I have a DWI trial coming up in which the defendant was a police officer. He has since been fired because of the arrest. The defendant then refused both breath and blood after being read the DIC. IA pulled the defendant out of jail and pulled blood for their investigation of the arrest. Our office has already made the decision to not attempt to admit the IA blood results subject to a broad reading of Garrity. The case has seen some media attention in our area for several reasons and the results of the IA blood draw were released to the media by the PD and made public.
Several questions:
1) Does anyone have any tried and true trial themes for an officer-defendant?
2) Does anyone have any experience with situations like this where a decisive piece of inadmissible evidence may have already been viewed by some of, if not most of, your panel? Could this be grounds for a change of venue motion by the defense? I don't believe this rises to the point of imposing "so great a prejudice" that he couldn't obtain a "fair and impartial trial" under CCP 31.03. What do you think?
3) When the judge denies the motion to transfer, how would you voir dire on this issue?

[This message was edited by GPuryear on 07-28-10 at .]

Call me or come by next week and we can talk about some ideas for voir dire in a case with as much publicity as yours. I can't say there are any "tried and true" methods, though. That's asking for a lot! Your particular defendant carries some baggage that you'll have to address.