Update: A memorial service for Mary Pearl Williams is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday March 5 at University United Methodist Church

Mary Pearl Williams, who in 1973 became Travis County’s first female judge and went on to a 27-year career on the County Court-at-Law and state District Court benches, died Wednesday evening at Westminster Manor, an Austin retirement home. She was 84.

Williams, (at right) a Democrat, was the judge of the 53rd District Court, which hears civil cases, from 1981 until her retirement at the end of 2000. Prior to that, she was the judge of County Court-at-Law #2, which also heard civil cases as well as misdemeanor criminal cases. Williams was appointed to that bench by the Travis County Commissioner’s Court in 1973 and in seven elections to follow, no Democrat or Republican ever challenged her.

Longtime Austin lawyer Janet Stockard described Williams as an outstanding and approachable judge who was “so down to earth, so friendly, so helpful.” Stockard said there were very few female lawyers in Austin during the 1970s.

“For her to get to be a judge, it’s a huge accomplishment,” Stockard said. “The old boys gave her a heaping hard time.”

Williams was quoted in a 1979 news article as saying her early years on the bench were difficult because of her gender.

“No attorney likes to hear ‘overruled,’” she said. “If the male attorney has any slight chauvinistic feeling, rulings are aggravating because they are from a woman.”

Her career was sprinkled with highlights, including when as a Court-at-Law judge she set a 120-day limit for disposing of cases to reduce a backlog of cases. Police officials and lawyers complained, but Williams stood firm and the backlog disappeared.

In 1998, during a last-minute hearing for a death row inmate, she condemned the state’s closed-door clemency process — a milestone in the ongoing debate over the way Texas reviews death penalty cases.

Williams was born Mary Pearl Hall in 1928 in Brownsville, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish and regularly followed her father, then Cameron County Attorney Marvin Hall, to the courthouse. She moved to Austin with her family as a child when Marvin Hall became Fire Insurance Commissioner of Texas.

Williams graduated from Austin High School in 1944 and later earned a bachelor’s and a law degree from the University of Texas, where she met her future husband, former U.S. Appeals Court Judge Jerre S. Williams.

He was a law professor at the time and the two began dating after Williams graduated. The couple married in 1950; Jerre Williams died of lung disease in 1993.

Williams is survived by her son, the Rev. Jerre Stockton Williams Jr. of Kerrville; daughters Shelley Hall Williams and Stephanie Kethley Williams Laden, both of Austin; six grandchildren and several great grandchildren.

Staff writer Andrea Ball contributed to this story.

Updated at 11:25 a.m. with reaction from the Sierra Club. Updated at 4 p.m. with reaction from supporters of the decision.

In a ruling likely to have a wide impact on the regulation of water use in Texas, the state Supreme Court today ruled that landowners have an ownership interest in water beneath their land and may be compensated if regulations limit their access to it.

The legal dispute involves a ranch owner who sued when the Edwards Aquifer Authority issued a permit that limited the amount of underground water that could be used.

The authority had argued that if landowners can be compensated for limiting access to their water, the result would be a disaster, creating an unknown number of legal disputes and a financial burden that could make regulating water impossible.

The unanimous opinion, written by Justice Nathan Hecht, noted regulation of underground water is essential to conserve a limited resource that provides 60 percent of all water used by Texans.

“Unquestionably, the state is empowered to regulate groundwater production,” the opinion states. “ In many areas of the state, and certainly in the Edwards Aquifer, demand exceeds supply.”

Even so, the state Constitution’s takings clause, which says no property can be taken for public use without adequate compensation, applies to underground water, Hecht wrote.

“We cannot know, of course, the extent to which the authority’s fears will yet materialize, but the burden of the takings clause on government is no reason to excuse its applicability,” the opinion said.

Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, said the decision could have disastrous impact on the state economy and environment.

“The court has done a huge disservice to everyone who has been working for proper management of the groundwater resources needed for our state’s people and our environment,” Kramer said.

“The likely result of this opinion will be more, not less, litigation over groundwater management in Texas. The decision creates uncertainty about how state, regional, and local entities will now be able to protect groundwater resources,” he said.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples praised the decision as an affirmation of private property rights.

“The private ownership of water and land has been protected by generations of Texans and now it is our duty to continue this proud heritage,” Staples said.

“For over 100 years, landowners have believed that the law gave them a vested private property right in the groundwater beneath their land and I am pleased that the current court upheld that today,” said state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay.

A criminal defense lawyer was sentenced today in connection with assaulting her 17-year-old daughter in Round Rock.

Allyson Rowe, 46, received five years of probation and was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, according to a news release from the Williamson County district attorney’s office. She was also ordered to perform 120 hours of community service, have no contact with the victim and attend alcohol and drug abuse treatment.

