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Police say she broke a law - even though they never found any evidence. In court Thursday the girl and her outraged family were told no evidence was needed.
It was a night cold enough that you could see a person’s breath. From a distance, an Olmos Park police officer was convinced he saw smoke.
Lisa Bixler, 16, remembers the night of February 11th clearly. She went searching for her cat “Perkins.” Halfway into her search - in her own yard - an Olmos Park officer stopped her and said he saw her smoking.
“He said ‘Empty your pockets,’ and I emptied my pockets, and he found nothing. And then he got down on his hands and knees, and he dug around on the grass with a flashlight,” said Bixler.
The officer didn’t find anything. At that point, he told the girl she was a minor in possession of tobacco and gave her a ticket.
“To be quite honest, I felt like it was the Gestapo,” said Lisa’s Father, Cory Bixler. According to Cory, the officer said if Lisa had admitted to smoking, he would have let her go. Cory says his daughter didn’t even smell like smoke. “There was vapor coming out of my mouth and things and I asked the Police Officer if he could distinguish smoke from human vapor and he said he could.”
In court Thursday, the judge found Lisa guilty of possessing tobacco. The officer’s testimony was enough evidence. When we tried to talk to the Olmos Park police chief and city prosecutor, we were told they are out of town for a couple of days. The judge says he felt it was inappropriate to comment because the Bixler’s have appealed, but the bixler’s say they haven’t appealed yet.
By the way, Lisa did find “Perkins” that night - he showed up during the incident.
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