New Judge Sworn In

On October 1, 2008, Judge Keith Stewart was sworn in as the new and first judge of Montgomery County Court at Law Number Five. Keith is a former defense attorney and has experience trying DWI's. In fact, approximately 2 weeks before taking the bench, he successfully defended an accused citizen on DWI charges. Judge Stewart is the first sitting Judge in the last several years that actually has experience trying the types of cases he will be called upon to judge.

DWI Lawyer's are anticipating that he will bring a fresh, new perspective into the county. Thus far he has presided over several day-to-day dockets and on Friday, October 3, 2008, he was sitting on the bench for the jail docket at the Montgomery County Jail.

It's going to be interesting to see how Judge Stewart rules when called upon to decide issues such as "police science" versus real science. It's been a little over a year since Montgomery County instituted its mandatory blood draws for DWI's during holidays and special weekends. This policy has been problematic due to the fact that the lab reports take anywhere from 4 - 12 months for the results to come back. That means that an accused citizen must wait that long until they can actively begin their defense.

Unfortunately, by that time, the only evidence left to preserve is the evidence tending to prove guilt.

I continue to file speedy trial motions in these cases and have managed to get dismissals on these in the past when the lab work took too long to be done.

With a new judge on the bench, familiar with the problems associated with police science, it's going to be very intriguing to see how the prosecutor's office is going to deal with this constitutional violation of an accused citizen's right.