A jury convicted Rowe Feb. 9 for felony assault of a family member by strangulation. The incident occurred April 1, 2011, when a caretaker called 911 in Round Rock to report that Rowe was choking her daughter, an arrest warrant said.

Rowe and her daughter were arguing over a purse, the warrant said. When the teenager came into her mother’s room to get the purse, Rowe grabbed her and took her to the ground, the warrant said. Rowe then got on top of her daughter and put her hands around her daughter’s throat and began to choke her, according to the warrant.

The police officer who came to the scene noticed that the teen’s spray tan had been disturbed around her throat and that some of the brown spray tan was on Rowe’s hands, the warrant said.

Round Rock police had previously arrested Rowe in June 2010 for public intoxication at a sports bar, the press release said. Rowe was running at the time for election as a Williamson County Court-at-Law judge but did not win the race.

A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on April 5 in a lawsuit that claims the Texas Open Meetings Act unconstitutionally limits the free speech rights of elected officials.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Houston, the court announced today.

More than a dozen city officials from across Texas argue that the act unconstitutionally targets one class of speaker — politicians — with a criminal penalty that forces them to limit interactions with constituents and hampers their ability to do their jobs.

Last March, U.S. District Judge Robert Junell issued a strongly worded ruling that labeled some of the officials’ arguments as nonsensical. Open meetings laws are intended to promote good government and citizen involvement, not thwart free speech, he ruled.

Open meetings “enable public discussion and discourage government secrecy and fraud,” Junell wrote, noting that politicians are still free to voice their opinions.

“Their election to public office allows them a bullhorn for their ideas. Plaintiffs are merely asked to limit their group discussions about these ideas to forums in which the public may participate,” he wrote.

Since 1967, the Open Meetings Act has required quorums of a governmental body to discuss most public business in a properly called meeting, generally with at least 72 hours’ notice, that is open to the public. Violators can receive up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Junell upheld the law in a similar case in 2006 after Alpine City Council members, accused of violating the act by discussing city business in private emails, filed suit arguing that their First Amendment free speech rights were violated.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Junell in 2009, but others on the court determined that the issue needed to be considered by all 17 judges. But before that could happen, the appeal was dismissed as moot because the public officials had left office and no longer had standing to sue.

The latest challenge was filed after more plaintiffs were recruited to ensure that the case could continue through the appeals process.

A Travis County jury began hearing evidence today in the murder trial of Charles Wesley Roberts Jr., a 23-year-old accused of driving his van into a South Austin bus stop while fleeing a sheriff’s deputy last year.

Rondal Lynn Brooks, 41, who was waiting for the bus home from his job at the Texas Neurorehab Center, died in the April 15 crash. Roberts was arrested the next day and later indicted on a charge of felony murder. That charge accuses him of causing Brooks’ death while committing the felony of evading arrest while committing an act clearly dangerous to human life.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted. The trial in state District Judge Julie Kocurek’s court is expected to continue at least through tomorrow.

According to court documents, Roberts has been previously convicted of driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. In 2011 he pleaded guilty to credit card abuse, a felony, and was sentenced to four years deferred adjudication, a form of probation.

A warrant for his arrest in that case had been issued about a month before the fatal crash.

On that day, a sheriff’s deputy saw Roberts’ 2007 Toyota Sienna van and another vehicle apparently following or chasing one another in the 11900 block of Manchaca Road in far south Travis County, near FM 1628, according to an arrest affidavit.

The deputy followed the van and a short time later watched the driver fail to signal and run a stop sign while exiting an apartment complex, the affidavit said.

The deputy followed the van north on Manchaca but did not catch up to it for a couple of miles, near the intersection of Slaughter Lane and Manchaca, the affidavit said.

After the deputy turned on his overhead lights, the driver of the van pulled into the right lane, slowed down and then suddenly accelerated, the affidavit said.

The deputy then put his siren on and the van ran a red light at Dittmar Road, swerved to avoid a westbound car and crashed off the eastern side of the roadway, the affidavit said.

When the deputy got to the scene he found the van empty and Brooks on the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

A Capital Metro bus bench had been destroyed in the crash.

Brooks was a rehab technician, which is similar to a nurse’s aide, and had been on his way home after working a double shift, according to testimony.

After the crash, people at neighboring houses reported seeing a disheveled man running through the neighborhood asking for a ride.

Witness Kim Dominguez told the jury that the man told her: “I’ve got warrants, I need to get home to my wife and kids.”

Roberts’ father, Charles Wesley Roberts Sr., said under questioning by prosecutor Brandon Grunewald that his son called him at about 10:30 that night, shortly after the crash.

“I could tell he was real scared and upset,” said Roberts Sr. “He said he had messed up really bad and had had a really bad wreck and he thought he totaled his car.”

