Jury seated, aggravated sodomy trial for ex-Harris deputy to start Wednesday

After nearly eight hours of jury selection, at times emotion and probing into deeply person topics, nine women and three men were selected on Tuesday to hear the case of a former Harris County Sheriff’s deputy on trial for aggravated sodomy and sexual battery.

Thomas Carl Pierson is facing about a dozen charges stemming from a 2016 traffic stop where he is accused of forcing a woman motorist to give him oral sex. Opening statements and testimony will being Wednesday morning in Harris County Superior Court in front of Judge Bobby Peters.

They started ay 9 Tuesday morning with a pool of 71 prospective jurors and got it down to 12 and two alternates about 6 p.m.

Because of the graphic nature of the charges against Pierson, several of the jurors were asked deeply person questions about sexual history. The attorneys were trying to discover if something in someone’s past might prevent them from being fair when considering Pierson’s fate.

One prospective juror was asked about an incident that happened nearly 50 years ago after saying that there had been a sexual assault.

“That was 47 years ago and I haven’t told anyone,” the prospective juror said. “We are in uncharted waters. I would like to think that I could rise to the occasion and do what I was supposed to do.”

Before details emerged, the prospective juror was dismissed by Peters. Attorneys on both sides concurred with the decision.

Just before the jury was selected one of the prospective jurors, being questioned individually, summed up the day. The juror said during questioning she was “sad,” then she was asked by defense attorney Bernard S. Brody why she was feeling that way.

“There is not any particular reason,” the juror said. “It is what it is. There are a lot of lives that have already been affected by this no matter the outcome. And that makes me sad.”

Peters denied a defense request for change of venue.

Before jury selection began, Peters issued two critical rulings on testimony he will allow in the trial.

Pierson’s defense sought to have oral and written statements made by Pierson to his Harris County Sheriff’s Office superiors prior to Pierson’s arrest be inadmissible. Assistant District Attorney Bill Lisenby Jr. argued that Pierson gave his statements voluntarily.

Peters ruled those statements were admissible.

After being confronted by Chief Deputy Neil Adams on Feb. 14, 2016, Pierson at first denied that he had sexual relations with a woman he stopped earlier that day. He then said it was “consensual” after the woman identified the type of underwear Pierson was wearing to a sheriff’s office investigator. Pierson showed his underwear to a superior and it matched the description, Adams told the court on Monday.

The next day Pierson met with Adams and Sheriff Mike Jolley. He brought a written statement to that meeting.

“Mr. Pierson knew his rights and understood his rights and was not coerced in any way,” Peters said as he issued his ruling.

The judge ruled that statements made by Pierson’s wife, Amy, could not be admitted unless she took the stand as a witness. Pierson’s direct supervisor, Sgt. Joe Harmon, testified Monday during the motion hearing that he took Pierson home on Feb. 14.

“He asked me to speak to his wife on his behalf,” Harmon said.

Harmon told the wife, who is not scheduled to testify in the trial, that Pierson had been accused of sexual assault.

“Her reaction was, ‘I can’t believe he’s doing this at work,’” Harmon told the court. “... ‘It is not like I have never seen another woman suck his d--- before.’”

Harmon said Pierson’s wife “enlightened” him about other partners.

“She said she told him not to do it at work because that’s supposed to be off limits,” Harmon said.

Pierson never spoke during Harmon’s conversation with Pierson’s wife, which was held in the front yard, Harmon said.

“He sat there with his head down,” Harmon told the court.

The judge said that Harmon’s testimony would be hearsay, but he did not close the door to the jury hearing the statements.

“The deputy talked to the wife at the request of Mr. Pierson,” Peters said. “If she took the stand it would be different. If she doesn’t take the stand, you can’t get it in.”

Here is a breakdown of the accusations against Pierson:

On Feb. 14, 2016, Pierson pulled a woman over for speeding about 1 p.m. on Ga. 85 near Victoria Airpark Drive north of Waverly Hall, authorities said. He wrote her a warning and let her go, but pulled her over again five miles away, near Twin Lakes Road, where he allegedly switched off his cruiser’s camera and forced the woman to give him oral sex.

His alleged actions were discovered after the woman reported it to the Pike County, Ga., Sheriff’s Office, triggering a Harris County internal investigation that same day. During that investigation, Pierson initially denied the allegations, then claimed it was consensual after confronted with the information that the woman had identified the underwear he had on at the time of the first questioning, according to testimony on Monday.

In that incident, prosecutors have charged him with aggravated sodomy, sexual battery, false imprisonment and tampering with evidence, and with two counts each of violating his oath as a public officer and sexual assault on a person in custody.

After that case made the news last year, two more women accused Pierson of sexually inappropriate conduct related to traffic stops.

One said that on Oct. 20, 2015, Pierson pulled her over, engaged in inappropriate behavior, then showed up at her Warm Springs Road home the next day, investigators said. Based on this allegation, authorities have charged him with stalking, a misdemeanor, and with violating his oath as a public officer, a felony.

The other woman said Pierson behaved inappropriately after pulling her over on Sept. 12, 2015, then followed her to her grandmother’s home on Holland Road “for the purpose of harassing and intimidating” her. For this, prosecutors added one additional count each of stalking and violating his oath.

This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Jury seated, aggravated sodomy trial for ex-Harris deputy to start Wednesday."