte made no attempt to prove what happened inside the house, but suggested that Munyon had to be the cause of the injuries because she was the only adult there.
Munyon testified that the child collapsed while being placed on a blanket on the floor.
As evidenced by the result, the jury felt differently. The jury was first deadlocked at 7-5, then 10-2, then 11-1 before the not guilty verdict came back around 7:30 last night. When I heard the jury was at 10-2 then 11-1, my gut said they were getting closer to a conviction. Clearly, I should not go into the business of picking juries, or horses.
And as you can probably imagine, the case has generated quite a bit of media attention and controversy around town. And nowhere was that more evident than in the comments section of The Eagle and KBTX. There are plenty of people who “KNOW” that Ms. Munyon is guilty and this is a miscarriage of justice. With these people, who are able to read a story in the paper and no whether a person is guilty or not, who needs the jury system anymore. A sampling of comments.
Rene Munyon knows what she did and her judgement day will come. She not only severly injured a child, she also lied on the stand several times. The jury let her get away with a terrible crime. We know that at least 5 of them changed their votes from guilty to not guilty. They took the easy way out. It’s a shame justice was not served. Alexis has permanent brain damage because of what Rene did. She doesn’t get a second chance.
…She was not proven not guilty; she just wasn’t proven guilty. There is a big difference. I do know her parents and know that they did not hurt their daughter. Rene admitted in court that Alexis was normal the morning of April 3, 2008 when they dropped Alexis off at Rene’s home. Medical evidence shows she did not fall. She was shaken and then thrown. Rene knows what happened that morning. It’s too bad she lied on the stand before her peers and before God. Justice was not served yesterday. How lucky Rene is to now be able to go on with her life when Alexis and her family are left to suffer for the rest of their lives. Justice was not served yesterday. If Rene has a conscience, she will at least feel remorse and guilt for the rest of life. Then her judgement day will come and God will be the judge.
I stand by what I said. Yes, the verdict was not guilty but that doesn’t mean she didn’t do it. She did. I know she did. The doctors know she did. The Verzals know she did. God knows she did.
How can she be proven not guilty. When she knows what she did was wrong, along with the family of the little girl, knows that she did that too their little girl. At least the little girl is a miracle child and a angel from God, that God has provided lil Alexis comfort, and a lenghty healing process.
I was at the trial every day and think that this was probably the dumbest group of 12 people they could have ever put together for a jury. Apparently you can’t get away with murder in Brazos county but you can get away with hurting children. Just sad. The jury and defendent will have to live with their actions. They both know in their hearts that what they did was wrong.
I can not believe she got away with that! And that you people are siding with her. The Verzals were at work when they got the call that their baby was being life-flighted to Temple. Why don’t all of you supporters leave your children with Renee Munyon? Mine will NEVER be 10 feet near her.
im in shock how this woman got out of this its crazy this goes out to the so called law put your self in this baby’s shoe this baby went threw something terible with no one to help her this is what i call ya a joke so who protect’s us family i advice this is your baby i would fight it do it for her my prayers are with you
I was at the trial daily and also believe the 12 jurors have to be the most incompetent people around. Hey jury & all you Renee followers – if you have kiddos Renee has openings!!
Yup. Who needs juries when you’ve got these people that know what happened.
I had a suppression hearing this morning, my first one. Now comes the fun part, waiting for the judge to issue his ruling. Having never done one, I have no idea how long until it will be.
So now it’s time for second guessing myself. What if I had asked this question, why didn’t I argue this case stronger, and on and on. I like to win. I know that being a defense attorney is not good for one’s batting average. Unless you’re Gerry Spence, I would imagine over the course of their career, a lot of defense lawyers are at the Mendoza Line. And that’s just the nature of the game. The prosecutor has the full power of the government behind them, that can be tough to beat. But that’s the fun of it.
However, all I can do now is play the waiting game. No matter what I could have done, it’s too late now. Time to look ahead, there’s always more people to help.
2008 Cy Young Award Winner Tim Lincecum was arrested in Washington after 3.3 grams of marijuana was found after a traffic stop. Lincecum has a 40 – 17 record in 3 seasons, a Cy Young award and made it to the show after only one year of minor league ball.
Really, who still believes that only deadbeats and losers smoke weed? Oh, that’s right. The Government.
Over the last three years, the Dallas Police Department has ticketed 39 drivers for not speaking English. Although the great state of Texas has plenty of oyster related offenses on the books, at this point in time, it is still legal to speak a language that isn’t English.
The case that led to the discovery of all the others occurred Oct. 2, when Ernestina Mondragon was stopped for making an illegal U-turn in the White Rock area. Rookie Officer Gary Bromley cited Mondragon for three violations: disregarding a traffic control device, failure to present a driver’s license and “non-English speaking driver.”
Bromley, 33, is a trainee officer in the northeast patrol division, meaning he still works with a training officer during every shift. His training officer on that day was Senior Cpl. Daniel Larkin, 53.
According to department policy, a sergeant must also sign off on all citations. The supervisor who signed off on the Mondragon ticket was Sgt. David Burroughs, 50.
“In this case, the field training officer was aware of ultimately what the recruit officer had done,” Kunkle said. “The field training officer is going to bear more responsibility than the recruit officer.
