Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Houston Chron reports that

An assistant Harris County attorney was convicted on Thursday of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, in a case where she was accused of brandishing a gun in a road rage incident.

Susan Marie Sciacca showed a firearm and threatened to harm another driver on Jan. 17, 2014, according to court records.

Jurors in state District Judge Kristin Guiney's court will begin deliberating punishment for the 46-year-old woman on Friday.

She is out of jail on a $30,000 bail and remains on staff at the Harris County Attorney's Office, the legal arm of the county, which primarily files and defends civil lawsuits.

The agency, which is headed by Vince Ryan, is separate from the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which is tasked with prosecuting suspects.

At the time of the alleged assault, Sciacca worked in the Family Protective Services Divisions on cases involving abused or neglected children.

Details on the arrest from ABC News

Susan Sciacca, 55, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to the Tomball, Texas, police, she said she became angry after a vehicle cut her off as she drove along a suburban Houston highway last Friday afternoon. She then followed the vehicle into a local credit union parking lot and pulled up alongside the car, police told ABC News.

Police said the car's driver, John Leazer, 40, told them that Sciacca appeared “enraged” and pointed a shiny silver pistol at him while screaming obscenities as he exited his vehicle. Leazer's wife was also in the car at the time.

"I'm basically scared. I honestly thought she was going to shoot me," Leazer told KHOU-TV.

Leazer called 911, and when police arrived they arrested Sciacca on the spot, the police told ABC News.

The entire incident was captured by the bank’s surveillance cameras, police said. The footage shows Sciacca's vehicle pulling up alongside Leazer's car in the lot, Leazer exiting his car and attempting to read Sciacca's license plate while on the line with 911, police said.

According to police, Sciacca admitted to pointing the gun at Leazer, but claims she feared for her life and that it was Leazer who followed her into the parking lot. Sciacca has pleaded not guilty to the charges, her attorney, Dan Cogdelle, told ABC News.

“We expect her to be exonerated,” said Cogdelle. While Cogdelle said he had subpoenaed the surveillance footage of the incident, he had not yet had a chance to review it.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2015/08/the-houston-chron-reports-that-an-assistant-harris-county-attorney-was-convicted-on-thursday-of-aggravated-assault-with-a-de.html