“I asked if anybody else was involved. He said ‘no, dad.’”

Roberts Sr. said his son later told him he had fled the deputy because he was afraid of going to jail for a warrant and not being able to go to work the next day and to support his wife and kids.

The next morning, Roberts Sr. said a detective showed up at his house and told him that someone had died in the crash.

Roberts Sr. said he agreed to help the detective find his son, and within three hours he and his son were at the sheriff’s office together.

Roberts Sr., who sobbed on the stand while testifying, said he had decided that “we are going to own up to this responsibility.”

Roberts Jr. declined to speak to detectives without a lawyer present, his father said.

A Williamson County judge has granted a gag order in the Mark Norwood case. The order means that lawyers, witnesses and law enforcement involved in the murder case may not talk about it outside of courtroom proceedings.

Norwood has been charged with capital murder in connection with the 1986 beating death of Christine Morton. Her husband, Michael Morton, was wrongfully held in prison for 25 years in her death until he was freed in the fall through DNA evidence.

A blood-stained bandanna had DNA on it that matched Norwood’s, and blood and hair on it belonging to Christine Morton, according to an arrest warrant for Norwood. The bandanna was found about 100 yards away from Morton’s house in southwestern Williamson County.

District Judge Burt Carnes granted the gag order Feb. 22 after it was requested by prosecutors. A trial date has not yet been set.

A federal judge in Austin today sentenced a Cedar Park man to almost three and a half years in prison for spearheading a scheme in which his company fraudulently obtained work visas on behalf of several Austin companies and then sold some of the visas to hopeful immigrants in Mexico, according to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel also ordered Jose Ramiro Vicharelly, 55, and four previously convicted co-defendants to forfeit to the government about $312,000, five vehicles and to pay a $1 million judgment, according to a news release by federal prosecutors.

All of the defendants had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Vicharelly also pleaded to an additional count of conspiracy to encourage aliens to illegally enter and reside in the United States.

Vicharelly was president and executive director of International Staffing Solutions, Inc., which did business as Texas Staffing Resources.

The company’s fraudulent scheme was explained by prosecutors as follows:

The defendants approached several Austin businesses and offered to obtain H-2B visas for foreign workers as well as for undocumented aliens already working for their companies. The defendants then submitted fraudulent visa petitions requesting authorization for significantly more visas than requested by the companies. Vicharelly and his co-defendants then sold the excess visas for between $1,500 and $2,200 and traveled to Mexico to help immigrants submit the bogus visa forms and to prepare for consular interviews.

Also convicted were Vicharelly’s wife, Irma Lopez Vicharelly, 29, who was sentenced to two years probation; his daughter, Angela Paola Faulk, 32, who was sentenced to 17 months in prison; Faulk’s husband, Servando Gonzalez Jr., 25, who received two years probation; and former company account manager Pedro Saul Ocampo Munguia, who did not show up for sentencing and is considered a fugitive.

Vicharelly was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Update 5:27 p.m.: A Travis County jury has found Charles “Chas” Roberts Jr. guilty of murder for speeding away from a sheriff’s deputy and crashing into Rondal Lynn Brooks while Brooks waited at a Manchaca Road bus stop last year.

Roberts faces up to life in prison at the sentencing phase of the trial, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Earlier: It was after 10 p.m. on April 15, 2011, and Rondal Lynn Brooks, 41, had just gotten off a double shift assisting patients at a South Austin rehabilitation center and was waiting for the bus home alongside Manchaca Road.

Travis County prosecutors told a 12-member jury today that Brooks had probably been listening to music and likely did not know what hit him when a van whose driver had been fleeing a sheriff’s deputy crashed into him.

The impact severed Brooks’ spinal cord and almost cut his leg off, Assistant District Attorney Brandon Grunewald said.

“He got hit so hard it launched him into a tree,” Grunewald said during closing arguments in the murder trial of the man accused of being the driver of that van, Charles “Chas” Roberts Jr.

“The evidence demands that you return a verdict of guilty,” Grunewald said.

The jury began deliberating the case this afternoon. Roberts, 23, faces up to life in prison if convicted.

His defense lawyer, Rhett Braniff, suggested that prosecutors did not offer enough proof that Roberts is guilty of murder and said they certainly did not offer any proof that Roberts used a deadly weapon, a finding that would mean Roberts would have to serve half of any potential prison term before being considered for parole.

A sheriff’s deputy had been trying to pull the Toyota Sienna van over for traffic violations minutes before the crash, according to testimony. At one point the driver of the van, which was heading north on Manchaca Road, slowed down before speeding ahead and through a red light at the intersection of Manchaca and Dittmar Road.

