Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

January 11, 2013

Q & A with Todd Dalotto- Medical Marijuana Expert

Todd is an expert in medical marijuana and is lucky enough to live and work in a State that doesn’t attempt to arrest every person who uses cannabis for any reason. Texas could have experts like this, but they’d be arrested. It’s interviews like these that remind me I live in a police state with backwards laws. On to the interview-

1. Give me a short bio.

CAN! Research President, Todd Dalotto has a HBS in Horticultural Research from Oregon State University, Chairs Oregon’s Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana (ACMM), Chairs the ACMM’s Horticulture, Research & Safety Committee, and authored The Hemp Cookbook: From Seed to Shining Seed (Inner Traditions, 2000). His vast experience in cannabis science, politics, and public policy includes founding America’s first hemp food business (Hungry Bear Hemp Foods), founding Oregon’s first medical clinic/support/education center (Compassion Center) for medical cannabis patients, and serving on legislative and administrative advisory committees for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program under the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority. Todd is a valuable resource as a teacher, consultant, scientist, and court-qualified expert witness, specializing in Cannabis.

January 11, 2013

Texas Warrantless Blood Draw Scheme Is Probably Unconstituional

by Robert Guest

The Supreme Court heard arguments in McNeely vs Missouri this week. The issue was whether the 4th Amendment’s requirement for a warrant actually applies to DWI blood draws. The defendant in Mcneely refused to give a breath specimen, so the police just held him down and took his blood, which was allowed by statute in Missouri.

This should be a straight forward issue; the State shouldn’t be able to simply over turn the bill of rights by statute.. Blood draws are a search, a very intrusive search at that, and we require warrants for searches. Of course, DWI and drug prosecutions are the tip of the spear when it comes to destroying the bill of rights. We’ve lost more freedom to save dope convictions and DWI cases than we’ll ever get back.

The Government in McNeely argued that every DWI is an emergency, so they shouldn’t have to get a warrant. That’s a pretty broad definition of emergency and it really makes the government look lazy. I’m sure it would be easier to just ignore the 4th Amendment and let the conviction machine run unabated. But that’s the point, we require warrants because we can not trust the government to do the right thing. We want to limit the power of government to act without oversight.

January 11, 2013

Rockwall, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers

by Robert Guest

I’m proud to announce that the Guest and Gray Criminal Defense Team is opening our newest office in Rockwall, Texas. From our home base in Forney, Rockwall is actually the closest (and nicest) courthouse, so it made sense to expand there.

Tracy Gray and I will be meeting clients in Rockwall and manning the fort. Our Rockwall address will be 104 West Kaufman, Rockwall, Texas, 75087. It’s next to a 7-11, which is a pretty great feature.

Free consultations for all over your criminal defense needs. So call today.

December 25, 2012

Kaufman County Court At Law Criminal Docket

by Robert Guest

When I was an Kaufman County ADA I was assigned to Kaufman County Court at Law. It’s where I cut my teeth in K-town, and it’s a court I still enjoy trying cases in. Kaufman has two County Courts at law, both courts hear misdemeanor cases and certain felonies (felony DWI and state jail dope cases). County Court at Law also hears civil cases, CPS, and juvenile criminal matters.

Here is what you need to know about the Kaufman County Court at Law if you have an adult criminal case.

1. You always have to appear.

December 25, 2012

Forney DWI Lawyer

by Robert Guest

Forney is one of the faster growing DFW exurbs. It has quickly become a hotbed of Kaufman County DWI arrests. I used to get a fair number of DWI cases from across Kaufman County, many DPS arrests on the interstate, and then a fair number from Terrell/Crandall/Kaufman etc. It seems that I’m seeing a greater number of DWI arrests from the Forney Police Department. I’m not surprised. Forney is a city seemingly designed to maximize DWI arrests. You can’t walk anywhere, and you certainly can’t walk to any establishment that serves alcohol. I’m not sure why we have the majority of our alcohol serving-establishments next to the interstate, why old downtown Forney (the most walkable area in the city) remains mostly dry.

Forney has it’s own jail, and it is possible to make bail there without being transported to Kaufman. I haven’t figured out why certain arrestees are transported to the county jail and others make bail in Forney. Going to jail anywhere sucks, but the Forney jail/police station is brand new and really clean. Much less risk of getting a resistant staph infection than if you are arrested in Dallas.

