Back in 2022, Opelousas attorney and former Louisiana Senator Elbert Lee Guillory was arrested by State Police for DWI following a crash.
In March, that charge was dropped after a St. Landry Parish judge found that the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test, a key part of the field sobriety tests, was improperly administered by the investigating officer, a spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office says.
The court decided the evidence wasn't admissible at trial, and so the charge was dropped. Last week, Guillory pleaded no contest to one count of failure to yield at a stop sign. He was sentenced to a fine of $50 plus court costs, or in the alternative, he can serve five days in the parish jail.
We reached out to Guillory, but he declined to comment. And, we reached out to State Police to see if they had any reaction to the court deciding the test was administered improperly. State Police declined comment.
At the time, State Police told us the arrest followed a minor crash in Opelousas. Following the crash, Guillory exchanged information with the other driver and left, troopers say. That prevented a hit-and-run charge.
But a call went out on the vehicle, and Guillory was stopped and arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, troopers say.
He was fingerprinted and issued a summons for first-offense DWI, failure to yield and a stop sign and no proof of insurance. Troopers say he refused to submit to a breath test, which under Louisiana law triggers a one-year suspension of your driver's license.
