Another trial

At work I make a few traffic stops every night. In the past it was for the court overtime. Now it is for training purposes. Traffic stops are a very important part of policing. A lot of crimes are solved and criminals are put in jail from traffic stops. For example, the man responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing was caught because of a traffic stop. Since there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop, I like to do a few every night with my probationary officers. The more stops that they make, the better they will get at them. Due to the number of traffic stops that I make, I get quite a few drunk drivers.

Back in December of 2008, Kai, my probationary at the time, and I stopped a vehicle that did not have headlights on at night and made an illegal left turn where prohibited by sign. The driver turned out to be intoxicated. I called for a DWI Task Force unit. He made the scene and handled the field sobriety tests and processed the DWI. The driver decided to submit to a breath test and she blew a .14. The legal limit is .08. I have never had to go to trail on a DWI case where the defendant submitted a breath test. Well, there is a first time for everything.

The assistant district attorney, ADA, called me and said that the case was going to trial. The defendant had been offered a plea bargain and had turned it down. The ADA thought that they were going to go with a "pretty girl" defense. Sometimes attractive people get off just because they are attractive. Since it was 11 months after the traffic stop, the ADA refreshed my memory. It was not a particularly memorable DWI except that the passenger was drunker than the driver and was dressed like Srg. Pepper. Strange. The ADA told me to be in court at 11 AM on Monday and that I should be done testifying before lunch.

I arrived in the court at 11 AM and was surprised to see that there was not a jury. The ADA informed me that they did not have enough morning panels of jurors, so they were hoping to get an afternoon panel. I was told to be back by 3 PM. At least I was getting paid for being there. I returned at 3 PM and I was on the stand testifying by 3:30 PM. Since I was the officer that made the traffic stop, I was the first witness called by the State. Using me, the State had to prove probable cause for the traffic stop. That was easy, an illegal left turn and driving at night without headlights. After answering the ADA's questions, it was the defense attorney's turn to question me.

He quickly gave away his strategy, at least with me. He tried to show the jury that every intoxication factor that the defendant exhibited could be explained away as something other than intoxication. The funny thing is he is correct. The defendant had five factors that led us to believe that she was intoxicated, she made an illegal left turn, she was driving at night without headlights, there was a strong alcoholic beverage odor coming from the vehicle. the defendant had bloodshot glassy eyes, and slurred speech. If you take any one of those factors, they can be explained as something other than intoxication. For example, bloodshot glassy eyes can also mean that someone is fatigued. But, if you add all 5 factors together, they point to intoxication. The defense attorney asked me the same questions 5 different ways trying to get me to slip up and contradict myself. He tried putting words in my mouth. He did his job. I was finally released from court at 4:30 PM. Three more officers testified after I did over the course of the following day. Then the case was given to the jury and they did their job by rendering a guilty verdict. The defendant should have taken the plea bargain.

It is amazing how much time, money, and effort goes into prosecuting and defending a Class B Misdemeanor. It is ridiculous that a DWI is only a Class B Misdemeanor. There needs to be a greater deterrent. Recently a man with three prior DWI convictions in Harris County ran over a 6 year old girl while he was driving drunk again. Something needs to change.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

Austin & the pastor

Over the course of his short life, Austin has professed his faith in Christ a few times. He professed his faith again during vacation Bible school at our church this past summer. As a result, he was invited to participate in a new believer's class during his regular Sunday school hour. The class came with a book. Jen and I went through the book with him. We talked with him about his faith and what it meant. We then talked to each other about his answers to our questions. We both believe that he is old enough to understand his faith and belief in Christ as his savior.

Austin then expressed a desire to follow Christ in believer's baptism. I sent our pastor, Dr. Creech a message through Facebook. We scheduled a time for Austin to talk with Dr. Creech about his faith. Today was the day. I picked up Austin after his Sunday school class and he was very anxious. He thought that it was going to be a test and he would give the wrong answers. We found Dr. Creech and he invited us back to his office. Jen, Addy, Austin, and myself all sat down. Dr. Creech then started asking Austin about his faith and beliefs. He asked Austin what he thought sin was and why he believed in Christ. He asked why he wanted to be baptized and why he needed to follow Christ to gain eternal life. Austin relaxed and gave some good and honest answers that were consistent with conversations that we have had with him in the past. After Dr. Creech was satisfied that Austin did in fact believe, he asked if we had a time in mind for the baptism. Yes we do, and it will be the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Dr. Creech then asked Austin if he had any questions. His first question impressed us, his second did not. First question, "When you are preaching, how do you remember everything?" Second question, "Where did you buy that chair?" The mind of an 8 year old.

