Clara's car crime

Clara Harris is back in court. That’s interesting, and ironic.

Clara, of course, was the wealthy dentist who drove over her husband — repeatedly — in her Mercedes in the parking lot of a Houston hotel in 2002.

Why would a gal do such a thing, you may ask? Well, that was because she found out he’d been seeing someone else, and I’m not just talkin’ lookin’.

Needless to say, after being used as a speed bump by his better half, Mr. Harris wouldn’t be “seeing someone” anymore — or doing much of anything except lying in his coffin.

Oh, and did I mention that their daughter was in the car the whole time, screaming like a banshee while Mom and Dad had their little tiff?

Even for Texas, that was quite a crime.

Anyhow, Clara is suing her attorney in that case, saying he overcharged her. She says she had agreed to pay George Parnham 75 grand but ended up forking over $235,000.

Parnham disagrees. In fact, he says she still owes him money.

Whatever; let ’em fight it out.

But the biggest mistake Clara and her attorney ever made was not pleading guilty from the get-go. She could have done a few years and then gotten on with her life.

Instead, she foolishly tried to fight the charge and got 20 years.

Maybe they were hoping for a sympathetic jury. Maybe they were thinking she’d get only a few years anyway.

Bad thinking. She was guilty as hell. The thing was on videotape, no less. She should have ’fessed up and faced the music.

Apparently, despite all her wealth and all her education, Clara never heard Kenny Rogers wail, “You gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.”