PANTS ON FIRE: Defense attorney's pocket bursts into flames while delivering closing argument in arson case

A Florida defense attorney’s pants caught fire on Wednesday as he was delivering closing arguments in an arson case, the Miami Herald reports.

Lawyer Stephen Gutierrez was arguing in front of a Miami courtroom that his client, Claudy Charles, did not intentionally set his own car on fire when the pocket of his trousers began smoking. Witnesses told the Herald Gutierrez had been fiddling with his pocket before he ran out of the courtroom, only to return unharmed, with a singed pocket.

According to Gutierrez, flame was sparked by an e-cigarette the lawyer had in his pocket.

“A lot of people could have been hurt,” a witness told the Miami Herald. Prosecutors are determining whether to seek contempt of court charges against the attorney.

Charles, Gutierrez’s client, was convicted of second-degree arson.