Facebook / Marc Whyte for City Council
After posting $2,000 bond on Saturday, Whyte told News4SA he took “full ownership of his actions.”
A San Antonio criminal defense attorney is warning that it’s too early to call for District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte’s resignation even though he picked up a charge of driving while intoxicated over the weekend.
San Antonio attorney Shannon W. Locke of the Locke Law Group posted a Jan. 1 TikTok video arguing the DWI case isn’t clear cut. Locke, who counts DWI cases among his specialties, said the evidence against the councilman isn’t overwhelming.
“It is way too early to call for anybody’s resignation or to say that anybody was for sure DWI,” Locke said in the 2-minute clip.
@shannonlocke5
No one should ever drink and drive but the offense of DWI requires the State clear a number of hurdles before getting a DWI conviction. Let’s use the Marc Whyte arrest to discuss some of the Constitutional questions that his arrest might pose
♬ original sound – Shannon Locke
Whyte was arrested Friday after a San Antonio police officer witnessed him swerving between lanes, failing to use his turn signal and driving 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, according to paperwork obtained by KSAT.
The arrest came roughly a year after Whyte’s District 10 council predecessor, Clayton Perry, was charged with a DWI. In the wake of his legal troubles, Perry opted not to run for a fourth term.
According to Locke, swerving between lanes and failing to use a turn signal aren’t enough to justify a DWI stop. Although speeding is enough to pull someone over, speeding at night doesn’t indicate DWI, the attorney argued in the TikTok video.
The arresting officer reportedly smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Whyte, and the councilman allegedly “staggering while balancing,” according to paperwork obtained by KSAT. However, Locke said he’s not convinced those signs were enough to justify a blood draw warrant.
“We have a strong odor of alcohol; an odor of alcohol is not a strong indication of intoxication,” Locke said. “People can smell like alcohol and be completely sober. Additionally, there’s a question about whether or not he was ‘staggering while balancing.’ We don’t know what that means.”
Locke continued: “All of these questions need to be answered before we rush to judgment to decide whether or not Councilman Whyte was properly stopped, properly searched for his blood and properly charged with this DWI.”
Whyte posted a $2,000 bond and was released from the Bexar County Jail on Saturday, where he told News4SA’s Jordan Elder that he took “full ownership of his actions.”
“I take full ownership.”
We were the only cameras outside the Bexar County Jail as Councilman Marc Whyte was released this afternoon.
Here’s part of his statement to our Mike Guerrero: pic.twitter.com/z2nzWHkUXA
— Jordan Elder (@JordanElderTV) December 30, 2023 “Well, listen, I am always going to take full ownership for my actions, and the same goes for what happened last night,” Whyte told Elder. “But I’ll tell you, I have never, ever gotten behind the wheel of a car when I felt intoxicated. The same was true last night. But with that said, even having two or three drinks over a five-hour time period is still not right. You should never get behind the wheel of a car when you’ve had anything to drink at all, and so I take full ownership.”
Whyte has hired David Christian the same attorney who defended Perry, Texas Public Radio reports.
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