Grand jury vetoes felony hit-and-run charges against former US attorney in Texas
Then-U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery for the Southern District of Texas speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice on Sept. 13, 2022. (Photo by Jose Luis Magana/The Associated Press)
A Houston grand jury has rejected all criminal charges against a former U.S. attorney accused of leaving the scene of a crash and causing injury to another driver following an investigation into the case.
In May, Jennifer Lowery, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, was charged with failure to stop and render aid to Gabriel Fonseca, the driver of the other car in Houston. Surveillance footage showed that Lowery did stop at the intersection, where the accident happened, while Fonseca drove a block and a half away from the collision site into a shopping center parking lot, where he then placed a call to 911.
Lowery drove home, where her husband called 911 and reported the accident a second time, according to coverage by KTRK.
Following an investigation that included viewing surveillance footage from a gas station, a Harris County, Texas, grand jury decided that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Lowery with a crime.
“Ms. Lowery is a lifelong law and order prosecutor,” said Doug Murphy, her defense attorney, in a July 22 press release. “She is grateful to the grand jurors for closely examined all of the evidence and clearing her good name of any wrongdoing. This was an unfortunate accident, not a crime.”
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