DWI, Drugs, Assault, Probation Revocation, Sexual Offenses, Theft, Juvenile Defense. Felony and Misdemeanor Offenses in State and Federal Court
Driving While Intoxicated, DWI and Your Drivers License Forney, Texas DWI Defense Lawyer.
Sexual Offenses, Drug Offenses, Assault and Violent Crimes, Theft, Truancy/School Related Criminal Charges.
The Kaufman County Bar Association is conducting our soon to be annual judicial evaluations. If you are a member of the Kaufman Bar, or a lawyer who practices in Kaufman county and interested in becoming a member shoot me an email and I’ll send you the forms.
These forms are, of course, completely confidential. We hope to have the results in the next few weeks.
Just got this in last week. It includes the testing procedures for controlled substances. In your typical dope case the DPS lab sends a short one page summary of the results of their testing. ADA’s never think to question the veracity of these results. The assumption is that the lab did everything right, and the dope is dope. If you want to even try to second guess DPS lab work here is the place to start.
At any given time a few of my clients are in jail. Every defendant experiences the humilation of being booked in and bonded out, but a few are trapped in the county jail for extended periods of time. One things counties hate spending money on is inmate health care. Providng free health care for “criminals” is not a winning political theme.
I get a few questions from inmates and their families on what to do if they don’t receive proper medical attention. I advise them to ask for a nurse as frequently as possible, and in writing, until something is done. Each county jail has different policies for dropping off prescriptions etc. But the jail is ultimately responsible for providing a minimum level of treatment for their inmates.
What happens when a county inmate is denied medical care, and suffers irreperable harm as a result? Recently Dallas county’s notoriously mismanaged and dangerous jail met the working end of a 1983 civil suit. The defendant won at trial, and the county appealed. Dallas would rather pay lawyers than pay an inmate they almost killed.
Auto accident reconstruction is an issue that comes up in intox assault/manslaughter cases. I know enough about accident reconstruction to know that I need an expert’s assistance. Being in the DFW area I don’t see a lot of boating while intoxicated (BWI) cases, much less a boating accident reconstruction scenario. So let’s learn about this science together shall we?
Recently I had the chance to interview Phil Odom of H20 invesgitations. Phil spent years in DWI/BWI enforcement and is an expert in accident reconstruction. How exactly does one recreate an accident on the high seas? Let’s ask Phil.
Resume/Background
Personal friend and criminal appeals guru has reentered the world of private defense practice. His website could use some SEO magic, so here it goes.
www.souzalawdallas.com
Chris designed his own website, I outsourced mine to Justia. Check out his page of significant decisions. It’s pretty significant. Chris is fluent in Spanish, a former ADA, a former public defender, and a has earned a solid Avvo review from yours truly.
Sexting is the latest moral panic du jour. In Texas, we have decided that the best way to produce healthy young adults is for the State to criminalize normal consensual teen behavior. Lest our young adults grow up without a healthy fear for the arbitrary and limitless power of law enforcement. Like Lenny and his rabbits sometimes the State can care too much.
How much does Texas love our young adults? Let us count the ways teenagers can be destroyed by the State for sexting.
While you won’t find “sexting” in the penal code, the act of sending nude pics of teens violates a few statutes. The first is possession of child pornography.
Every defendant who is stuck in county jail wants the same thing- out. Inevitably the defendant, or a friend or family member asks- “Isn’t there some 90 day release law when a defendant is not indicted?”
Actually there is, and it’s 17.151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. I also call it the “speedy indictment law” because filing a 17.151 motion will often get your client indicted at the next grand jury.
In Kaufman county it’s typical to see a defendant indicted right around the 90 day mark. ADAs are keenly aware of this deadline and loathe to have defendants use their get out of jail free card on serious charges.
Back in my prosecutor days I only ever lost two cases, both were jury trials. One was a speeding ticket (to a prepaid legal attorney no less), the other was a lawnmower theft case.
The lawnmower theft went as follows- CW was inside house and testified she saw D pull up and steal her lawnmower. Pretty simple right? To my utter surprise the jury acquits. Maybe the jury knew something about the inherent unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Grits has more than a few posts on the topic. This latest video (H/T to the Agitator) shows that we aren’t all that aware of what’s going on around us. In fact, as a species we kind of suck at paying attention and recalling events.
Eyewitness mistakes are another spoke on the wrongful conviction wheel (along with snitch testimony, the war on drugs, the erosion of our constitutional protections). Most defendants don’t have the funds to afford an expert in neurology to explain exactly what can go wrong when we try to observe and recall.
No person shall ever be imprisoned for debt.
Article 1, Section 18, Texas Constitution.
Besides criminal defense I also take a limited number of family law cases. Most Texans understand that if you fail to pay child support the court can find the debtor/obligor in contempt, and jail that person for up to 6 months. I have prosecuted and defended civil child support cases where the defendant was sent to jail for non payment. There are so many of these cases that Attorney General child support court (IV-D) often has as many inmates on the jail chain as a misdemeanor or felony docket.
Drug possession cases tend to be factually simple scenarios. The State must prove that you had care, custody and control of X, and that X is illegal. We’ll save possession for another day. Today let talk about proving X is marijuana.
In most cases drug DPS labs provide analyze the putative contraband and attempt to positively identify whatever it is the police sent them (you’d be shocked how often drugs aren’t actually drugs). Not so much with marijuana.
By far, the most untested alleged controlled substance in Texas is weed. In an effort to convict the maximum number of otherwise law abiding citizens for the least cost many marijuana cases are brought without the benefit of drug testing.
Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog