Brian Coyne, 58, a Houston defense lawyer who caused a downtown car wreck in January, 2003 that killed Michael Bruns, a Chase Bank officer from The Woodlands, was sentenced Monday to five days in jail, eight years’ probation, fined $10,000, and ordered to perform 350 hours of community service after pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide in December. Mr. Coyne could have faced up to 10 years in prison.
This marks the end of legal proceedings over this incident, which is one of those unspeakable trajedies that reminds us of the shortness of life and the unforseen irreversible consequences that sometimes result from serious errors in judgment. Mr. Bruns was a pillar in The Woodlands community, and his death left a loving wife without a husband and three young children without a father. I do not know Mr. Coyne, but it my understanding from those who do is that he is a caring man and good attorney, and his statement to the court during his sentencing reflects the pain that he will experience for the rest of his life. May the Lord be with the Bruns Family and Mr. Coyne as they piece their lives back together after his tragic incident.
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Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
The comment goes,”May the Lord be with the Bruns family and Mr. Coyne”, but Mr. Coyne let a 15 year old girl be charged with capital murder, serve a life sentence under his legal representation without counseling her in anyway, went by the DA’s evidence without gathering his own evidence of innocence. And in the end could care less what happened to that girl. By the way the girl is innocent. One day the family will prove it. But Mr. Coyne by his own selfish act cause the death of Mr. Bruns and for that shouldn’t recieve the Lord’s blessings because of his knowledge of the law and his decision to act recklessly when infact he should have acted wisely. He is a prime example for the public eye. It only shows that everyone in that Justice system of Houston, Texas covers each other whether right or wrong. May the Lord not be with Mr. Coyne but the ones he represented without effort who are spending their life incarcerated.