Alpine
An Alpine woman’s legal saga is likely a wrap after the U.S. attorney’s office moved to drop their appeal of her case to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Last September, Carmen Cavaness was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine after 10 grams of the stimulant was discovered in her car. Cavaness pled not guilty, and the case was tossed by U.S. District Judge David Counts after a successful motion to suppress evidence on Fifth Amendment grounds.
The trouble started on the morning of August 28, 2025, when Officer Zachary Juarez of the Alpine Police Department conducted a traffic stop on Cavaness for driving on the shoulder of the road. Dashcam footage cited in court documents shows her driving on the shoulder, emergency flashers activated. She also happened to be driving on a spare “donut” tire meant for traveling short distances at reduced speeds.
Officer Juarez pulled her over for driving on the shoulder and became suspicious that there was more to the story after observing “confusion and disorientation,” suggesting to him that she might be somehow too impaired to drive. “Upon conducting a search of the vehicle officers were able to locate a small clear plastic baggie containing a crystal-like substance,” Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force Officer Javier Bustemente wrote in his criminal complaint, drafted later that day. “APD officers placed Cavaness into custody and transported her and the small baggie to the Alpine Police Department.”
At the station, Cavaness waived her right to remain silent and “admitted to agents that she possessed and transported the controlled substance with the intent to distribute the substance within the Alpine, Texas, area,” according to Bustemente.
Alpine attorney Shane O’Neal, representing Cavaness in this case, wasn’t convinced that Juarez had the legal grounds to pull his client over in the first place, and moved to suppress the evidence collected by the Alpine Police Department and the DEA—namely, the 10 grams of methamphetamine and her statements to police after being taken into the station.
O’Neal cited United States v. Lopez-Moreno, a 2005 Fifth Circuit case: “For a traffic stop to be justified at its inception, an officer must have an objectively reasonable suspicion that some sort of illegal activity, such as a traffic violation, occurred or is about to occur, before stopping the vehicle.”
Digging into the Texas Transportation Code, O’Neal further argued that driving on the shoulder isn’t outrightly illegal—the law provides seven scenarios in which a driver can safely and lawfully pull over on the right-hand side of the road, including “to allow another vehicle traveling faster to pass.”
Here, Cavaness’ spare donut tire made all the difference. “Because the spare tire was smaller than her other tires, safe driving dictated that she permit vehicles not similarly encumbered to pass her,” O’Neal wrote. “Instead of passing, or merely stopping himself to see if she had continued on, he activated his emergency lights and seized her though she had not committed a traffic violation.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmie Holloway submitted a response arguing that Cavaness’ behavior and the condition of the roadway held up the officer’s justification for the stop—but Judge Counts didn’t buy it. “On this record, [the court] is hard pressed to see how someone driving at a reduced speed on a donut with hazard lights flashing could be viewed as doing anything but allowing the officer, traveling at a faster rate of speed, to pass,” Counts wrote in a December order granting O’Neal’s motion.
Counts’ order dropped the charges, but the government appealed the case—only to move in a “joint stipulation” with O’Neal that neither party intended to continue pursuing the appeal. That doesn’t officially mean the case is closed, however. “Now [the court] has to decide whether they dismiss or go forward without the suppressed evidence,” O’Neal explained.
The U.S. attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.