The van, which reached speeds of 90 mph during the chase, swerved to avoid another vehicle right before it crashed into the Capital Metro bus stop, prosecutor Steven Brand said. The driver of the van, which authorities say was registered to Roberts, fled into a nearby neighborhood.

Witness Kim Dominguez said she had been visiting a friend in the area that night when she saw a disheveled man come over a fence and say: “I’ve got warrants. I need to get home to my wife and kids.” The man then ran away, she said.

The defendants’ father, Charles Wesley Roberts Sr., testified that his son called him about 10:30 that night, shortly after the crash.

“I could tell he was real scared and upset,” Roberts Sr. said. “He said he had messed up really bad and had had a really bad wreck and he thought he totaled his car.”

“I asked if anybody else was involved. He said ‘No, dad.’”

Roberts Sr. said his son later told him he had fled the deputy because he was afraid of going to jail on an outstanding warrant and not being able to go to work the next day to support his wife and kids.

The next morning, Roberts Sr. said, a detective showed up at his house and told him that someone had died in the crash.

Roberts Sr. said he agreed to help the detective find his son, and within three hours he and his son were at the sheriff’s office together.

Roberts Sr., who sobbed on the stand while testifying, said he had decided that “we are going to own up to this responsibility.”

Roberts Jr. declined to speak to detectives without a lawyer present, his father said.

The jury learned that Roberts had active warrants but state District Judge Julie Kocurek ruled while jurors were not in court that it would be too prejudicial for them to learn the reason for those warrants.

According to court documents, Roberts has been previously convicted of driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. In 2011 he pleaded guilty to credit card abuse, a felony, and was sentenced to four years deferred adjudication, a form of probation.

A warrant for his arrest in that case had been issued about a month before the fatal crash. In Texas, there are two ways a person can be convicted of murder, including when they intentionally or knowingly caused somebody’s death.

The other way is the state’s felony murder statute, which states that someone is guilty of murder if while committing a felony they commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of another person.

The indictment against Roberts charges him with causing Brooks’ death while committing the felony crime of evading arrest in a vehicle. The indictment states that striking Brooks with the vehicle was the act clearly dangerous to human life.

“You have the law in front of you,” Grunewald told jurors, “and the law tells you this is murder.”

A Manor man facing a capital murder charge in the shooting deaths of two stepbrothers outside a Travis County strip club in 2010 has been sentenced to almost 20 years in federal prison in a separate drug case.

Jorge Gutierrez, 30, (pictured) had been a target of a multi-state drug trafficking investigation when he was arrested on May 31,2010, following the fatal shootings of Jose Hernandez, 24, and Arturo Rodriguez Jr., 26, outside the Pink Monkey Cabaret, a strip club in eastern Travis County.

Relatives of the victims have said that a dispute over a stolen iPhone led to a fistfight and, ultimately, to the shooting.

Witnesses to the shooting said the gunman fled the club parking lot in a Ford F-250 pickup, which deputies later pulled over with Gutierrez inside, an arrest affidavit said. Witnesses identified Gutierrez as the shooter and he was arrested, the affidavit said.

Gutierrez was indicted in federal court in Alexandria, Va., three days after the shooting. In November he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced last week to 235 months in prison. He is among 15 people sentenced to federal prison time in the case.

Federal prosecutors said Gutierrez led the ring that brought large quantities of cocaine from Mexico to his home in Manor and then had co-conspirators deliver the cocaine in vehicles to Arkansas, Virginia and Pennsylvania. During six months of 2009 and 2010 the group smuggled about 60 kilograms to Virginia alone, prosecutors said in a news release.

Officials have not alleged a link between the drug trafficking and murder cases. Gutierrez is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on his Travis County capital murder indictment on March 19. No trial date has been set.

A Travis County jury heard sentencing testimony today in the trial of Charles “Chas” Roberts, who has been convicted of murder for evading a sheriff’s deputy and crashing his car into a man waiting for a bus last year.

Among the witnesses were Roberts’ father, who testified that Roberts would have a “village of support behind him” when he is released from prison, and a forensic psychologist, who testified that Roberts has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The jury did not hear from Roberts, 24, (at right) who also did not testify during the guilt/innocence phase of the trial.

The jury in state District Judge Julie Kocurek’s court will return at 10 a.m. Friday to hear closing arguments. Roberts faces from five years to life in prison.

He stands convicted in the death of Rondal Lynn Brooks, a 41-year-old who worked as a rehab technician, similar to a nurse’s aide, at Texas Neurorehab Center. Shortly after 10 p.m. on April 11,2011 — following a double shift — Brooks was waiting for a Capital Metro bus on Manchaca Road, near Dittmar Road.

Roberts, who was being chased by a sheriff’s deputy trying to pull him over for traffic violations, crashed into the bus stop after running a red light at the intersection, according to testimony. Roberts ran away from the scene and told one person at a nearby house: “I’ve got warrants. I need to get home to my wife and kids.”

Roberts has previously been convicted of driving while intoxicated, and in 2011 he pleaded guilty to credit card abuse and was sentenced to four years’ deferred adjudication, a form of probation.

A warrant for his arrest in that case had been issued about a month before the fatal crash. Stephen Thorne, a forensic psychologist, told jurors today that he spent about five hours interviewing Roberts and learned that Roberts had a drug and alcohol problem. He also determined that Robers suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Thorne explained that people who suffer the disorder have trouble controlling their impulses and are about two to four years behind in their social and emotional maturity.

“It’s not just a classroom disorder where you can’t sit still,” Thorne said.

Update 3:17 p.m. A Travis County jury has sentenced Charles “Chas” Roberts Jr. to 25 years in prison for killing a man waiting at a bus stop when Roberts lost control of his van while evading a sheriff’s deputy on Manchaca Road last year. Roberts, 24, must serve half that sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Earlier:Prosecutor Brandon Grunewald asked a Travis County jury today to assess a 35-year-sentence to Charles “Chas” Roberts Jr., who was convicted Wednesday of murder for evading a sheriff’s deputy and crashing his car into a man waiting for a bus last year.

Roberts’ defense lawyer asked the jury for leniency.

The jury in state District Judge Julie Kocurek’s courtroom began deliberating a sentence this morning. Roberts, at right, faces from five years to life in prison.

Roberts crashed into the bus stop alongside Manchaca Road on April 11, 2011, killing Rondal Lynn Brooks, a 41-year-old who worked as a rehab technician, similar to a nurse’s aide

Grunewald told the jury that Brooks took the bus because he was afraid to drive because years earlier he survived a car crash that killed two others.

“He’s taking the bus because he doesn’t want to get killed by a car,” Grunewald said in his emotional closing argument. “That’s his one fear and that’s what happened to him.”

Defense lawyer Rhett Braniff asked for a sentence at the low end of that range.

“I think there’s a life worth saving over there,” he said. “It was an unintentional act.”

Braniff said that since the crash, Roberts and his family and friends have become better equipped to understand that his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder could lead to criminal behavior. They now know the importance of him staying on his medication, Braniff said.

Roberts, 24, did not testify.

Brooks had worked a double shift at Texas Neurorehab Center and was waiting for the Capital Metro bus near the corner of Manchaca Road and Dittmar Road in South Austin when he was hit so hard by Roberts’ Toyota Sienna van that his body ended up in a tree.

Roberts was being chased by a sheriff’s deputy who had been trying to pull him over for traffic violations. He had driven at speeds up to 90 miles per hour and had just run a red light when he crashed into the bus stop, according to testimony.

Roberts ran away from the scene and told one person at a nearby house: “I’ve got warrants. I need to get home to my wife and kids,’ according to testimony.

Roberts has previously been convicted of driving while intoxicated, and in 2011 he pleaded guilty to credit card abuse and was sentenced to four years’ deferred adjudication, a form of probation.

A warrant for his arrest in that case had been issued about a month before the fatal crash.

Stephen Thorne, a forensic psychologist, told jurors yesterday that he spent about five hours interviewing Roberts and learned that Roberts has drug and alcohol addictions. He also determined that Roberts suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which could cause problems with impulse control.

Prosecutor Steven Brand said Roberts must be held accountable.

“It’s time we just say enough,” he said, “enough with your excuses.”

This story has been updated with comment from Gabrielle Nestande’s lawyer Perry Minton.

Emotions ran high this morning at a routine pretrial court setting for Gabrielle Nestande, a former Capitol staffer accused of leaving the scene of a fatal accident in West Austin’s Tarrytown neighborhood last year.

Nestande, at right, is free on bail and according to witnesses she was confronted prior to the hearing by a friend of Courtney Griffin, the 30-year-old woman who Nestande is accused of striking with her vehicle on Exposition Boulevard in May.

The man told Nestande that Griffin would have celebrated a birthday this week if not for Nestande’s actions, witnesses said.

Perry Minton, one of Nestande’s lawyers, said the man then told Nestande: “you are a vile human being.”

Minton said he then told the man to act like a gentleman.

Nestande continued into state District Judge Karen Sage’s courtroom in the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center downtown, where she cried while lawyers in the case met at the bench.

Nestande continued to cry as she left the courtroom a short time later and got on the elevator with her three lawyers — Roy Minton, Perry Minton and Samuel Bassett.

Minton explained in an email later in the day that in court he and the other lawyers “told the judge that although we do not begrudge the family’s passions about the loss of their daughter (as well as their friends), but we do not feel that Gabby deserves to be treated this manner.”

“Judge Sage agreed and said that she would not tolerate it,” Minton said.

