January 9, 2003 - Former FBI Agent Gets Prison For DUI

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan 08, 2003 - A former FBI agent was sentenced to three months in prison Tuesday on drunken and reckless driving charges resulting from a traffic accident in which two brothers were killed.

David Farrell, 37, had been acquitted on manslaughter charges that could have brought him 30 years.

The acquittal Nov. 26 resulted in a series of protests from the black and Haitian communities and they continued in front of the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.

Family members of the victims, Maurice Williams and Craig Chambers, have said they plan to sue Farrall, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Quarterdeck Restaurant, where Farrall allegedly drank several pitchers of beer before the accident in November 1999.

The mother of brothers, Florence Thompson, yelled out loud with happiness when the sentence was announced including prison time, but she said later she was unhappy with the outcome.

"There's no satisfaction. my kids are gone," she said. "There's no satisfaction no matter what."

Prosecutors said Williams and Chambers were killed on Interstate 95 by Farrall, who was driving his vehicle the wrong way, and smashed into the brothers' small car.

Jurors said after the verdict there was too much reasonable doubt whether Farrall was in the wrong lane.

They said they couldn't tell for sure who was driving on the left of the median.

Circuit Judge Marc Gold delayed a ruling on a motion for a new trial on grounds of testimony by two new witnesses. One said Farrall was driving on the wrong side of the highway and the other said the brothers were.

The case gained national attention when Farrall was allowed to demonstrate his ability to drink and not be impaired.

Under supervision, Farrall drank two pitchers and a pint of beer and ate the same amount of food he did before the accident. But Circuit Judge Marc Gold refused a defense motion to throw out the blood sample evidence as a result.