A Miami defense attorney’s pants caught fire in court last week while he defended an accused arsonist. Stephen G utierrez, 28, had just begun his closing argument when smoke started billowing from his right trouser pocket. He bolted from the courtroom and later said a bad ecigarette battery had ignited. “It was surreal,” one witness told The Miami Herald. Gutierrez’s client, Claudy Charles, was on trial for allegedly setting his car on fire to collect insurance money. Gutierrez argued the vehicle had spontaneously combusted, but the jury found Charles guilty of second-degree arson.
