Madison Taylor

Former state lawmaker Cary Allred finally spoke Wednesday after a week of statements, evidence, testimony, deliberation and guilty verdict at the superior court appeal case of his driving while impaired conviction in November. He did his talking to the Judge W. Osmond Smith before being sentenced to basically twice what he received after being found guilty in district court. It’ll be interesting to see what his 48 hours of community service might entail.

It was an apology to the police. Based on video evidence compiled by traffic stop video cameras, he probably owed the authorities that much if not more. It was an ugly scene in both places on the night of June 29, 2010. What was astonishing to many who watched the videos, is that Burlington police officers didn’t treat Allred more harshly. Surely, many said to themselves, had I spoken or treated the police that way, the outcome would’ve been different.

Perhaps. It’s impossible to know for sure unless you take the time to get arrested and taunt or lambaste the cops while they’re doing their job. I’m not going to take that chance.

Allred maintains he was not impaired, just angry. The jury believes he scammed the breath test, the foreman said. They didn’t buy the story. There is also some question about what condition it might be that keeps Allred from successfully completing the sobriety tests. Jurors didn’t believe his for-hire witness about either. I’m still puzzled by the “inner-ear (problem) or what have you.”

Here are the key quotes from the last day of the trial.

“I was not impaired. I was just angry because of incidents I’d had with Burlington police in the past. I’m guilty of losing my temper. I’m sorry I did that. I apologize to the Burlington police for that … I just cannot stand on one leg or walk with one foot in front of the other because of an inner-ear (problem) or what have you.”
Cary Allred to Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith prior to sentencing

“The jury thought if there would have been a blood test, it would have saved a lot of time. It’s not standard practice for the Burlington police department, we understand that. But it would have saved a lot of time and money if a blood test had been administered. He went to the hospital, stayed 10 minutes and didn’t take the time to stay and get the blood test done. Again, that all led us to believe that once he got to the hospital, he thought better of his choice to get blood test done: It would show his guilt.”
Chuck Hooper, jury foreman about Allred’s breath test and aborted effort to get a blood test on the night of his arrest.

“We felt like he was paid to say what he did. They did a test outside (the presence of the) jury. That wasn’t performed for us, it wasn’t taped, we had no doctors and no medical form telling us he couldn’t perform those tests.”
Hooper about the testimony of hired witness Doug Scott

At this point, only members of the seven-man, five-woman jury truly know how deadlocked they are in the driving while impaired trial of former state lawmaker Cary Allred, which will continue today in Alamance County Superior Court.

All we can truly guess is that they are indeed in conflict after not reaching a unanimous verdict after a half-day of deliberations on Tuesday. It’s not a complicated case. There’s only one charge to consider. Either jurors believe the police and the state who both contend that Allred was too impaired to drive on the night of June 29 or they don’t.

It really is that simple. And later this morning jurors apparently agreed. After only about 15 minutes of additional deliberation today, they reached a guilty verdict

Allred, who was found guilty by a district court judge in November, appeared to be sitting in good position as he headed to court this morning. But that turned out to be a false reading.

Judge Osmond Smith said on Tuesday that he would instruct the jury this morning about what it means to be a hung jury, which is a panel hopelessly deadlocked. Should that scenario have occured, there were really two outcomes. The state continues to press the case against Allred and sets another court date to do this all over again, or drop the charges altogether.

That’ll would have been a tough call for the District Attorney’s office. Allred is a well-known public figure so the case has several sets of extra eyes on it. Prosecutors would have to determine whether Allred’s potential threat to the community outweighed the cost and trouble of another weeklong trial. Had that happened, I suspect they might have dropped the case.

Sometime today in Alamance County Superior Court the jury will begin deliberating the fate of former state lawmaker Cary Allred in his appeal of a driving while impaired conviction in November. The decision should be interesting to say the least. From the testimony I’ve read and the evidence I’ve seen, any outcome is possible.

It’s a matter of reasonable doubt. In my experience, that varies by jury. Even the best-selected panels sometimes make up their minds for reasons only they fully understand. What constitutes reasonble doubt to one group, may not to another. And if for some reason the jury came to believe early on that Allred is guilty or innocent they might just stay with that particular belief no matter the evidence.

Reasonable doubt. It’s such an American concept and a difficult one to grasp. It’s a tossup really, which is why Allred gambled on going before a jury. If you have the scratch to hire two attroneys and an expert witness, then why not?

