Tiffany Haddish made moves in court to block a jury, who will be deciding her fate over a Georgia DUI, from hearing about her DUI arrest in California, Us Weekly can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by Us, the Girls Trip actress and Georgia prosecutors are battling over certain evidence that will be presented to the jury at the upcoming trial.
Haddish, 45, was arrested in January 2022 in Georgia. Peachtree City Police officers received a call about a driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel.
The police pulled Haddish over, claiming her car was similar to the car they received the call about.
As they spoke to Haddish, the officers believed she had smoked marijuana and arrested her for DUI. She was released after posting bond in the amount of $1,666.
The entertainer pleaded not guilty to all charges.
As Us previously reported, Haddish was arrested again in November 2023. She was booked on a DUI.
TMZ reported that Haddish had fallen asleep behind the wheel of her car while it was in the middle of a Los Angeles street. The District Attorney charged Haddish with a DUI and driving with a BAC over .08 percent.
Following the second arrest, the prosecutors presiding over Haddish’s case in Georgia asked that the comedian submit to weekly drug tests. They also asked that she not drink or use drugs while out on bond.
The tests were eventually reduced to bi-monthly.
In February 2024, Haddish reached a plea deal with prosecutors in California. Per the agreement, the two misdemeanor DUI charges were dropped and replaced with a reckless driving charge.
At the time, her lawyer Alex Spiro said, “Ms. Haddish has agreed to a simple vehicle code violation – not driving under the influence, which has been dismissed – and looks forward to this being behind her.”
In their newly filed motion, Georgia prosecutors asked the judge to allow them to introduce “evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts” at the upcoming trial.
Specifically, they want to tell the jury about Haddish’s 2023 arrest in Beverly Hills.
Recently, Haddish filed an opposition to the request. Her lawyer wrote, “nearly two and a half years after the inception of this case and nearly three and half years after the alleged incident date, [prosecutors] filed [a] notice declaring their intention to introduce evidence regarding a 2023 arrest of [Haddish] for which she ultimately resolved with a plea to a lesser traffic offense in California.”
The comedian’s lawyer pointed out, “This case has been on-call for the court’s trial calendar approximately a half a dozen times … and the state has never mentioned this issue once.”
“The state has not addressed the timeliness of this notice or the reason for this delay in their filings,” Haddish’s lawyer continued.
“[It’s] frankly bizarre, nonsensical and should be denied on its face,” her lawyer said. “It appears [it] has taken a ‘boilerplate’ motion and notice and either failed to particularize them to the facts of this case or has confused this case with another.”
On top of that, Haddish said that she did not refuse a blood test in this case. She alleged her breath results were well under the legal limit “at 0.02 BAC.”
Her lawyer argued, “[Georgia prosecutors] simply wants to put before the jury that [Haddish] was arrested under suspicion of DUI (although ultimately exonerated of such) at a later date to let the jury draw an inference of propensity and/or character to illegally drink and drive.”
She asked that the jury not hear about her previous arrest.
Last year, Haddish and her team asked that certain evidence collected by police not be allowed as evidence due to an “unlawful search.” Her lawyer denied Haddish’s car matched the description of the car they were called about. The attorney called the traffic stop “illegal.”
A trial date has yet to be set.
Read the full article here
