The blowup came March 11 about 6:30 p.m. at the end of a one-day trial of 46-year-old Licette Gonzalez. Sanford Officer Michael Wagner had pulled her over the afternoon of Nov. 15 when he saw her sipping from a can of Natural Ice beer while driving on St. Johns Parkway, according to her arrest report. Wagner took her to the Seminole County Jail but testified at her trial that no one qualified to perform a breath-alcohol test was there, so he booked her into the jail and left.
On the DUI citation he gave Gonzalez, however, he checked a box that said her blood- or breath-alcohol level was above 0.08, the legal limit, and as a consequence, her drivers license was immediately suspended. Two months later she was pulled over by an Altamonte Springs officer and ticketed for driving with a suspended license. That's what made Schott angry. He asked Miers to drop the suspended-license case.
Schott accused Wagner of falsifying a sworn document by checking the box that indicated Gonzalez had failed a blood or breath test. "I want you to take him up for perjury," the judge said. 'He lied. He lied on a sworn citation. … He broke the law." "That's not true," Miers said. Wagner testified that he had checked that box by mistake. Shannon Cordingly, a Sanford Police Department spokesman, also described the mark as a mistake and called it a "nonissue." That mark, the judge insisted, had cost Gonzalez several months of driving privileges and led to her wrongful arrest in January. He also argued that the evidence at the DUI trial was too shaky to support a finding of guilt.
Lawyers for both sides agree that Schott has the authority to overrule the jury's verdict, but Public Defender Blaise Trettis said it's rarely done and usually not the way Schott did it, which was spontaneously, during a heated argument and with a raised voice.
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daftcunt (Old Spike)
Drinking any beverage whilst driving should not be illegal. Driving over the limit should be.
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(Old Spike)
The blowup came March 11 about 6:30 p.m. at the end of a one-day trial of 46-year-old Licette Gonzalez. Sanford Officer Michael Wagner had pulled her over the afternoon of Nov. 15 when he saw her sipping from a can of Natural Ice beer while driving on St. Johns Parkway, according to her arrest report. Wagner took her to the Seminole County Jail but testified at her trial that no one qualified to perform a breath-alcohol test was there, so he booked her into the jail and left.
On the DUI citation he gave Gonzalez, however, he checked a box that said her blood- or breath-alcohol level was above 0.08, the legal limit, and as a consequence, her drivers license was immediately suspended. Two months later she was pulled over by an Altamonte Springs officer and ticketed for driving with a suspended license. That's what made Schott angry. He asked Miers to drop the suspended-license case.
Schott accused Wagner of falsifying a sworn document by checking the box that indicated Gonzalez had failed a blood or breath test. "I want you to take him up for perjury," the judge said. 'He lied. He lied on a sworn citation. … He broke the law." "That's not true," Miers said. Wagner testified that he had checked that box by mistake. Shannon Cordingly, a Sanford Police Department spokesman, also described the mark as a mistake and called it a "nonissue." That mark, the judge insisted, had cost Gonzalez several months of driving privileges and led to her wrongful arrest in January. He also argued that the evidence at the DUI trial was too shaky to support a finding of guilt.
Lawyers for both sides agree that Schott has the authority to overrule the jury's verdict, but Public Defender Blaise Trettis said it's rarely done and usually not the way Schott did it, which was spontaneously, during a heated argument and with a raised voice.
(Old Spike)
Drinking any beverage whilst driving should not be illegal. Driving over the limit should be.