What will be even more interesting to watch is where Allred goes from here. He made a show during his traffic stop of telling police they were ruining his political career. That may or may not be the case. It could be the police started the job and Allred is finishing it right here and now. After watching his conduct — drunk or sober — in his interactions with police it’s hard to see voters sending him back into a position of political responsibility. Up to 2008, voters did so again and again — starting in 1994. Before that, he was a county commissioner and a one-time member of the state Senate.

During the stops, Allred displays not only a lack of respect for the law — but for people in general. Anyone besides a rather well-to-to person and former political leader would’ve been cited for this kind of conduct with law enforcement — or perhaps physically subdued.

No matter the outcome today, what comes next will tell the true tale.

Cary Allred is unbalanced, according to testimony Friday in Alamance County Superior Court.
Hey, it’s part of the record.
Actually, according to a hired expert witness on field sobriety testing, Allred isn’t physically able to perform a couple of the standard tests police routinely give to those suspected of driving while impaired. Former Cary cop Doug Scott says Allred, a former state lawmaker, can’t do the one-leg stand or the walk-and-turn tests because of a serious problem with balance. On a certain level, I get that. As someone who sees in only one eye, I have a similar problem sometimes.
Allred, by the way, is paying Scott $1,500 for testimony in the superior court jury case, which is an appeal of guilty verdict in November. Scott’s a professional witness in DWI cases. He also admitted that he’s not a medical expert and that the tests become more difficult when someone has been drinking.
The case will go to the jury on Tuesday and Allred isn’t testifying. I’m surprised. I was almost sure he would.
By the way, Judge Osmond Smith released police traffic stop videos to the Times-News today and our online content editor Joe Jurney is working to put them up on our website. Some are now there.
Stay tuned.

Here are today’s top quotes or moments.

“When I asked him to take his glasses off … he fell over onto the table and had to catch himself on the table.”
Former Cary officer Doug Scott referring to Allred’s lack of balance during a test he conducted on the former member of the state House.

“I don’t agree with that. That’s a document on NHTSA’s website. There are probably others who don’t agree with that.”
Response to question from Assistant District Attorney Paul Soderberg about eyeglasses not impacting the vision test according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website saying eyeglasses don’t affect the vision test.

“We had a normal conversation and he acted normal. … To me, he was the same old Cary that I’ve known over the years. I didn’t notice any intoxication.”
Reid Allen, an Allred acquaintance who saw him at Ruby Tuesday on the night of the arrest

During cross-examination, Allen said he only knows Allred through his political career.
“So you don’t know what he looks like when he is impaired?” ADA Paul Soderberg asked.
Allen agreed.

“We knew since he got pulled over that the corporate office would call and ask questions and we needed to make sure I hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Kimberly Malcolm, a bartender at Ruby Tuesday in response to a question by ADA Paul Soderberg about when she learned about Allred’s DWI.

Burlington police Sgt. Chris Gaddis

The big news flash of the day is that Burlington police officers would rather avoid dealing with former state lawmaker Cary Allred if they can help it. On the night he was arrested, officers said they couldn’t help it.

Testimony also explained why they respond to calls involving the former state lawmaker with multiple officers. Sgt. Chris Gaddis said in Alamance County Superior Court that police want to make sure everything goes by the book — and that witnesses are around.

Here’s the key quote from the third day of testimony in the driving while impaired trial of Allred, who appealed the case to superior court after being found guilty in November in district court. Our coverage, by the way, includes multiple videos. This is only one of them.

“He’s unpleasant to be around. He’s very accusatory, very derogatory. He can be somewhat argumentative and bullying. Why would you want to be around someone unpleasant? That’s why we respond (to calls involving Allred) with multiple officers. We want witnesses. We need to be able to document everything we do. That’s just how it is.”

Sgt. Chris Gaddis under questioning from defense attorney John Fanney about why officers don’t’ like interacting with Allred.

That might help the defense, which is that Allred is loud and boisterous whether he’s drinking alcohol or not. We’ll see.

In all, Gaddis spent three more hours on the witness stand on Thursday, which brings his grand total to nine hours under questioning by the prosecution and defense.

The trial, originally thought to be set for about four days, goes into day four on Friday and the state is still going over testimony. If the defense offers any evidence or testimony at all, the trial will wind into next week. Persoanlly, I think Allred will testify.

This is going slower than the O.J. Simpson trial.

A critical part of day three involved Allred’s four failed attempts to make the breath test equipment work on the night of June 29, when he was pulled over near City Park.

Allred has long contended that he did not refuse the breath test, he simply couldn’t make the equipment work. Gaddis thinks Allred was faking and said so in court. To police that constitutes a refusal. It happens, Gaddis said, when suspects “try to manipulate the instrument.”

Sounds vaguely … weird.

