White steps up daughter's DWI defense

Yesterday morning, we talked about Mayor Bill White's 17-year-old daughter, Elena, getting arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated. It seemed innocuous enough at first: The mayor said she made a bad decision and that he was glad she was safe. But by the end of the day, White had changed his tune a little: Now he says his daughter doesn't think she was drunk and the arrest might have been a mistake.

Elena White was pulled over at about 11 p.m. Monday in the 9800 block of Memorial Drive when a policeman noticed her car weaving in traffic without its headlights on. Precinct 5 Deputy Constable Nicholas Derkowski pulled her over and, according to the Chronicle, "smelled alcohol coming from [her] car." He asked her to take a field sobriety test, which included walking in a straight line and following a moving object with her eyes. She failed that test and declined to take a Breathalyzer test. According to KTRK, no alcohol was found in the car and Elena White was alone, both things that could work in her favor:

"It will, because there's no evidence the person was drinking in the car while she was driving and frankly, there's no evidence," said ABC13 legal expert Joel Androphy. "A lot of police officers make the mistake of smelling someone's breath and smelling someone's breathe [sic] doesn't mean much."

Mayor White explained the lack of headlights, saying Elena was driving his Toyota Prius, in which the lights don't automatically turn on (we suppose they do in the car she usually drives). As for being drunk, White says his daughter told him she wasn't: "My daughter believes she was not intoxicated and not dangerous and wasn't impaired to drive," he said. "So we'll be reviewing the tape."

White brought in attorney Rusty Hardin to represent Elena, who is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.