Criminal Defense

Both these things sound roughly alike and have long words that start with “D.” Moreover, they are both a lot like probation, from a procedural standpoint. FInally, they both have the same happy ending. If the defendant successfully completes either program, the defendant has ...

Attitudes are changing about marijuana, but North Texas peace officers are more aggressive than ever when it comes to these charges. Nationwide, officers mad a marijuana-related arrest once every forty-eight seconds. Over 90 percent of these arrests involved simple possession. T...

Back in the day, the spousal privilege applied in assault cases. Spouses had an absolute right to refuse to testify in these situations. But the law changed several decades ago. The domestic assault trial of former Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon was one of the first times...

A month after a Fort Worth federal jury found him guilty, a judge sentenced 51-year-old Michael Webb to life in prison. According to evidence presented at trial, Webb approached the girl and her mother on a Ryan Place street. He overpowered the girl’s mother, put the 8-year-ol...

Probation, or community supervision, is usually a good alternative to incarceration. However, it is certainly not a perfect alternative. Direct costs, such as probation fees, add up over time. Additionally, it is difficult to continually adhere to restrictive conditions, like re...

The right to privacy runs deep in the Constitution. Specifically, the Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In Tarrant County criminal court, “unreasonable” is not a subjective term. In fact, unless officers had a warrant based on probable cause or t...

Since 1999, drug overdoses have killed about 800,000 Americans. That fatality rate makes poisoning one of the leading causes of injury-related death in the United States. Many of these fatalities are directly related to prescription drugs, mostly painkillers. Other fatalities are...

Prompt jail release is an often-overlooked component of a successful criminal defense. Without jail release, the presumption of innocence basically becomes a presumption of guilt. Incarcerated defendants cannot meaningfully participate in their own defenses, and they may accept u...

Contrary to popular myth, criminal convictions do not fall off one’s record after seven or ten years. Employment and other background checks may only go back that far, but the records are still there. Expungement and sealing are the only ways to erase conviction records, or at ...

According to the federal government, there are about 4.5 million adults on probation in the United States. The rather distressing thing about that number is that it’s the lowest probation population figure in twenty years. Probationers must always adhere to some strict conditi...