Couple Sues over Wedding Night Arrest
By: Phil Archer, KPRC
Updated: March 23, 2009
A Houston couple arrested on their wedding day plan to take legal action against the law enforcement officers who arrested and jailed them.Billy and Jade Puckett were arrested in a driving while intoxicated crackdown.
They ended up spending their wedding night in jail.
Billy Puckett pleaded no contest to a DWI charge and received a probated one-year sentence.
The couple filed a complaint with the Harris County Precinct 8 Constable's Office and plans to file another with the federal government over the way Jade Puckett was allegedly treated while in jail.
The couple said a photographer was allowed to take a picture of her in her wedding dress.
The photograph appeared on the Internet and on television.
"Yes, I spent my time in jail," Jade Puckett said. "What I do not deserve was to have my face being exploited and my career being exploited for the promotion of the law enforcement."
"This is an aberration of my wife and I's wedding night. I have stood up and taken responsibility for my actions. Now I expect law enforcement to do the same thing," Billy Puckett said.
"I was horrified. It's not any girl's dream to spend her night in jail," Jade Puckett said.
The couple said jailers opened the door to the cell she was in three times to allow people to look at Jade Puckett.
"On three occasions, Harris County mail deputies opened up her cell and played show-and-tell with her. They showed other male deputies her sitting there in her wedding dress," attorney Joe Gutheinz said.
A jail supervisor said that if that happened, it should not have.
The Sheriff's Department is investigating Puckett's allegation, as is the Harris County Precinct 8 Constable's Office.
The couple's attorney described the way the couple was treated as "outrageous."
The couple are considering filing a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice.