Prosecutor Mary Farrington said that in addition to the incident outside court, lawyers discussed the ongoing discovery, or sharing of evidence with the defense, and the timing of the trial.

“We don’t condone that type of behavior,” Farrington said outside court. “Hopefully Courtney’s supporters realize that in a court of law they need to treat the defendant with respect.”

Griffin’s father, Bart Griffin, took the man who confronted Nestande aside after the court setting was over and told him that “we don’t need to do anything that appears to be harassing.”

“All we want is justice,” Griffin said.

Friends and family have remembered Griffin for her abiding love of animals and children; she was a nanny who had previously worked as a veterinary technician.

She was walking on Exposition Boulevard between Bridle Path and Bonnie Road when a vehicle struck her and fled the scene, police have said. Her body was found in a driveway about 5 a.m. on Friday, May 27.

A few hours later, an anonymous 911 caller reported spotting a black BMW 3 Series sedan with a broken windshield parked in a driveway in the 3100 block of Windsor Road, a half-mile from where Griffin’s body was found.

Authorities traced the sedan to Nestande, who had parked the car at the home of an acquaintance, police said.

“The damage was consistent with that of an auto/pedestrian collision,” stated a police affidavit charging Nestande. “There were pieces of clothing and skin tissue found in the cracks of the windshield.”

Police initially said they believed alcohol was involved but Nestande was indicted last year only on a charge of failure to stop and render aid, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Nestande is the daughter of a prominent California politician who left her job in the Capitol office of state Rep. Wayne Christian after her arrest in the case. She currently lives in California and travels to Austin for court appearances.

Nestande’s lawyers have said that they don’t believe alcohol was the cause of the accident.

Bart Griffin said he suspects that Nestande was drunk that night and that is why she ran off the wide road and into the bike lane where his daughter had been walking. He also supsects that she fled because she was drunk.

Griffin said he hopes for additional charges to be filed against Nestande.

Asked by television news reporters for his reaction to Nestande crying, Griffin said: “I could care less if she cried or not. I mean, she took my daughter.”

A Williamson County judge sentenced a Taylor man who was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend to 30 years in prison.

Marcus Sherrod Pope, 37, pleaded guilty today to assault, according to a news release from the Williamson County district attorney’s office.

Pope’s girlfriend called 911 on March 4, 2011, to report that Pope had just hit her in the face with his fists at her home in Taylor, the release said.

The girlfriend told police that she had persuaded Pope to leave the house and follow her in his car to an ATM, where she would give him money to stay somewhere else that night, according to the release. A Taylor police officer tried to stop Pope, who pulled over and fled on foot, the press release said.

Police arrested him three weeks later after finding him asleep in a park in Belton, according to the press release.

Pope previously served time in prison for aggravated assault in 2006 in Williamson County, aggravated robbery in Tarrant County in 2000 and unauthorized use of a vehicle and arson in 1996 in Williamson County, according to the release.

He had also been convicted of misdemeanors including evading arrest in 1996 and assault-family violence in 2009, the release said.

A Travis County grand jury has declined to indict a 20-year old woman who was accused of committing aggravated assault by ramming a pedicab with her BMW SUV while driving downtown in October.

Elle Obering Obrien, pictured, remains charged with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor.

A pedicab driver told police that after 1 a.m. on Oct. 23, someone in a black BMW SUV threw a bowl of ice cream at his pedicab while he was transporting passengers downtown on E. Fourth Street near San Jacinto Blvd., according to an arrest affidavit.

The driver, Russell Williams, said the SUV then bumped his pedicab from behind in what he described as a “love tap,” the affidavit.

Williams told police that the SUV then hit his pedicab again a lot harder than the first time, the affidavit said. Williams and Rachael Hallberg, one of his passengers, told police that the SUV ran over Hallberg’s foot when it rammed the pedicab the second time, the affidavit said. Hallberg told police she had been trying to get out of the pedicab.

Police found Obrien a short time later at the P. Terry’s restaurant on South Lamar Boulevard, where she had complained that her friend had been sprayed with pepper spray.

Police linked her to the incident downtown because her license plate number matched the license plate number noted by crash witnesses, the affidavit said. An officer then gave Obrien a field sobriety test, noting that at one point she was leaning about 5-6 inches forward and appeared as if she was going to fall forward, the affidavit said.

When the officer decided to arrest Obrien, who said she had taken several prescription drugs and had been drinking, she repeated an obscene phrase directed at him, the affidavit said.

The grand jury’s decision not to indict Obrien on the aggravated assault charge, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, means the panel did not find probable cause that she committed the crime. The decision, which included no explanation, was released Friday and the charge has been dismissed.

Misdemeanors are usually not considered by grand juries.

Obrien is free on a personal recognizance bond and living in South Austin, according to court documents. Neither she nor her lawyer could be reached for comment.

