What Was She Thinking?

Perhaps some of you in the San Antonio legal community haven't yet heard about the local attorney busted for marijuana possession as she tried to enter the Bexar County Courthouse. The punchline to this story: She claims she was holding it for a client. (Note that the E-N article calls her a defense attorney, but her State Bar web page lists her primary practice areas as labor law and construction.)

High-profile defense attorney Regina Criswell was arrested Thursday after courthouse officials reported finding a bag of marijuana and a chrome pipe in her purse. Her defense, according to the Sheriff's Office: The items belong to a client.

Criswell, 50, told a security guard that she knew the marijuana and paraphernalia were in her purse and that she was holding it for a client, said Deputy Ino Badillo, a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Badillo said the items were discovered at a screening station at an entrance of the courthouse.

Walking through a security checkpoint with pot on you isn't too smart, no matter what your profession. But for a lawyer to hold contraband for a client is even more foolish. Local blog Strange in San Antonio also notes the "lack of good judgment, at the very least," while Man O' Law just calls this stunt "pretty stupid."

Criswell, by the way, is the attorney who recently won $175,000 for a UTSA professor whose research notes got trashed when they cleaned out his lab, but the federal judge tossed that verdict. She plans to appeal the judge's decision to overturn that award.

And yes, she's a St. Mary's grad.