Lawyers want evidence in Lauren Cherry case tossed
27-year-old faces array of charges stemming from alleged drunken driving incident that left teen girl in vegetative state.
Defense lawyers for Lauren Renee Cherry, charged in an alleged drunken driving incident that left a teen girl in a vegetative state, are seeking to have a broad array of statements and evidence thrown out in the case, contending Austin police officers handcuffed and interrogated the 27-year-old woman without informing her of her rights.
The move — which has led three officers to testify in a Travis County court hearing stretched out over two days this month — has held up an August 2012 case that has already seen multiple delays and was expected to go to trial in April. Should state District Judge Cliff Brown side with her attorneys, it could make it harder for prosecutors to prove Cherry had been under the influence the night of the crash.
The final date of testimony on the issue has been set to take place Tuesday.
Cherry has been indicted on charges of failure to stop and render aid, intoxication assault and aggravated assault in the incident that left Ekia Smith, now 16, critically injured.
Cherry faces two to 10 years in prison on each of the first two offenses
and two to 20 years on the last, although she is eligible for probation.
Austin police have said she drove her Infiniti sedan into Smith, then 13, and three other girls, who were on the sidewalk in the 12200 block of Metric Boulevard in North Austin. Cherry left the site of the wreck, re- ported about 2:45 a.m. Aug. 17, 2012, but returned more than half an hour later, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
She told police she thought she hit a man crossing the road in front of her, but “she got scared and left.” She decided to come back after driving home and calling some of her friends, the affidavit said.
Defense lawyers are requesting that Brown suppress all statements, photographs, video and items seized after Cherry had been arrested.
In court Wednesday, defense lawyer Steven Lee pressed officer Dale Stevenson about her detention at the scene. Stevenson said he believed she would be charged with driving while intoxicated but had not been involved in her arrest. He said he did not hear any of the other officers mention the need to inform her of her rights.
Another officer told him that she had “confessed to being involved in an accident and that she had been drinking,” he said.
But Stevenson said he had not heard the confession himself.