Assault on poiice case dismissed before trial

Evidence found lacking in alleged violence at rodeo

Assault charges against a local oil executive accused of injuring an HPD officer at the rodeo are dismissed on the eve of trial.

William Driver, a Houston oil executive accused of assaulting a police officer working security at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, spent more than three years fearing he would end up in prison for the next 20 years.

On the eve of the trial Monday, prosecutors dismissed his case for insufficient evidence, drawing a stinging rebuke from his lawyer for taking so long to resolve the case.

“He got attacked and Tasered by police officers and did nothing to provoke it,” said Paul Looney, Driver’s attorney. “They’re out tens of thousands of dollars and three-and-a-half years of anguish over whether he will keep his job or go to prison.”

Looney made headlines in 2014 when he challenged Driver’s indictment by saying Harris County grand jurors could not be impartial because part of their orientation was to go through a police shooting simulator — a life-sized video game that tests whether to shoot or not shoot in emergency situations.

“The grand jurors had been indoctrinated by the ‘shoot/don’t shoot’ video game,” Looney said. “Almost without exception, the police officer becomes a hero to a grand jury, rather than a witness or a suspect. That process is calculated to protect bad police officers.”

Grand jurors still go through that simulator, and Looney’s argument fell on deaf ears through several appeals.

On Monday, Driver, a 50-year-old senior vice president with Houstonbased C&J Energy Services,

appeared in court for a proceeding to begin picking a jury to decide whether he assaulted a Houston police officer at an evening event that Driver and his wife attended on Feb. 21, 2013.

Before the jury panel arrived at the Harris County Criminal Courthouse, prosecutors dismissed the charges for “insufficient evidence,” according to Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the office.

McShan said Looney’s motion to quash the indictment, the subsequent appeal and a thorough re-examination of the evidence by prosecutors had postponed the dismissal.

It was a decision that should have been made three years ago, said Driver’s lawyer.

“Nothing has changed in this case. There’s no new witness. There’s not one shred of new evidence. This decision could have been made five days after he was arrested,” Looney said. “This is just hellish prosecutorial abuse.”

Driver was arrested after an altercation with an officer. He has said he was then attacked by police working security who shocked him at least three times with a Taser as they held him on the ground.

Bystanders at the rodeo used mobile phones to record Driver’s arrest, posting videos online that Looney showed to prosecutors before his client was indicted.

“We were shocked he was indicted,” Looney said. “The officer should have been facing felony charges.”

Outside the courtroom Monday, Driver and his wife, Nancy, clutched the dismissal form signed by visiting Judge Jim Anderson.

“I’m relieved,” Driver said. “It’s been a nervewracking experience.”

His wife was more emphatic.

“It’s been so stressful. It’s a weight lifted off us — lots of sleepless nights. It’s been scary,” Nancy Driver said. “And what was so disturbing was that he never touched (the officer).”

The couple, who say Driver has permanent cognitive problems because of where he was hit with the stun gun, has filed a lawsuit against the police officer, which might be expanded to include the Houston Police Department.

Because of that lawsuit, HPD officials declined to comment on the dismissal or the case.