Polo magnate’s appeals advance

John Goodman fights ‘to clear his name’ in courts

Wellington polo club founder John Goodman’s seven-year fight “to clear his name” in the courts is likely coming to a head in the next several months, and one outcome could affect drunken driving cases across the state.

Appeals are advancing in both the Flor- ida Supreme Court and the Fourth District Court of Appeal, where judges will hear arguments March 28 in the case concerning the death of 23-year-old Scott Patrick Wilson.

Goodman, serving a 16-year prison sentence for his 2014 DUI manslaughter conviction, “has faith in the court system that he will be vindicated,” said attorney Margaret Good-Earnest.

In the first appeal, the state Supreme Court is expected to schedule arguments soon concerning Goodman’s claim targeting rules used for a state law that forces people suspected of drunken driving to give blood sample.

Goodman’s attorneys say that because the rules are flawed, “defendants have no guarantee that the blood samples tested for use in their criminal trials are scientifically reliable.”

Goodman, 53, argues that the testing of his blood samples after his Feb. 12, 2010, crash produced untrustworthy findings.

In a response filed last week, lawyers for the state contend the rules for collecting and analyzing blood ensure “the reliability and accuracy of blood alcohol test results.”

Despite an appellate court ruling last year denying Goodman’s challenge on the blood issues, the Supreme Court still agreed to consider what are being called “questions of great public importance” about the ways blood samples are collected and screened.

Prosecutors at both of Goodman’s trials relied on the blood evidence collected three hours after Goodman’s Bentley slammed into Wilson’s Hyundai Sonata at a Welling a

ton intersection. Wilson’s car wound up in a canal, where the engineering graduate drowned.

Goodman’s blood-alcohol content measured 0.177, or more than twice the 0.08 legal limit to drive, along with small amounts of hydrocodone Goodman was taking for back pain, according to court records.

The prosecutors said the test results meant Goodman was impaired before the crash, as a result of drinking that night at three Wellington bars that serve the polo community.

But the defense insisted Goodman was not intoxicated when driving. Goodman testified he chugged alcohol after the crash while looking for a phone to call 911. He said he found liquor in a “man cave,” a polo player’s barn office with a bar, to soothe the pain of a broken wrist.

Lawyers for other DUI defendants say they hope Goodman prevails because of the potential impact on other pending cases involving blood samples.

“If the court finds the rules are insufficient, it affects everyone,” said Brian Gabriel, a Jupiter-based defense attorney who agrees that the rules used by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have deficiencies.

Gabriel, on behalf of dozens of DUI defendants in Palm Beach County, three years ago challenged rules for breath-testing machines, but was unsuccessful.

In the second Goodman appeal, lawyers GoodEarnest and Cherry Grant have cited 13 grounds for their client to receive an outright dismissal of his case or a third trial.

The blood argument from the other appeal is among the reasons, as is a claim that Goodman’s constitutional rights were violated because investigators didn’t obtain a warrant for the blood samples and instead forcibly took it at a hospital.

Another key point in the appeal is that the judge should have dismissed the charges because prosecutors’ released Goodman’s $250,000 Bentley Continental GTC convertible to an insurance company after the first trial in 2012.

This was deemed a failure to preserve evidence to help the defense prove the Bentley malfunctioned before blowing through a stop sign at 63 mph and ramming into Wilson’s car at 120th Avenue and Lake Worth Road.

In response, the state Attorney General’s Office called Goodman’s trial defense a “charade” and urged the appeals court to uphold Goodman’s conviction on DUI manslaughter, failure to render aid.

Assistant Attorney General Richard Valuntas wrote, “There is no reasonable probability that the purported error (of releasing the Bentley) affected the verdict in this case.”

He also slammed the man cave drinking defense as an “unbelievable story.”

On March 28, both sides will get to argue their positions to the three appellate court judges reviewing the case. It would then take an estimated three to six months for the court in West Palm Beach to render an opinion.

Meanwhile, the appellate court on Thursday denied a request to review a recent bid by Goodman to be let out of prison on bond and put back on house arrest.

Goodman wanted to live with a Wellington woman who became his fiancé after he was sent to prison in late October 2014, according to a pleading from GoodEarnest and Grant.

They say Goodman is engaged to marry Morgan Trexler, a licensed bond trader who visits him weekly in Wakulla Correctional Institution, south of Tallahassee.

In the request for bond, the attorneys wrote that Goodman would live at Trexler’s home because his nearly 80-acre estate at International Polo Club Palm Beach has been sold.

Goodman also had a job lined up in the air conditioning industry, which used to be his family’s business in his native Texas.

In early January, Palm Beach County Chief Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath denied bond for Goodman without explanation or holding a hearing.

So his lawyers asked the appeals court to require Colbath to explain his reasons, or simply set a bond amount. The appeals court refused, without comment.

The attorneys argued that Goodman is entitled to an appellate bond because his circumstances have changed significantly since Colbath denied bond after the 2014 trial.

The judge then declared Goodman a major flight risk, because he’s “a wealthy individual with access to millions of dollars,” has twice been found guilty, is facing a lengthy prison sentence and has “demonstrated his propensity to flee” by leaving the scene of the crash while Wilson died.

The judge said he feared Goodman would land in a country without an extradition treaty with the United States, “to live a very comfortable lifestyle for the rest of his days.”

But Goodman’s attorneys insist he “has no desire to abandon his fight to clear his name” by fleeing the country while promising appeals remain pending.

“The suggestion that he would want to spend the rest of his life on the run at the mercy of hand-outs, as opposed to serving the less than 10 years remaining on his sentence and then becoming a free man, has no basis in fact or reality,” Good-Earnest and Grant wrote.

They also note that Goodman successfully challenged the guilty verdict from the first trial in 2012; it was tossed because of juror misconduct.

Today, Goodman “believes that his convictions will ultimately be reversed and charges may be dismissed,” the attorneys wrote.