Ouellette v. State, No. PD-1722-10, 2011 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1373 (Tex. Crim. App. Oct. 10, 2011).
Oct 01, 2011OUTCOME: It is not often that a trial lawyer is able to make a substantive change in Texas law, but Robert F. Maier did just that!
Robert F. Maier was the trial lawyer in a case reviewed by the highest criminal court in Texas, who agreed with Mr. Maier's legal reasoning at trial. An officer arrested the defendant for DWI after, ... among other things, he smelled alcohol on her breath and found a pill bottle in the car. The jury charge tracked the information, which alleged DWI “by reason of introduction of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, a dangerous drug, or a combination of two or more of those substances into the body.” The defendant complained about the charge’s inclusion of the statutory language on drugs. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that while evidence the defendant was intoxicated by way of drugs was circumstantial and not overwhelming, it was, nonetheless, present. Thus, the inclusion of the statutory language on drugs was not improper. The case put circumstantial drug evidence on the same plane as circumstantial alcohol evidence in a DWI case.