Forney does not have it’s own breathalyzer, so if you take a breath test you have to go to Kaufman. By the way NEVER TAKE A BREATH TEST. Kaufman County’s breath test machine is based on 1968 technology. The operator manual admits that today’s version of the Intoxilyzer is no more accurate than it was during the Apollo program. Really, don’t do it.

November 30, 2012

Good Guy CCA- “Our bad, Polygraphs are still unreliable and inadmissable”

by Robert Guest

You know, I can be pretty hard of appellate decisions I don’t agree with. One of my main sources of blog inspiration is outrage at the loss of civil liberties through appellate decisions. It’s only fair that I point out when our State’s highest criminal court does something right, and today is that day.

Today’s case of the day is Leonard vs. State, the Sequel!

What happened?

November 29, 2012

Kaufman County Criminal Defense Lawyers

by Robert Guest

RobertGuest.com has been redeveloped and is now the home of Guest and Gray Criminal Defense Lawyers. Justia did a great job with the design and I have to say they have again exceeded my expectations. I’ve already reviewed Justa once, here is the short version: they aren’t cheap, but they are worth it. I’m keeping the same url, robertguest.com on the advice of Justia. I was going to switch to GuestandGrayCriminalDefense.com, but apparently it would have offended the Google gods.

Besides the aesthetics of the website what’s different?

For the first six years of my criminal defense practice I was solo. I’ve already discussed the challenges of a solo attorney so let’s talk about my partner in crime… er criminal defense… drumroll………… TRACY GRAY!

November 29, 2012

Authoritarianism, or how you believe in limited government and still love the police state.

by Robert Guest

Like many suburban Texans I was brought up in a Republican household. The first two political books I ever read were written by Rush Limbaugh. As a young adult I had not heard of libertarianism, but I did hear a lot of rhetoric from the right that I liked; limited government, liberty etc.

I found myself more and more confused at how Republicans supported policies that were the definition of Big Government- drug wars, bans on gay marriage, sodomy laws, blue laws, pornography prosecutions etc. Logically, I could not understand how a political party could espouse limited government and support for the war on drugs in the same platform? How can you be against Obamacare because you oppose big government and against gay marriage? The cognitive dissonance must be overwhelming.

I stumbled upon the answer about a year ago when I read “The Republican Brain” by Chris Mooney. The answer, authoritarianism. Wikipedia can explain this better than I can. Why not copy and paste?

November 29, 2012

I’m “certified” in Standardized Field Sobriety Testing

by Robert Guest

A few months ago I took Lance Platt’s SFST certification course for attorneys. We had mostly defense lawyers and some prosecutors in the room. I didn’t come into this with clean hands. My experience with DWI cases and research of these “tests” tells me they are voodoo bullshit.

I came to this conclusion because as I understood the SFST studies they lacked the markers of real science and quality research; control groups, blind studies, placebos etc. Did you know the field sobriety tests have never been tested on a large groups of individuals who have not been drinking? Or on individuals with different medical conditions? There have been exactly zero studies on gender differences, or on the effect of performing the tests under the stress to mimic the pressure of a typical roadside DWI investigation. Why?

SFST’s are agenda driven science. The feds needed a way to arrest people who had been drinking, but without any bad or impaired driving behavior. So they invented the notion that by performing 10 minutes of balancing tests you can tell if someone is over .08.

November 26, 2012

Forney Media and the Drug War. The Road Goes on Forever.

by Robert Guest

Forney has two online media outlets (TheForneyPost.net, and InForney.com) reporting the happenings in this growing exurb. I have been surprised to see how much copy each site devotes to coverage of local drug busts.

The stories themselves are largely formulaic; we get a mugshot, the government’s version of events, and sometime a nice pic of dope on the table for emphasis. I often wonder if the public sees these busts and thinks that something has been accomplished; that by arresting this one drug user or drug dealer we’ve made the world safer, or made some dent in the local narcotics market. The frequency of these arrests may be news to the public, but it’s old hat for anyone involved in the Kaufman County criminal justice system.

I’ve been here for 8 years, and we’ve been arresting suppliers and consumers the entire time. I can tell you that the net effect on supplies of controlled substances in Kaufman County is zero. Drugs are still readily available to meet the demand of our local consumers.