Anyway, Gaddis testified that he thinks Allred used his lips or tongue to block the mouthpiece. It’s an old trick.

On an audio recording, Gaddis could be heard instructing Allred to seal his lips around a mouthpiece and blow until told to stop. In further questioning, Alamance County Assistant District Attorney Paul Soderberg played that portion of Gaddis’ instructions three times for jurors.

“Did you ever tell Mr. Allred to stop blowing?” Soderberg asked.

“No,” Gaddis said.

Done correctly, the machine should work, said Nick Quarantello, who oversees the state’s breath-alcohol testing equipment also said he’d blown breath samples into the instrument more than 3,000 times while training officers how to use the equipment and had only blown an insufficient sample 10 times.

The driving while impaired trial of former state lawmaker Cary Allred has a chance to be perhaps the longest trial of its kind in recent memory that didn’t involve a serious injury or fatality.

And no telling when it’ll ultimately end. The original estimate was four days. Now, I’m not so sure it won’t extend into next week. Remember that we are covering it daily online via Twitter. We are also posting video from the trial.

We’ll see.

Wednesday marked the second day of testimony in the trial for an offense that is most often disposed of in District Court. A judge found Allred guilty in November of last year just after Allred’s unsuccessful write-in bid to return to politics via the county board of commissioners. Allred appealed.

Tuesday, testimony centered on the first encounter Allred had with Burlington police at the La Fiesta restaurant and bar on South Church Street. Wednesday’s testimony was largely about Allred being stopped, tested and arrested later that night on South Church Street as he was heading home from Ruby Tuesday, a restaurant and bar on Huffman Mill Road.

And Wednesday was a long day. Police Sgt. Chris Gaddis spent six hours on the witness stand — one of only two witnesses on the day — and hasn’t faced cross-examination yet from Allred’s Raleigh attorney John Fanney. Gaddis was the officer who stopped Allred on the night of June 29, 2010.

There’s still a whole lot more to come, folks.

Here are the best quotes from the second day of testimony.

According to testimony, Allred was charged with driving while impaired after Gaddis noted 12 traffic violations or unsafe maneuvers — including grazing a curb, changing lanes without using a turn signal and speeding — while following Allred’s 1989 Ford Taurus.

“I was confident he was impaired.”
Sgt. Chris Gaddis

“You know you’re really picking on me, man. You’re going to get in trouble for this.”
Cary Allred to police Sgt. Chris Gaddis during traffic stop video.

When Allred exits his vehicle, Gaddis warns him to be careful of oncoming traffic.
“I’d rather be killed right now. I’m tired of you guys messing with me,” Allred responds.
Traffic stop video

“This will be the end of my political career and the integrity of the police department. You know what you’re doing to my life. All I ever did was try to help poor people who didn’t get help otherwise.”
Allred to police after his arrest

At one point in the recording, Allred asks Gaddis about his family. Gaddis declines to answer the question, saying it’s not relevant to the situation.

“I was just curious. Just wondering if you were a human being,” Allred says.
Captured during traffic stop video

The first day of the driving while impaired trial of former lawmaker Cary Allred featured some interesting testimony regarding an incident that occurred early in the evening at the LaFiesta restaurant on South Church Street between Allred and Burlington police officers.

And it would appear that the defense strategy for Allred’s appeal will be that he is often loud and bombastic, but that doesn’t mean he’s intoxicated.

Here are some favorite quotes or moments from Day 1.

 “Evidence will show that Cary is just one of those different people. He’s boisterous and outspoken.”
John Fanney, Allred’s attorney

 Police Sgt. Jay Snow told Allred that his dogs were in “distress and breathing hard.”
Allred responded: “They always are. Dogs look like that, even when they are in a cool environment.”

 “This is supposed to be a free country. I can say anything I want to unless it’s fire in a theater and if you guys don’t leave me alone, I’m going to sue you for harassment.”
Allred to police on the night of his arrest

 “Quit wasting taxpayer’s money on crap that doesn’t hurt anybody. The dog is fine.”
Allred to police on the night of his arrest

 “I actually thought he was going to get hit by a car.”
Snow on Allred crossing Church Street from LaFiesta to get to the Skid’s parking lot where his dogs were locked in a car.

 “As soon as he got in all of our faces, including mine, I noticed his eyes were glassy and he had a moderate to strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath, … It didn’t smell like onions and hot dogs. It smelled like alcohol.”
Police Sgt. Chris Gaddis

 “Quite frankly, nobody at Burlington Police Department likes dealing with Mr. Allred. We’d rather, if possible, not have to deal with him.”
Gaddis during testimony