An Austin man has pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a disabled person and was sentenced to ten years deferred adjudication, a form of probation, in an attack on a 14-year-old autistic boy at the Montopolis Recreation Center.

Senior state District Judge Wilford Flowers sentenced Robert Ayala, 50, (pictured) last week under a plea bargain with prosecutors. If Ayala, who must register as a sex offender for life, violates the terms of his probation, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutor Allison Benesch said she believes that the sentence protects the community. She noted that Ayala once suffered a serious head injury and is confined to a wheel chair and that the terms of his probation require him to be accompanied by a probation department approved chaperone whenever he is in public, to complete sex offender therapy and to stay away from the boy and from the recreation center where the attack occurred. She said the victim and his mother agreed with the disposition.

The boy had been swimming at the recreation center in Southeast Austin on June 26, 2010, when he went into the restroom, an arrest affidavit said. Ayala followed him in and locked the door before sexually assaulting him, the affidavit said.

John Michael Rodriguez, who was with an Austin teen fatally shot by police at a South Austin Big Lots store in 2010, pleaded guilty today to burglary of a building in the case and was sentenced to deferred adjudication, a form of probation.

Rodriguez, 20, also pleaded guilty to burglary of a habitation, entry with commission of assault related to a September incident at his girlfriend’s home, according to his lawyer, Amber Vazquez Bode. State District Judge Mike Lynch sentenced Rodriguez to a 10 years deferred adjudication in that case and 5 years deferred adjudication in the Big Lots case, with the terms to run concurrently.

As a condition of probation, Rodriguez must serve six months in jail. Prosecutor Buddy Meyer said Rodriguez has already served most of that time.

Prosecutors dismissed an additional charges of burglary of a building and theft of a firearm as part of the plea deal, lawyers in the case said.

Police have said that at about 6 a.m. on October 1, 2010, Rodriguez and 16-year-old Devin Contreras broke into the Big Lots store on William Cannon Drive near Interstate 35.

When Austin police arrived, Contreras ran out the back of the store.

Travis County prosecutors have said that Contreras burst out of the door, raised a gun at Officer James Bowman and then jumped off a landing, prompting Bowman to fire 14 rounds and hit Contreras four times.

Investigators said that under Contreras’ body, they later found a loaded pistol, which was stolen during a string of storage unit burglaries just hours before the incident, prosecutors said.

Police have said that Rodriguez, who was spotted by arriving officers inside the store, was thought to have escaped into nearby woods

A police investigation found that the shooting was justified and a Travis County grand jury declined to indict Bowman.

Contreras’ family filed a federal lawsuit in November claiming that Bowman used excessive and unnecessary force. That suit is pending.

One of the dismissed charges stemmed from storage unit burglaries at 2201 S. Pleasant Valley Road in Southeast Austin. In one case, an owner said five firearms were stolen, including a Smith & Wesson revolver with a serial number matching the one found in Contreras’ possession.

Vazquez Bode said that her client had not been in serious trouble before his arrest in the Big Lots case. She said he has a baby and is hoping to go back to school and get his life together.

“He’s real smart and he’s really mature,” she said. “This situation has really opened up his eyes.”

If Rodriguez violates the terms of his probation, a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years in prison.

This story has been corrected to note that Rodriguez’s probation term for burglary of a building is 5 years.

A Wimberley woman has been charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter in a November crash on U.S. 290 West that left an Austin pastor and his wife dead.

Terri Munoz Elmore, 40, faces up to 20 years in prison on each count. An arrest affidavit was filed against her Thursday. She was booked into the Travis County jail at 4:30 p.m. today. Bail has been set at $25,000 for each charge.

The wreck that killed the Rev. Ernest Jackson Boyett Jr. and his wife, Barbara, occurred Nov. 29 on U.S. 290 in southwestern Travis County, near Baxter Lane, officials have said.

The Boyetts were traveling east in a 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan about 9:15 p.m. when a westbound 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser crossed into oncoming traffic and hit them head-on, according to officials and the arrest affidavit.

The Boyetts, who were both 64, were pronounced dead at the scene, official said.

Elmore, a registered paramedic, was driving the FJ Cruiser. She was taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin after the wreck with injuries. Information on those injuries or her current condition was not immediately available.

The affidavit said that Elmore’s alcohol level at the hospital the night of the crash was .2 grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath, which is .12 grams above the legal limit for driving.

Ernest Jackson Boyett founded Dayspring Fellowship, a reformed Baptist church on Avenue G near Hyde Park.

The church began in a South Austin home in 1978 and at the time of Boyett’s death had about 200 members, many of whom traveled from as far away as Marble Falls, San Marcos and Leander to attend, members have said.

