Judge Angelini's DWI case tossed

Web Posted: 06/27/2008 12:02 AM CDT

By Elizabeth Allen
Express-News

A four-month-old drunken-driving charge against State District Judge Raymond Angelini was dismissed Thursday afternoon because of what a prosecutor deemed insufficient evidence.

Special prosecutor Tony Hackebeil asked County Court-at-Law Judge Michael Mery to dismiss the misdemeanor charge stemming from a Feb. 28 traffic stop against the longtime jurist.

"I'm not going to elaborate on it at this point," Hackebeil said Thursday afternoon. "Suffice it to say that I filed a motion to dismiss based on insufficient evidence."


Details.

[Gee, can anyone guess what evidence is missing, resulting in dismissal? And, does the ever curious media make any attempt to discuss who is responsible for the absence of scientific evidence of intoxication that could have resolved the factual dispute (Imaginary conversation at scene and station: "No, I wasn't drinking." "Well, OK, but I only had 3 drinks." "No, I decline to provide a breath sample.")

Might seem reasonable for police officers to begin refusing to arrest anyone for DWI that does not provide evidence of intoxication. Why should the officer spend his/her time making an arrest, only to be ridiculed by the defendant (particularly when the defendant proclaims his or her innocence as a public figure but fails to note that they violated the law by destroying evidence of the crime) upon dismissal or acquittal.

quote:

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"they violated the law by destroying evidence of the crime"

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I'm not comfortable with the concept that a drunk the has mens rea to commit the crime of destroying evidence by simple virtue of the normal involuntary functioning of the liver and kidneys. Indeed if these organs failed in their task of removing toxins the drunk would soon expire.

Its not like the evidence is even really destroyed. The DWI law provides an alcohol level for breath, blood, and urine so in all honesty, the evidence is NOT destroyed, merely moved from blood to urine. It isn't really "destroyed" until they flush...

Something like this might be easier than a blood warrant: