Mayor's daughter arrested; Mayor defends vigorously
This morning, various talk-radio outlets took up the topic of the arrest of Mayor White's daughter on suspicion of drunk driving.
We left the topic alone most of the day, because lots of people are arrested every day for drunk driving in Houston and it didn't appear the mayor's daughter sought or received any special treatment. The topic seemed to be one for Mayor White's family to deal with privately, and an early press release from the mayor (as reported by the Chronicle) suggested he would deal with it that way:
The mayor's office released a statement about the arrest this morning.
"Our daughter Elena is a fine young person who we love and who made a bad decision, violating household rules and possibly the law," according to the statement, which was issued before White made his comments questioning the validity of the arrest. "It is good that she was treated with impartiality and we are glad she is safe."
Over the course of the day, though, Mayor White seems to have decided to start defending his daughter publicly. Here are some snippets that came out later:
"My daughter believes that she was not intoxicated and was not dangerous and wouldn't be impaired in her condition to drive," White said, calling her a "good kid" who has "always shot straight with me."
He added, "I personally, based on what I've heard today, think that it (the arrest) may have been a mistake."
The mayor's daughter's car was stopped initially because it was driving without lights and weaving, so Mayor White offered this excuse:
The mayor said his daughter was driving his personal car, a Toyota Prius. He said the vehicle's headlights don't automatically turn on at ignition, like those in the car his daughter normally drives.
Finally, the big gun was brought out:
[Rusty] Hardin, a high-profile Houston attorney representing Elena White, said he is confident the teen will be absolved.
"I'm comfortable, when everything is known, that we're going to find that she was not intoxicated," Hardin said. "I also hope everybody reserves judgment until they hear all the evidence."
This is, and should remain, a matter for Mayor White and his family to resolve. If his daughter was wrongly arrested, then she is certainly entitled to make her case to a court. If she was rightly arrested, then thank goodness nobody was hurt. That being said, the case really does need to be tried in court, rather than by statements from Mayor White and Rusty Hardin.
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Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/01/06 11:38 PM | Print |
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