A Bexar County judge on Thursday sentenced the son of a prominent local jeweler to 6 years behind bars, the maximum allowed, after he violated his probation on multiple occasions in December. James Preston Green had, until Thursday, avoided being sentenced to jail time on all four of his drunken driving convictions. Green was first sentenced to six years of community supervision under a plea agreement during an Oct. 24 hearing for his fifth DWI arrest and fourth conviction. That same day, his father, Jimmy Green, owner of the Stone Oak-area J. Green Jewelers, posted a photo of then-Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood captioned, "Nico La Hood’s mens bible study the best I ever attend!!! Men come join us!!!" Jimmy Green told the Defenders in November that his son had straightened out his life since his January 2018 arrest. However, weeks after that conversation, 379th District Court Judge Ron Rangel signed off on the motion to revoke James Green’s probation. James Green was taken into custody on Dec. 18, where he remained while being held without bond. Attorney argues James Green suffers from alcoholism, checked into luxury rehab facility James Green's attorney argued Thursday that his client suffers from alcoholism and that he was up front about his probation violations and self-reported his violations. Rangel replied that probation officials would have known about the violations regardless. "I believe there are programs in TDC (Texas Department of Corrections). I wish there were, I hope there are. He obviously needs it," Green's attorney Bryan Orihel told KSAT 12 after the hearing. James Green's attorney also said that, prior to his Dec. 18 arrest, he did a 30-day stint at a luxury rehab facility and had been taking steps to sobriety. James Green told the judge that he had remained sober for 10 months and had a "bad day," and drank alcohol, resulting in probation violations. James Green tests positive for alcohol on Dec. 6, 7 According to court documents, Green drank alcohol on Dec. 6 and tested positive for alcohol on three occasions on Dec. 7. READ THE MOTION TO REVOKE GREEN'S PROBATION The motion states Green, on the morning of Dec. 7, registered a breath alcohol concentration of 0.054 on a portable monitor he was required to have through the conditions of his probation. Later that morning, Green registered a BrAC of 0.057 on his Breathalyzer system installed on the ignition of his vehicle. Later that afternoon, Green registered a BrAC of 0.012 at around 1 p.m. through the same system. James Green told Rangel during his Thursday hearing that he did, in fact, violate his probation by consuming alcohol. District attorney contradicts his office on plea decision In November, the district attorney's office said the plea agreement "was in the best interest of the victim, the defendant, and the community," and one Rangel approved. LaHood contradicted that statement when the Defenders reached out to his office again in December, after Green had been rearrested. LaHood said he did not know about the plea agreement in advance and that after reviewing Green's case, he doesn't agree with the plea bargain Green was offered. LaHood said he has no personal connection to James Green, although James Green told officers during his most recent arrest, "How about Nico LaHood? How about that for my f---ing lawyer? That's my f---ing lawyer, Nico LaHood. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I f---ing thought," adding that he'd be contacting LaHood about his arrest. With approximately 200 prosecutors in his office who handled more than 50,000 cases annually, LaHood said in December there was no realistic way for him to micromanage cases, striking down the suggestion that Green may have received preferential treatment. A new district attorney, Joe Gonzales, has been sworn into office since James Green's arrest. Catherine Babbitt, who oversees criminal prosecution for Gonzales' office, said Thursday she couldn't speak to the plea agreement reached under the LaHood administration, but said that in her 30 years of experience prosecuting criminal cases, the deal was "highly unusual." James Green's legal woes continue in Guadalupe County James Green’s legal issues didn’t end with Rangel’s decision Thursday. Online court records indicate James Green was still serving eight years of community supervision in Guadalupe County for his third drunken driving conviction from 2013. James Green’s Dec. 18 arrest violated the conditions his probation in Guadalupe County. A day after he was arrested for violating his probation in Bexar County, a Guadalupe County judge issued a warrant for Green’s arrest and also signed off on a motion to revoke Green’s probation. A hearing date for Green’s legal woes in Guadalupe County has not yet been set. James Green's criminal history Arrest records compiled by the Defenders from Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties show James Green has been arrested on suspicion of DWI five times since 2008. Records show a 2008 DWI arrest in Bexar County was taken into consideration and dismissed in January 2011, after Green agreed to plead guilty in a 2009 DWI case in Bexar County. Four months later, in May 2011, Green was arrested for DWI-2nd, and misdemeanor marijuana possession in Comal County. Green pleaded no contest in January 2012 but his probation was extended in February 2014, according to Comal County court records. By then, Green had landed a fourth DWI charge after being arrested in Guadalupe County in March 2013, records show. In that incident, Green was also charged with evading arrest and tampering with physical evidence. Records show he was convicted of DWI-3rd or more, a felony, in November 2013, but his 10-year prison sentence was suspended. Green's criminal history in Bexar County also includes multiple charges for evading arrest and a disorderly conduct conviction, as well as a misdemeanor drug possession charge and a family violence charge that were later dismissed. Crash report gives detail to Green's January DWI arrest In his most recent DWI arrest, Green rear-ended a vehicle at Wurzbach Parkway near Nacogdoches Road, then ran from the scene. Police caught up to Green and pepper-sprayed him after he attempted to run from officers, the crash report states. Records show he had a blood alcohol content of 0.166, twice the legal limit. As authorities walked him back to the scene, he claimed someone carjacked him at gunpoint at Sam's Burger Joint and that he crashed the vehicle as an attempt to get away from the carjacker, according to the report. READ THE CRASH REPORT "But why would a carjacker drive from Sam's Burger Joint toward his parents house?" an investigator wrote in the report, adding that Green was visibly intoxicated and that his story wasn't believable. Video from the back seat of the patrol car shows Green slurring as he repeated his story that he was carjacked. "I was kidnapped," Green says in the back seat of the police vehicle while in handcuffs. "I was kidnapped at Sam's Burger Joint as I was getting in my car. Then I got my a-- beat, but no one's listening to me." Continuing coverage on KSAT.com Son of prominent SA jeweler finally faces jail time after multiple DWI convictions 5 DWI arrests, 4 convictions, no jail time for son of prominent SA jeweler
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