On October 18, 2006, Houston police arrested 34-year-old Jeffrey Gaston after they confiscated a substance from him that field-tested positive for cocaine.
On October 20, 2006, Gaston pled guilty in Harris County Criminal District Court to possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He was sentenced to 60 days in the Harris County Jail.
In 2014, the Harris County District Attorney’s Post Conviction Review Unit informed Gaston’s defense lawyer that the Houston police crime laboratory tested the substance in January 2011—more than four years his arrest—and the substance was negative for the presence of a controlled substance.
The prosecution then joined with Gaston’s attorney in filing a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus requesting that Gaston’s conviction be vacated. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted the writ in February 2015. The prosecution dismissed the charge on April 2, 2015.
– Maurice Possley
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