From La Cebolla
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Saying that the political influence and personal relationships between former Texas District 37 State Rep. Rene Oliveira and the local judiciary cannot guarantee the prosecution that it will get an impartial hearing of its DWI charges against him, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office is seeking a change of venue for his trial.
Instead, they say, no sitting judge can hear the case and render an impartial judicial process since many of them grew up with him and may have even tipped a few glasses with the social soak over three decades of reelection pachangas.
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Oliveira's attorney, lawyer/philosopher Ed Stapleton claimed his client's arrest was unlawful and challenged the legality of a warrant used to test his blood after the Brownsville Police Department arrested him on driving while intoxicated in April 2018.
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Oliveira's lifetime buddy County-Court-at-Law No. 1 Judge Arturo A. McDonald will consider motions to suppress evidence obtained after Rene’s arrest and to suppress evidence obtained from a blood analyses that revealed the former lawmaker’s blood alcohol level (0.15 percent, almost twice the legal limit), as well as showing that he tested positive for a drug (snort) that prosecutors have not publicly identified.
However, McDonald said the motion to suppress evidence obtained after his arrest will be postponed because Oliveira’s defense attorney, Ed Stapleton, has not been able to view body camera video of the arrest because he is "tech challenged" and cannot open the video format the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office has the video saved in.
An obscure Ass. D.A. named Rehaman Merchant entered the alcohol and drug results as exhibits during the hearing, but McDonald sealed them at Stapleton’s request and a pliant Merchant did not object. McDonald said he will rule on the motion to suppress evidence obtained from the blood analyses at a later date when the heat dies down a bit.
The Brownsville Police Department arrested Oliveira on April 28 at his residence and charged him with drunken driving.
A police report indicates that Oliveira left Cobbleheads just before 10:30 p.m. on April 28, 2018, before he crashed into a vehicle stopped at a light on the 800 block of Boca Chica Boulevard. The car was being driven by a woman who had a child in the back seat.
When police responded to Oliveira’s home, he told authorities that he left the scene of the crash after providing his business card to the other driver, believing it was no big deal and that as far as he was concerned “the matter to be settled.”
Stapleton says in the motions that the cops had no right to arrest Rene at his home as he complied with all applicable laws governing car crashes and that there was no observable crime at his residence. You know, if you are boozed up and you rear end someone, just leave your card with her and go home. As long as the cops don't see you, no biggie. No collision. No obstruction.
“He properly left the scene to go home. No law enforcement agent, especially not those who arrested him, observed him committing an offense,” the motion states.
The motion challenging the blood draw warrant states that it allowed for seizure of the blood, but didn’t explicitly allow for the analyses of the blood and should therefore also be tossed.
That these outlandish motions based on Stapleton's arcane legal philosophy should even require extra time for McDonald to reach a decision is one of the reasons given in the DA's motion for a change of venue in the Oliveira case.
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Saying that the political influence and personal relationships between former Texas District 37 State Rep. Rene Oliveira and the local judiciary cannot guarantee the prosecution that it will get an impartial hearing of its DWI charges against him, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office is seeking a change of venue for his trial.
Instead, they say, no sitting judge can hear the case and render an impartial judicial process since many of them grew up with him and may have even tipped a few glasses with the social soak over three decades of reelection pachangas.
Oliveira's attorney, lawyer/philosopher Ed Stapleton claimed his client's arrest was unlawful and challenged the legality of a warrant used to test his blood after the Brownsville Police Department arrested him on driving while intoxicated in April 2018.
Oliveira's lifetime buddy County-Court-at-Law No. 1 Judge Arturo A. McDonald will consider motions to suppress evidence obtained after Rene’s arrest and to suppress evidence obtained from a blood analyses that revealed the former lawmaker’s blood alcohol level (0.15 percent, almost twice the legal limit), as well as showing that he tested positive for a drug (snort) that prosecutors have not publicly identified.However, McDonald said the motion to suppress evidence obtained after his arrest will be postponed because Oliveira’s defense attorney, Ed Stapleton, has not been able to view body camera video of the arrest because he is "tech challenged" and cannot open the video format the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office has the video saved in.
An obscure Ass. D.A. named Rehaman Merchant entered the alcohol and drug results as exhibits during the hearing, but McDonald sealed them at Stapleton’s request and a pliant Merchant did not object. McDonald said he will rule on the motion to suppress evidence obtained from the blood analyses at a later date when the heat dies down a bit.
The Brownsville Police Department arrested Oliveira on April 28 at his residence and charged him with drunken driving.
A police report indicates that Oliveira left Cobbleheads just before 10:30 p.m. on April 28, 2018, before he crashed into a vehicle stopped at a light on the 800 block of Boca Chica Boulevard. The car was being driven by a woman who had a child in the back seat.
When police responded to Oliveira’s home, he told authorities that he left the scene of the crash after providing his business card to the other driver, believing it was no big deal and that as far as he was concerned “the matter to be settled.”
Stapleton says in the motions that the cops had no right to arrest Rene at his home as he complied with all applicable laws governing car crashes and that there was no observable crime at his residence. You know, if you are boozed up and you rear end someone, just leave your card with her and go home. As long as the cops don't see you, no biggie. No collision. No obstruction.
“He properly left the scene to go home. No law enforcement agent, especially not those who arrested him, observed him committing an offense,” the motion states.
The motion challenging the blood draw warrant states that it allowed for seizure of the blood, but didn’t explicitly allow for the analyses of the blood and should therefore also be tossed.
That these outlandish motions based on Stapleton's arcane legal philosophy should even require extra time for McDonald to reach a decision is one of the reasons given in the DA's motion for a change of venue in the Oliveira case.