DUI crackdown lands groom in jail on wedding day

[maxdemo]

DUI crackdown lands groom in jail on wedding day

He's among several drivers arrested over the weekend

By MIKE GLENN and ANITA HASSAN
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

March 16, 2009, 9:45AM


<!-- OAS AdSpace Position3 120x60 --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>/*<![CDATA[*/try{OAS_AD('Position3');}catch(e){}/*]]>*/</SCRIPT>Spending a night in jail was probably not the way Billy Puckett dreamed of ending his wedding day.


The just-married Houston man was among motorists arrested this weekend in a drunken-driving crackdown by local law enforcement agencies and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Puckett, 26, was arrested by Harris County Precinct 8 deputy constables late Saturday, soon after leaving his wedding reception in the Clear Lake area.
After spending a night in jail, Puckett was charged Sunday with driving while intoxicated. He was released after posting $500 bail, according to Harris County criminal records.
Officials with the Precinct 8 Constable’s Office declined to comment about the arrest.
Friends said Puckett’s bride was also detained by police, but it’s unclear whether she was charged.
Joe Gutheinz, a family friend who’s known Puckett for 10 years, said he strongly believes the law should be enforced but that in this case the police displayed a lack of discretion toward the couple.
“If it were a police officer and his new bride or a judge and his new bride, they would have put them in a taxi and sent them home,” said Gutheinz, an attorney who teaches criminal justice courses and police science classes at Alvin Community College as well as for the University of Phoenix Graduate Court system.

 

[Hookandcrook+]

Who doesn't get a limo on there wedding day?

 

[maxdemo]

Who doesn't get a limo on there wedding day?

probably TPT....LOL

 

[roberthand]

This marriage is doomed.

 

[HuskerFan1]

why even let yourself get into that position?

really amazes me....all the money that is spent on that day and this guy finds himself behind the wheel....like someone above said why wasnt he in a limo LOL....that wedding just cost another 10-15K....

 

[GameBreaker]

stupid

 

[Hookandcrook+]

stupid

Very

 

[Moneyneversleeps]

The groom is going to have to pay some STUPID TAX!

 

[maxdemo]

Wedding day blues

Bride is steamed about photo of her in court

By RICHARD STEWART Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

March 19, 2009, 9:21PM


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Billy Smith II Chronicle

Jade Puckett poses for a photo in Houston on Thursday. Arrested last week, she was forced to spend the night in jail in her wedding gown after she and her new husband were pulled over in a DWI case.





New bride Jade Puckett is so upset about a photograph of her in her wedding dress that she’s filed a complaint with the Harris County Precinct 8 Constable’s office.
The picture was taken as she waited to go before a justice of the peace on a public intoxication charge. It’s not the kind of photograph most brides put at the front of their wedding albums.
That it was posted on several news Internet sites — complete with sometimes cutting remarks from viewers — didn’t make her feel any better about the ordeal.
“It had turned the best day of my life into my greatest nightmare,” she said in her complaint, filed Wednesday.
Precinct 8 Chief Deputy Constable Phil Sandlin said Thursday that an officer in his department would investigate the complaint. He said the office would have no comment until after the investigation.
Jade and Billy Puckett, both 26, were married Saturday afternoon at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Clear Lake and then went to their reception. About midnight they were headed to their wedding night hotel when they were stopped as part of a “March Madness” push by Harris County deputies to get drunken drivers off the roads. He was charged with driving while intoxicated.
Officers said they charged her with public intoxication after she became belligerent.
Sunday afternoon the new bride pleaded guilty to the public intoxication charge in exchange for being released for time served. Her groom’s family made his bail.
Attorney Joe Gutheinz filed an official complaint about the incident with the Precinct 8 Constable’s office Wednesday.
The complaint isn’t about the charges, Jade Puckett said, but about the way she was later treated.
She said as she sat in a justice of the peace courtroom in Clear Lake, a man came into the room and took pictures of her in her wedding dress. She doesn’t know who the man was.
“The picture he took of me has been plastered across the media,” she said. “They have used my face and picture for the poster child of this sting operation.” She said viewer comments on Internet Web sites called her degrading and racial names.
The photo didn’t end her problems that night, she said.
Once at the jail she said she was put in a cell with 15 or 20 other women. She wasn’t allowed to change clothes, she said.
Three different times male jailers opened the cell door to show her to other jailers, she said. “The male guards seemed to be enjoying themselves,” she said.
The Sheriff’s Department didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.