We're Not Judging His Honesty, But His Pants Were On Fire 
 
 DAVID GREENE, HOST: 
 
 Good morning. I'm David Greene. A Miami lawyer was giving his closing argument yesterday when his pants started smoking. I swear this is not a lawyer joke. His pants were actually on fire. And worse, he was right in the middle of arguing that his client had not intentionally set his car on fire. The lawyer insisted this was not some ploy to convince the jury. He blamed a defective e-cigarette in his pocket. Anyway, the jury blamed his client for the car. They convicted him of second-degree arson. It's MORNING EDITION. 
 
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 Yesterday in Miami, a criminal defense lawyer was starting his closing argument when his trousers began smoking, then burst into flames. 
 
 He was defending an arson case. 
 
 Stephen Gutierrez ran out of the courtroom, then returned to finish his argument, albeit with a pocket that was slightly singed. 
 
 His client had been charged with setting fire to his car. As he was arguing that the car had spontaneously combusted, Gutierrez’s pants started smoking. 
 
 Gutierrez denied that the fire in his pocket was a courtroom stunt; witnesses said he had been fiddling in his pocket right before his argument, according to the Miami Herald. 
 
 The source of the fire, Gutierrez maintained, was a faulty e-cigarette device. Batteries in those things have been known to go bad, after all. 
 
 Wary cops seized several frayed-looking e-cigarette batteries that seem to back up the lawyer’s story. They now will investigate. 
 
 After the incident, the judge made no contempt holding against Gutierrez; he’ll review the case and make that decision later. 
 
 But even if the fire was a trick in an effort to demonstrate spontaneous combustion, it didn’t work. 
 
 The jury convicted the defendant of second-degree arson. 

 Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives. 
 
 Enlarge Image Michal Fludra, NurPhoto via Getty Images 
 
 These days we are used to suspecting fire where there's smoke. 
 
 In a Miami courtroom on Wednesday, however, there was an even more inflammatory coincidence. 
 
 As the Miami Herald reports, Stephen Gutierrez was presenting his closing arguments in an arson trial when his pants caught fire. 
 
 Just writing that sentence makes me weak at the fingers. 
 
 Witnesses, though, told the Herald that Gutierrez had been fiddling in his pocket as he defended his client against charges that he'd deliberately set his car on fire. 
 
 The courtroom was cleared, and Gutierrez returned apparently unharmed and insisted that this was not a stunt, but a genuine case of spontaneous combustion, caused by an e-cigarette. 
 
 These devices have, indeed, been associated with many cases of pant-fire. Last year, video taken in a New York store showed a man's pants explode, the alleged cause being an e-cigarette. 
 
 Last December, an e-cigarette caused a fire on an American Airlines flight. 
 
 Gutierrez didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge in his trial, however, is reportedly allowing prosecutors to weigh whether he should be charged with contempt of court. 
 
 Gutierrez didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Which leaves several burning questions unanswered. 
 
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 A defence lawyer who was arguing that his client’s car spontaneously combusted reportedly rushed out of a Miami courtroom on Wednesday when his trousers suddenly burst into flames. 
 
 Stephen Gutierrez, whose client is accused of arson, had just begun his closing arguments in front of a jury when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald. 
 
 Mr Gutierrez, who had been seen fiddling in his pocket, returned with a singed pocket but unharmed. 
 
 The lawyer reportedly blamed the blaze on a faulty battery in an e-cigarette, and insisted it wasn’t a staged defence demonstration gone wrong. 
 
 “It was surreal,” a witness told the newspaper.
– Jurors trying to assess the truthfulness of defense lawyer Stephen Gutierrez's closing arguments in an arson trial Wednesday may have been dismayed to notice that his pants were literally on fire. Witnesses say the lawyer had to flee the Miami courtroom with smoke billowing from his pocket, the Miami Herald reports. When he returned, the lawyer, who'd been seen fiddling in his pocket, blamed a faulty e-cigarette battery. Gutierrez said the pocket blaze wasn't an attempt to demonstrate the innocence of his client, who was accused of setting his own car on fire. Gutierrez argued that the vehicle spontaneously combusted, but his client was ultimately convicted of second-degree arson. Prosecutors are investigating the courtroom incident, and the judge could hold Gutierrez in contempt of court if he was found to be staging a stunt, the Herald reports. The bizarre incident already is making headlines in lawyer blogs and overseas newspapers. "I swear this is not a lawyer joke," was the NPR intro to the nugget. And CNET notes that the lawyer has declined to respond to the media's requests for comment, which "leaves several burning questions unanswered." (The owner of this Jeep can probably sympathize.)