Charges Against Montgomery Dismissed
You have to be kidding me! Joel Montgomery, a Birmingham city councilor, gets so drunk he falls on his face in a Southside parking lot and then tries to throw his weight around when he’s arrested, and the charges are dismissed?
The Birmingham News doesn’t bother to tell us (or doesn’t know?) that the special prosecutor agreed to drop the charges in exchange for Montgomery’s agreement not to sue the city. As usual, Kyle Whitmire at Mixed Media has the story first.
Montgomery does plan to sue the owner of the parking lot. I guess said owner must have been standing out there on that fateful night, waiting to trip drunk, unwary city councilors. Need I say it again? Joel Montgomery is a putz.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Sounds to me like one of those expediency deals - it would have cost them more to fight his lawsuit than it was worth.
Re parking lot owner: my sister got sued years ago because a woman had some kind of “event” in a French Quarter courtyard and fell like a log. She was drinking and there was no evidence she’d tripped - seemed more like a seizure or some other medical problem - but the flagstones were uneven, because the Vieux Carre Commission wanted them left that way, and her husband decided she “must have” tripped.
August 17th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I always thought public officials were held to a higher standard.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
“I always thought public officials were held to a higher standard.”
Clearly not in this case. I’d love to know what was going through the judge’s mind.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Unfortunately, I’ve recently gotten to experience the justice system myself, and I’ll tell you it’s unfair and fickle. It’s all a game and you never know who is going to win.
But he had a great mugshot.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Yeah, his mugshot is a classic, right up there with Nick Nolte.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:47 am
[...] Montgomery is vehemently denying reports that he underwent alcohol counseling as a condition of the deal to dismiss public intoxication charges against him, even though the special prosecutor says counseling is standard in cases like this [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
[...] Two weeks ago, a judge dismissed public intoxication charges against Birmingham City Councilor Joel Montgomery, reportedly in exchange for his promise not to [...]