Boyett, who met his wife at the University of Texas, was active at crisis pregnancy centers and at homes for single mothers, and was an anti-abortion rights activist. He graduated from a seminary in Austin in the late 1970s and was a radio host on a Christian radio station.

The couple had homes in the South Austin neighborhood of Travis Heights as well as near Junction, church members have said.

The legal limit of alcohol concentration for driving has been corrected.

Travis County District Attorney’s Office appellate bureau director Bryan Case today vacated a run for the 167th District Court in Travis County and filed paperwork to run for the 3rd Court of Appeals position held by Justice Bob Pemberton.

Case, a Democrat, is the only Democrat challenging Pemberton, a Republican.

Case had been among a crowded Democratic primary field in the bid to replace state District Judge Mike Lynch. Fellow prosecutor Efrain De La Fuente and defense lawyer David Wahlberg remain in the race.

A prolonged battle over redistricting had long left the date of the Texas primary elections up in the air. On March 1, a federal court in San Antonio set the primaries for May 29 and reopened the filing period for the primaries.

When that happened, Democratic loyalists began pressuring Case to leave the crowded race for the 167th District Court, a trial court that hears felony cases, and enter the fray where most of his experience lies — in the appellate courts.

Case’s political consultant Ken Flippin said Case made a decision Thursday night to enter the 3rd Court race and today Case and his supporters gathered the 450 signatures of Travis County voters necessary to get on the ballot.

The filing period ended today with no other candidate stepping up to challenge Pemberton.

Noted Houston trial lawyer Rusty Hardin has been appointed to act as special prosecutor for the court of inquiry that was convened last month in the Michael Morton case.

The court of inquiry will determine if former Williamson County prosecutor Ken Anderson, now a district judge in Georgetown, improperly withheld information that could have kept Morton from being wrongly convicted for his wife’s murder in 1987.

Anderson has denied the allegation, leveled by Morton’s lawyers in the months since their client was freed in October after serving almost 25 years in prison. Texas courts have since declared Morton innocent in the murder of Christine Morton.

Hardin was appointed by District Judge Louis Sturns of Fort Worth, who will conduct the court of inquiry, a rarely used feature of the Texas criminal code designed to determine whether state laws have been broken.

Hardin will question witnesses, compile evidence and “render other assistance to the judge as necessary,” according to state law. The formal name for Hardin’s position is attorney pro tem, but most people refer to him as a special prosecutor in the matter.

In more than 15 years as an assistant district attorney in Harris County, Hardin was known as an aggressive litigator with fearsome skills as a cross-examiner. He tried 14 death penalty cases and never lost a felony jury trial, according to his law firm’s website.

After leaving the prosecutor’s office in 1990, Hardin was chief trial counsel for the Whitewater independent counsel’s office under Ken Starr and Bob Fiske.

His profile has only grown since launching Rusty Hardin and Associates in 1996, with clients including pitcher Roger Clemens, accused of steroid use; accounting firm Arthur Andersen in its civil and criminal cases linked to the Enron collapse; and the estate of millionaire J. Howard Marshall in the probate fight with his widow, former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith.

Hardin also is the founder of Texas People Against Crime, a political action committee that advocated on behalf of crime victims and law enforcement.

Authorities announced today that they have charged 22 people who they say were responsible for selling more than 5 kilograms, or more than 11 pounds, of cocaine per week in the Austin area during the past 10 months.

“This is quite large,” Austin Assistant Police Chief Sean Mannix said during a morning press conference. “It’s not just taking a street dealer off the street. It’s a whole cell.”

Mannix said the group includes member of Austin area street gangs who received their cocaine directly from members of a drug cartel, which he declined to name.

Fifteen of the defendants are charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.The rest of the defendants have been charged in state court.

Last week, authorities executed a coordinated series of search and arrest warrants. Two defendants were already in custody.One remains at large, authorities said.

U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman said that because of the amount of drugs involved, the federal defendants face a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison if convicted.

At the press conference, officials praised the teamwork of the federal and state authorities, which include the FBI. Authorities declined to speculate on the affect the takedown would have on the local drug market.

“We don’t fool ourselves into thinking that by taking these people off the streets” the drug problem in Austin will abate, Mannix said.

Pitman identified Vivid Kahey, 34, as a leader in the cocaine distribution ring. Also charged in federal court were Austin residents Raymond Smith, 38; Rodney Ryan, 33; Kenyatta McClain, 36; Luis Gonzales, 43; Noe Lopez, 33; Mario Gonzalez; 40; Bianca Garza, 24; Daniel Olmos, 21; and Llasmin Orduno, 24.

Also charged in federal court were Vicente Sanchez, 34, of Cedar Creek and Kevin Edwards, 41, of Manor.

The number of defendants charged in federal court has been corrected.