Dr. Creech then took us up to the baptistry. He showed Austin the room where he would change clothes. Austin was impressed with the waders that Dr. Creech wears during baptisms. He then took Austin down into the baptistry, it was empty. He explained that the lights would go down and where he needed to stand and all of the other things. After that he showed Austin the projection room and Dr. Creech and Austin made hand shadows in front of the screen. Dr. Creech did a great job of putting Austin at ease and making Austin and us feel very welcome. We are looking forward to that Sunday and hope those that live close can come to see him be baptized.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

A boy, his dog, & an iPhone

Creative carving

Saw these outside of a house on W Alabama. People were inside carving more.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

Rain-n-Drunks

I worked an extra four hours of patrol overtime yesterday. The city should have to pay double for overtime in the rain. Working patrol in the rain sucks. First call was, you guessed it, an accident. This one was in-bound on Allen Parkway at the Waugh exit. It was in a horrible spot just around a curve. I parked the patrol car behind the accident and hopped out quickly. I immediately heard screeching tires and turned around to see a car going sideways toward my car. Luckily the driver saved it in time to avoid my patrol car. I told the wrecker driver to pick up the wrecked car in a hurry before we all get hit. He picked it up and we got off of Allen Parkway. You would think that in the middle of a monsoon people would slow down on the roads. Nope.

Later in the shift an on duty officer responding to an accident on US 59 was involved in an accident. His patrol car no longer has a trunk. The officer was in the car at the time, but he will be ok. A short time later a HFD pumper truck was struck by another car while responding to a different accident on US 59. The freeways are crazy in the rain.

Ten o'clock could not get here fast enough. Carol is in her last day of evaluation. She is doing well. We were dispatched to a criminal mischief report where the boyfriend was the suspect. We arrived to find a drunk lady wearing a robe. She said that her boyfriend got locked inside of her BMW 335 convertible. The boyfriend was so drunk that he could not figure out how to get out, so he broke the window and climbed out. Wow. So drunk that you can not get out of a locked car. She said that he usually will drink 20 to 30 Miller Lites every day of the weekend. I would call him a heavy drinker. The best part of the call was the complainant calling Carol my probationary, "ladybug". I could not help but laugh.

Next, Ladybug and I were sent back onto Allen Parkway to provide traffic control for another accident. This one was a roll over. The drunk female bartender that was driving tried to exit where there was not an exit ramp. She drove onto the concrete embankment and then rolled back down onto Allen Parkway.

Last but not least, Ladybug and I responded to an assault call. An intoxicated doctor was assaulted by 4 Asian males. In his words "They jumped me for no reason. I just went into the fetal position and they hit me. Then I got up and ran away". He asked Ladybug what she would have done in the same situation. All five feet of her said "I would have fought back and kicked their asses". Great answer.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

A quick funny from Addy

Just before the kids shower time a few nights ago, I was sitting at the computer in our bedroom. Shocking, I know. When I hear Austin yell from the living room "OW, Addy!" They had been wrestling. A better description is Austin had been throwing his sister around on the couch. I left my perch by the computer and walked into the living room. I calmly asked Austin what had happened. He said that Addy had pulled is hair. I looked over at sweet, precious, little innocent Addy. My little girl would never do such a thing. Even after being terrorized by her big brother. I then asked Addy what had happened, she said:

"I pull Austin's hair, he goes ow, funny funny."

All I could do was turn around and leave the room, laughing.

Another day, another rookie

My department is about to dramatically slow down the flow of cadets from the academy. The city has only approved two classes for the next fiscal year. This is after a few years of at least 5 cadet classes a year. Even with that number of cadet classes, our department has only had a net gain of 150 officers. Our department workforce is old and many officers are retiring. Slowing down the academy does not seem like the correct choice, but the powers that be did not ask me. It will just mean more patrol overtime programs once our numbers start to dwindle.

Since the slowdown was announced, the academy has been in overdrive. New classes seem to be coming out every other week. That means that I have been very busy, when I am at work at least. I am one of only three evaluators on night shift at my station. Lately I have been in demand. The current rookie is Carol. She is in the middle of her final week of evaluation. She is 5 feet and 110 pounds of smiling hispanic female with an attitude. Her first night shift trainer said to her on their first day, "The cute smile is not going to get you anywhere with me, it is time to get to work." She responded with "If you have made this long being as big as you are, I think that I will be fine."

I have always wondered why any female would want to do this job, as a patrol officer. I am by no means saying that they can not do this job. On the contrary, I have worked with some excellent female patrol officers, my sister-in-law being one of them. When she was on patrol, she was an excellent officer that had a fantastic work ethic. However, I was always worried about her. I knew that she was a very capable officer, but the people that she came into contact with did not know that. I feared that she would get into more physical confrontations because she was a female. Thankfully, this did not come to pass.

Back to Carol. She grew up in two district and went to Waltrip High School. She took some classes from UH and changed her major numerous times. One day she decided that she was bored and since the Army would not take her, she applied with the department. That is not the best reason that I have heard for joining the department, but it is not the worst either. Luckily, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders. I hope that her smart mouth does not get her in trouble. It is one thing to smart off to someone when I am standing beside you and quite something different to do it by yourself. Hopefully she will work at a station that encourages officers to ride together.

So far, our days together have been rather boring. We have made numerous traffic stops without getting any drunks and we have written many reports. Tomorrow will be her last night and then I am sure that the next rookie will not be far behind her.