Judge Wins Round in DWI Case, But Court of Common Sense Hasn't Ruled
News that a drunken-driving case against a Texas judge may have been derailed because of a defective search warrant has irked a number of observers, including a writer for a Dallas newspaper.
But despite the problematic search warrant—which authorized a blood test for alcohol after District Judge Elizabeth Berry pulled over last year by police officers who say she was driving 92 mph and had alcohol on her breath and beer bottles in her car—that may not be the end of the matter.
Although a motion to suppress Berry’s blood-alcohol test was granted last week in her driving-while-intoxicated case, prosecutors could still try the case without using the blood test or appeal the ruling on the motion, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
And if those alternatives don’t lead to a successful prosecution, there’s another forum in which the matter can still be decided, says Steve Blow in an opinion article in the Dallas Morning News.
“A jury may never get to decide Judge Berry’s fate, but voters will have the chance next year,” he writes. “And as far as I know, common sense is still permitted there.”
Although there may have been enough facts to justify a search warrant, it was found defective because information was lacking in the affidavit supporting the warrant, according to news accounts. The blood-alcohol test was needed because Berry reportedly refused a breath test when she was pulled over in Alvarado, on the outskirts of Fort Worth.
The result of the blood-alcohol test hasn’t been made public.
