Inset left: Dee Ann Haney (Galveston County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Haney in another booking photo (Texas City Police Department).
A woman from Texas who once held a public office has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term for breaking her probation terms following a fatal accident that claimed the lives of a father and son.
In the early hours of July 3, 2017, Dee Ann Haney, 63, collided her Ford F-150 with a Toyota Tacoma near the Galveston Causeway Bridge, resulting in the deaths of Duoc Van Le, 58, and Hong Phuc Le, 33.
In February 2024, after being convicted of two counts of criminally negligent homicide, Haney received 10 years of probation.
“Naturally, we’re disappointed with that,” a prosecutor explained to Houston’s ABC affiliate KTRK last year. “We believed that prison was the rightful punishment in a case like this due to the damage inflicted on the Le family and our community.”
Now, a bit belatedly, the state is getting its request fulfilled.
At the time of the incident, Haney was headed north in the far right lane of Interstate 45 in the small Gulf Coast town, as noted in a police report acquired by Houston’s The CW affiliate KIAH. The Le family had paused on the shoulder to secure a loose piece of plexiglass when Haney’s vehicle veered from the left lane into the shoulder, crashing into them.
“She displayed signs of marijuana use and admitted to having smoked marijuana,” Galveston Police Capt. Joshua Schirard remarked at the time in a conversation with KIAH.
Lab test results, however, showed no significant levels of THC in the defendant’s bloodstream, authorities later acknowledged.
Haney’s legal battle spanned six years and concluded with 8 1/2 hours of jury discussions, resulting in probation, a $10,000 fine, and largely symbolic incarceration to be served one day annually on the crash’s anniversary until 2027.
She would only get the chance to serve one of those symbolic days in jail before her arrest again in September 2024.
On Sept. 27, 2024, at around 4 a.m., Haney was arrested after being reported by a witness who said the former commissioner-at-large for Texas City was driving erratically and slurring her speech, according to court documents obtained by Houston-based NBC affiliate KPRC.
This time around, after refusing a breathalyzer, the defendant was charged with DWI by the Texas City Police Department.
When arrested, Haney said she was chasing several people who had attacked her earlier that night, police claim. The witness, on the other hand, said they saw the defendant all by her lonesome, near a park, screaming into the night and rolling around on the ground.
Responding officers said the defendant admittedly had taken her daily medications, absent her nightly dose, and earlier in the night drank one beer and one shot. Police believed her drinking likely exceeded that amount – and accused Haney of having alcohol on her breath, slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and poor balance.
Now, after a two-day trial, the defendant’s probation has been revoked.
On Friday, 122nd Judicial District Court Judge Jeth Jones said Haney had received a second chance when jurors opted for probation.
“I’m not giving you a third,” the judge intoned. “You don’t seem to have ever taken this seriously.”
Now, Haney will have to spend the next 10 years of her life in state prison. But it was not the second driving incident alone that put her there.
The defendant also failed to complete mandatory community service, authorities alleged. In court documents obtained by KTRK, Haney was supposed to perform 16 hours of such service per week.
“She wasn’t successful at completing the technical obligations of her probation,” Galveston County Chief Assistant Criminal District Attorney Kacey Launius told KTRK. “Completing community service hours is such an easy thing to do, and she simply was not doing that.”
Haney was first elected to the Texas City Commission in 2004; she did not resign after the fatal crash, but lost a re-election bid in 2018.
