"I was set up" is one of the most common defenses in Texas drug crime cases. Sometimes, this defense works. Some greybeards may remember the John DeLorean cocaine case from the early 1980s. The automaker needed money to save his company, and so he tried to sell some cocaine in wh...
Month: September 2018
Criminal Protective Orders in Texas
Many states have both civil and criminal protective orders. Each one works a little differently. But the main issue is the burden of proof. In civil court, litigants need only establish facts by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not). But in Tarrant County, there...
Sex Offender Registration Requirements
In Texas, convicted sex offenders must register for either ten years or life. The ten-year clock does not begin ticking until after these defendants complete their sentences in full. In general, sexually violent crimes or offenses involving children usually mean lifetime registra...
Four Kinds of Theft in Texas
Perhaps more so than in other kinds of cases, the number one goal in theft matters is usually keeping the crime off the defendant's record. All kinds of theft, even Class C theft by check, is a crime of moral turpitude in Texas. Such a conviction can have serious lifelong ramific...
Why Do Criminal Cases Take So Long?
There is a saying among criminal defense attorneys that William Gladstone, who is credited with the "justice delayed is justice denied" quote, was clearly not a criminal defense lawyer in Texas. From a prosecutor's standpoint, he was right. Back in my days as an Assistant Distric...
Interlock Devices explained
Texas is one of the few states without a mandatory Ignition Interlock Device (a/k/a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device). However, these gadgets are very important in many DWIs. The first primitive IIDs appeared in the late 1960s. By the late 1980s, a few crude ones were co...
How Important Are Drugs in a Drug Crime Case?
In almost all criminal cases, physical evidence is very important. DWI cases are much harder to prove without valid chemical tests, assault cases (especially felony assault cases) are difficult to win without solid medical evidence, and the list goes on. Such evidence is even mo...
Dealing with Simple Assault Cases in Parker County
Technically, there are three types of simple assault cases in Texas. Nearly all of them are 22.01(a) Assault with Bodily Injury (ABI) cases. A few are 22.01(b) assaults by threat (ABTs) or 22.01(c) assaults by contact (ABCs). But the latter two are only Class C misdemeanors (no j...
Go Directly to Jail; Do Not Pass “Go”
Jail is bad. The food is borderline indigestible, the people are unpleasant, there is no privacy, and there is no freedom. Perhaps worst of all, there are hours upon hours upon hours of idle time. But in some cases, a brief jail sentence may be preferable to an extended period o...
