A former Florida lawyer whose pants caught on fire during a 2017 trial was arrested on Feb. 15, 2021, on a cocaine charge. Shutterstock A former Florida lawyer who made headlines when his pants caught on fire during an arson trial in 2017 was recently charged with cocaine possession, authorities said.
Stephen Gutierrez, 32, was arrested on Monday night after being pulled over for driving with a broken headlight, the Miami Herald reported. During the traffic stop, a Miami-Dade police officer noticed a bulge in Gutierrez’s pocket, which he thought was a knife.
During the March 2017 trial, Gutierrez was arguing that the blaze may have been caused by spontaneous combustion — when his own pants erupted in flames. Gutierrez went running out of the courtroom, with smoke pouring out of his right pocket, the Herald reported at the time.
In a story first reported by the Miami Herald, Gutierrez was arguing to jurors that the blaze might have been caused by spontaneous combustion when flames and smoke began billowing from his pants. Gutierrez went running out of the courtroom, as bewildered jurors and spectators watched.
Shutterstock. A former Florida lawyer who made headlines when his pants caught on fire during an arson trial in 2017 was recently charged with cocaine possession, authorities said. Stephen Gutierrez, 32 , was arrested on Monday ...
Ex-lawyer whose pants caught on fire at trial busted on cocaine charge. A former Florida lawyer whose pants caught on fire during a 2017 trial was arrested on Feb. 15, 2021, on a cocaine charge. Shutterstock. A former Florida lawyer who made headlines when his pants caught on fire during an arson trial in 2017 was recently charged ...
Gutierrez’s arrest came after his license to practice law was revoked in October, Florida Bar records show. The ex-attorney gained nationwide notoriety four years ago when he represented a man accused of torching his own car for the insurance money.
Stephen Gutierrez, 32, was arrested on Monday night after being pulled over for driving with a broken headlight, the Miami Herald reported. During the traffic stop, a Miami-Dade police officer noticed a bulge in Gutierrez’s pocket, which he thought was a knife.
But Gutierrez wasn’t charged in the incident, as prosecutors said they couldn’t prove he acted with criminal intent.
Gutierrez went running out of the courtroom, as bewildered jurors and spectators watched. He blamed a faulty battery in his electronic cigarette for igniting in his pocket at a coincidental time. The episode generated national and international headlines.
Stephen Gutierrez, 32, whose law license is currently revoked, was pulled over Monday night near Westchester and arrested on a felony cocaine charge. According to a Miami-Dade police report, he was pulled over for driving without a working headlight. An officer saw a bulge in his pocket and believed it was a knife;
Defense attorney Stephen Gutierrez was in a Miami-Dade courtroom on Wednesday when his pants started smoking.
Kalhan Rosenblatt. Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News , based in New York.
But During his closing argument, Gutierrez began to feel heat coming from his pocket where he had several electric cigarette batteries, he told NBC News in an email. As Gutierrez argued Charles’ car had merely spontaneously combusted, the lawyer’s pants seemed to do the same.
Gutierrez said as the heat intensified, he hurried into the bathroom where he tossed the battery in water. He was able to return to the courtroom with a singed pocket. "This was not staged," Gutierrez said. "No one thinks that a battery left in their pocket is somehow going to 'explode.
When Gutierrez returned to the courtroom unharmed, he insisted it wasn’t a staged defence gone wrong. Later in the day his client, Claudy Charles, 48, was convicted of second-degree arson.
Stephen Gutierrez said he had two to three e-cigarette batteries in his pocket when his pants caught fire during an arson trial in Miami. Picture: thelawdoctor.net Source:Supplied. The Miami Herald reported Gutierrez was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted and wasn’t intentionally set on fire.