Another excerpt from Michael Griesbach's The Innocent Killer - Steven's perjury incident (edit: for some reason Jodi is referred to as "Carla Schwartz" in his book):
The first time I saw him was in connection with the arrest of his then-newfound girlfriend, Carla Schwartz, for drunken driving. The case came up for trial almost a year after the incident, and Steve was the star witness for the defense.
Carla had put her car in the ditch out on Reifs Mills Road. She crawled out ofthe car after the crash and walked up to a nearby farmhouse to call a friend for a ride home, but when they pulled into Carla’s driveway, a county sheriff’s deputy was patiently awaiting her arrival. Carla started crying. “Yes, I was driving,” she told the officer, “I was alone at the time.” She said she got into an argument with her boyfriend and she was driving around to clear her head. “I went in the ditch because it was so damn foggy,” she blurted out.
It was the fifth time she’d been busted for drunk driving, which even in Wisconsin is a felony, and she had six other criminal convictions on her record, too— disorderly conduct, resisting an officer, misdemeanor theft, and other similar petty offenses. Her blood alcohol concentration this time was a healthy .285— more than three times the legal limit— and it was the drunken driving charge that would net her the most time.
I knew the case was coming up on my trial calendar, but I hadn’t given it much thought until I received a letter from Steven Avery. The letter was handwritten and it wasn’t easy to read, but the gist of it was that Carla didn’t put the car in the ditch; he did. If the cops would just do their job and investigate, Steve wrote, they’d know what happened and he and his sweetheart wouldn’t be in such a pickle. He said he didn’t want to get involved, but he couldn’t take Carla being in jail anymore— he loved her and wanted to marry her.
The day for trial arrived and there was Steve, in the same courtroom where Judge Hazlewood sentenced him nearly twenty years earlier. We hadn’t yet met, but I knew what he looked like and I think he knew who I was, too. His girlfriend’s attorney and I exchanged a few pleasantries and then the judge called in the jury.
Steve told the same tall tale at trial as he did in his letter to me. He and Carla met each other for the very first time at the Uni-Mart out on Highway R that night, and after some small talk, Carla asked him to go for a ride. He said he didn’t have anything else to do that night, so he took her up on the offer. Even though it was Carla’s car, he drove. He told the jury they aimlessly drove around the county for a while, and then Carla asked if he would take her out to the salvage yard to show heraround. A junked vehicle was blocking the entrance, so he used Carla’s car to push it out of the way, but he hit the gas too hard and the car slipped off the bumper and rammed into the front end of the junked car. With Carla’s car still drivable, Steve continued, they went for another ride, but then the fog rolled in, and after missing a turn he put Carla’s car in the ditch. He said he called his sister to come get them, but Carla said she was going home and she started walking the other way.
But his story wasn’t believable, and the jury didn’t buy it. Carla had already told the arresting officer several times that she was the driver, and she never said a word about anyone else being with her. So she was convicted, and a few months later Judge Hazlewood placed her on probation and gave her nine months in the county jail.
Griesbach, Michael (2014-07-03). The Innocent Killer: A True Story of a Wrongful Conviction and its Astonishing Aftermath (Kindle Locations 3079-3082). American Bar Association. Kindle Edition.
Note: Michael Griesbach is the Manitowoc ADA who helped Steven Avery get exonerated in 2003.