According to the story, Dallas Police issue roughly 400,000 tickets per year. At 13 non-English tickets a year, that represents a fraction of a percent of all the tickets written. I would have a hard time believing that the Dallas Police Department has any kind of policy, written or unwritten, that involves ticketing people who don’t speak English. Perhaps its a few “dey tuk er jeobs!” type of officers on a personal mission.
At the same time, why wasn’t this caught for 3 years? I don’t know. I don’t practice in Dallas, Maybe the traffic/municipal courts are back up for 3 years. I actually think that the officers involved will face some discipline. It’s one thing to Taser a grandmother that’s being mouthy. It’s another thing to hand out embarrassing tickets making the whole department look bad.
Proponents of the Taser like to remind people that it’s not a lethal device, Taser itself markets it’s products as being “less-lethal.” They’re right to a certain extent, getting hit with a jolt of electricity is a lot less likely to kill you than getting hit with several .40 caliber bullets. But despite Taser’s claims, there’s been plenty of people who have ended up dead after being on the wrong end of a Big Man With A Badge (BMWAB) and his trusty attitude adjuster.
All this changed today, when Taser issued a warning, telling all the BMWAB’s out there not to shoot people in the chest, since “it could post an extremely low risk of an ‘adverse cardiac event.’” Imagine that, shooting someone in the chest with 50,000 volts might be bad for them. Who would have thunk it? The company does not actually say that getting hit with the Taser will cause a heat attack, just that there’s a teeny, tiny chance that it could.
This reeks of CYA. Assuming the list in the first link is accurate, that’s a lot of dead people of a less-lethal device. Dead people mean potential lawsuits. Costly lawsuits. The type of lawsuits that stockholders don’t like. If a loved one is killed in a Taser related incident, you would generally have two choices for potential lawsuit defendants. Taser or the police. The police have governmental immunity and legions of supporters. Taser certainly has their supporters (police and police supporters) but they have deep pockets and don’t have any kind of immunity.
The solution? Blame it on the cops. When a BMWAB doesn’t like some punk’s attitude and gives him a 50,000 volt correction killing him, it’s convenient to have someone else to take the heat. Now Taser can say, it wasn’t our fault, we told the police not to shoot them in the chest. Sue the cops, not us. Taser’s warning to the police basically says as much.
Taser officials said Tuesday the bulletin does not state that Tasers can cause cardiac arrest. They said the advisory means only that law-enforcement agencies can avoid controversy if their officers aim at areas other than the chest.
If you can’t read between the lines, controversy = lawsuits. Will this make the police think twice before Tasering a grandmother who doesn’t give them the proper respect? Who knows. I’m just shocked (pun intended) that it’s taken this long for Taser to say, you know what, maybe our products could be dangerous.
Got back from a weekend in New Orleans. The Big Easy really might be my favorite city on the planet. I love that it’s filthy, smells bad, there’s too many people, there’s a decent chance of getting robbed, and that’s just the touristy parts. I keed, I keed. Really, I love the culture, the attitude, the food, the architecture, the people, and yes, the grime. Maybe it’s because Bryan-College Station can get a little Pleasantville at times, but I like going to a real city. Too bad the Louisiana bar doesn’t offer reciprocity. It was bad enough learning Oil and Gas law for the bar, I’m not about to try to figure out French Civil Code.
Anyway, a couple of legal observations from New Orleans. As we were out walking around, I saw a campaign sign for someone running for Traffic Judge. While one can probably make a decent argument that J.P. and municipal judges are glorified traffic judges who happen to have some additional responsibilities, that probably isn’t how they run their campaigns. I wonder what percentage of the Bryan and College Station municipal court judges caseloads are traffic related. My immediate thought was, how do you campaign for traffic judge.
Most judges seem to campaign that they’ll “git tuff on crime.” Longer prison sentences for the dregs of society. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key. Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out. You get the idea. It’s an idea that seems to resonate well with the voters. It’s probably tough to convince people that lighter sentences for murders, rapists, robbers, kiddie diddlers, etc is a good idea. And if you’re a voter, you probably think to yourself that there’s a very small chance you’ll be convicted of one of the above crimes. The likelihood of having a “git tuff on crime” judge affect your life is pretty slim.
However, will that work when you’re campaigning for traffic judge? John or Jane Q. Voter might not have any plans of catching a first degree felony, but there’s a decent chance they get some kind of traffic ticket. Do they want to be facing the judge who has called for higher fines for all traffic violators? I think if I was running of traffic judge, my campaign slogan would be “Deferred For Everyone!”
There were a couple billboards along I-10 in the middle of Cajun Country from the Louisiana State Police that said something to the effect of “Obey the Speed Limit…Or Else.” I wish I had taken a picture of it now, I can’t remember exactly what it said. After seeing the billboard, I slowed down to the posted speed limit. I was out in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t want to find out what how rural parish sheriff interpreted “or else.”
As I’m writing, the Tigers have a 3 game lead on the Twins, with 4 games remaining (including today’s). A win today clinches the first Division title since 1987. A loss today means dealing with Jake Peavy and the White Sox while the Twins get the Royals at the Metrodome.
And yes, I’m actually working while watching the game. I have several suppression issues coming up, and this is a good chance to do some research uninterrupted. It’s amazing how much you can get done with no distractions, other than baseball.
As a side note, here’s Joe Mauer allegedly tipping pitches from Tuesday’s game. Mauer should have gotten plunked for it.
