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posted by martyb on Friday March 10 2017, @12:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the Liar!-Liar!-Pants-on-Fire! dept.

A defense lawyer's pants caught on fire while he was delivering a closing argument at an arson trial:

Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client's car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

He rushed out of the Miami courtroom, leaving spectators stunned. After jurors were ushered out, Gutierrez returned unharmed, with a singed pocket, and insisted it wasn't a staged defense demonstration gone wrong, observers said. Instead, Gutierrez blamed a faulty battery in an e-cigarette, witnesses told the Miami Herald. "It was surreal," one observer told the Miami Herald.

Jurors convicted his client of second-degree arson anyway.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 10 2017, @05:51PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday March 10 2017, @05:51PM (#477432)

    To avoid that risk, lawyers have decided to embrace modern methods and tweet their closing arguments...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2