People caught driving while intoxicated in Montgomery County are being busted in more ways than one. The county district attorney's office is now calling them out in the status-sphere by posting their names on its Twitter page for everyone to see.

The first tweets listing people charged with DWI popped up during the Christmas holiday when police beefed up patrols.

They're part of an effort by District Attorney Brett Ligon to crack down on DWIs in a growing county with a reputation for dangerous roads, said Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam, who manages the prosecutor's Twitter page and came up with the idea.

“Ligon has recognized that DWI is our most frequently committed crime in Montgomery County,” Diepraam said. “The message he's sending is: ‘If you're going to commit an offense of DWI in Montgomery County, we're coming after you.' We're hoping it has a deterrent effect on individuals.”

So far, 23 people have been listed on the Twitter page.

While more and more government and law enforcement agencies are turning to social networking sites to keep the public informed, the Montgomery County prosecutor's office appears to be one of the first in the nation to list alleged offenders' names on a site.

With more than 600 followers on Twitter, the move is stirring up controversy, especially among some defense attorneys and many of those arrested. They contend what the district attorney is doing is unfair and borderline unconstitutional.

Due process violation?

“It's not breaking the law, but it's bad form,” said Houston DWI attorney Tyler Flood. “A person is presumed innocent. This shows a lack of respect for the presumption of innocence.”

Houston civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen said it's a due process violation because offenders' reputations are tainted before they get a chance to clear their name.

“Many of those people will never be convicted, so they're being punished without being convicted,” said Kallinen, who is ready to explore legal challenges against the district attorney.

‘That's a little extreme'

Cleveland resident Racheal Alvarado, arrested on suspicion of DWI on Dec. 19, said she had no idea that her name was on Twitter until she was informed this week.

“Honestly, that kind of bothers me,” said Alvarado, 25. “A DWI is an embarrassing thing. It's not something I'm proud of. Some people in my family don't know about it.

“I think that's a little extreme. I don't need them to be my parent, and I don't need my name all over Twitter.”

Linda Owens, 45, of Montgomery, said she thinks it should be against the law.

“I haven't been proven guilty,” said Owens, who was arrested Dec. 20. “What happened to our rights?”

Owens said she was not intoxicated and believes she was wrongly arrested so that police could meet arrest quotas.

“I'm going to fight like hell so I'm not convicted,” she said.

Jimmy Neill, whose wife, Kimberly, was arrested Dec. 20, said the couple has hired an attorney. He said it's unfair “to cherry-pick one weekend and one crime.”

If the prosecutor is going to list names and charges, he should do it for every crime, not just DWI, he said.

On the public record

Diepraam said he doesn't see any problems with using Twitter to identify people arrested on a DWI charge. The information is public record and can be obtained by anyone through courthouse records, law enforcement agency Web sites and newspapers, he said.

“We're taking the open government thing a little further,” he said. “I've heard from agencies across Texas that think what we're doing is setting the standard.”

The office plans to continue to list suspected offenders' names on Twitter during stepped-up DWI enforcement on major holiday weeks.

Robert Kepple, executive director of the Texas Association of District and County Attorneys, said he has not heard of any other prosecutor's office listing DWI offenders' names on social networking sites, but as more begin to use them, that might change.

“I don't think it's any secret about the problem Texas has with DWI,” Kepple said. “When trying to inform the public about the problem, agencies should use any means at their disposal to get the word out.”

About 20 years ago, when the country began taking DWI seriously, one of the tools was to identify people allegedly driving drunk as a means of community accountability, said Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association.

So what Montgomery County is doing is not so unusual — it's just using a new medium, he said.

“It's not a magic bullet, but it might make people think before they get behind the wheel of a car,” Diepraam said.

renee.lee@chron.com