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Ex-prosecutor accused of DUI

By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published October 5, 2006

TAMPA - Paul Duval Johnson, a private practice defense lawyer with 10 years of experience as a top assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County, was arrested Tuesday night, accused of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crash.

Johnson was picked up at W Morrison Avenue and S Himes Avenue at 11:35 p.m. Tampa police Officer James Blanchard, who works with the DUI squad, said he smelled alcohol on Johnson's breath and noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and his speech was slurred.

According to his arrest report, Johnson struck another vehicle and kept driving, never stopping to exchange insurance information.

Johnson, 48, of Tampa refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test and also refused to tell booking clerks at the Orient Road Jail his occupation, saying only that he was self-employed.

Eddie Suarez, Johnson's attorney, said late Wednesday that Johnson doesn't think a crash ever occurred.

"Paul never felt an impact to the vehicle," Suarez said. Pictures of Johnson's car show no damage, Suarez said.

Johnson had had a long day, Suarez said, and had a late dinner at a cafe in Hyde Park. He was heading home when he was arrested. Johnson did drink some wine with dinner, Suarez said.

But Suarez said he believes Johnson will be exonerated.

Johnson served as senior litigation specialist under State Attorney Harry Lee Coe, who killed himself in 2000 as reporters were investigating what later was revealed to be a gambling problem.

Records released following Coe's death indicated that Johnson and another top Coe aide helped Coe prepare and rehearse his answers to reporters' questions about gambling.

As a prosecutor, Johnson handled some of the office's most significant cases, once stepping in after another prosecutor quit to win convictions in the case of Christopher Wilson, a black man kidnapped and set on fire by two white Lakeland men in a horrific racial attack.

Johnson, now in private practice, was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1982. He was released from the Orient Road Jail about 12 hours after his arrest, posting $750 bail.

[Last modified October 5, 2006, 01:04:00]