Recent Blog Posts in September 2009

Chuck Knoblauch, local and national baseball star, he has been charged under the new law that makes choking a family member a third degree felony.  Mr. Knoblauch enjoyed athletic success from an early age while playing baseball at Bellaire High School. Next, he moved on to Texas A&M University where he was named a second team All American.  In 1991, his rookie year with the Minnesota Twins, he won a World Series Championship and the American League Rookie of the Year Award.  Before retiring from baseball in 2003 he won three World Series Championships as a member of the New York Yankees.

Luckily, Mr. Knoblauch is presumed to be innocent.  His predicament illustrates how easily a person can be charged with a Felony in Texas now that the law has changed.  The last Texas Legislation made choking a Family Member a third degree felony even if the person does not have a criminal history.  If these allegations would have been brought forward in August of this year he would be facing misdemeanor charges.  A felony charge is much more serious with the range of punishment being two to ten years in prison as opposed to the one year maximum punishment for a misdemeanor.

The ability to file these charges as a felony gives the prosecutor another tool to extort a guilty plea from a person.  On a highly contested case the assistant district attorney will likely offer to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor.  This may seem like a fair resolution unless the person is compromising.  If this is the case they should keep in mind that a second charge of Family Violence Assault is a third degree felony just like the choking charge.

As a Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer I got the following question asked weekly. "There is a warrant out for my arrest...I do not want to go to jail."  "What should I do?  Luckily, a person may avoid going to jail in this situation. There are things a person can when this situation arises. The first thing they should do is contact a bonding company so that they could do what is called a "non arrest bond." If the bonding company does not know what that a non arrest bond is move on because they probably can not help.

A "non arrest bond" is straight forward. This type of bond allows a person to avoid jail time while waiting for a bond.  Anyone that has spent time in jail they will say you do not want to be waiting in jail for someone to bond you out. Thus, the non arrest bond allows a person to skip the booking process. The bonding company gathers a person's information, gets the court assignement and the court date.  If someone does this they will be one of the lucky people that will avoid being questioned by the police

The Harris County District Attorney's Office has reached their first milestone with the DIVERT program.  Today, Texans', wide receiver, Jacoby Jones, became the tenth person to start the program since it started in August of this year.  It is not expected that Mr. Jones will get disciplined by the National Football League or the Texans since by entering the Houston Divert program  a conviction is averted.

Currently, I have three clients waiting for their DIVERT interviews.  It seems like the District Attorney's Office did not properly staff the program because the wait to get an interview is over a month long.  I anticipate that the wait will decrease once the program is properly managed.

A mistrial is declared when the jurors in a criminal trial can not come to an unanimous decision.  Most clients believe that if a judge declares a mistrial their case is over.  This could not be further from the truth.  Essentially, the case goes back to the start position.  All the parties involved must determine how they want to go forward with the case.  One of three things will happen.  Either, the prosecutor will dismiss the charges, a plea agreement may be reached, or another trial will take place in the future. 

If another trial takes place a transcript of the entire trial should be reviewed so that the witnesses' testimony is locked in for the subsequent trial.  Nevertheless, a new trial could backfire since both sides will know the testimony of the witnesses .  Typically, a new trial is viewed as a negative for the accused because the prosecutor knows the entire defense and can properly prepare for it the second time around.

Most people think that their drivers license is automatically suspended just because they are arrested for a DWI in Houston.  This is probably due to the police officer confiscating the drivers license when they make an arrest for DWI.  Regardless, it is important to know that a Texas drivers license is not automatically suspended when someone is taken into custody for drunk driving.  A person still has the opportunity to save their driving privileges.  They must request an Administrative License Revocation (ALR) hearing with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) within 15 days of the arrest.  The paperwork that was given to the person when their license was taken away from them serves as temporary drivers license until a final decision regarding the suspension is made at the ALR hearing.  While the paperwork states you will have a license for 40 days in actuality it is not suspended until that final decision is made at the ALR hearing.  It is quite possible that your drivers license will never be suspended.  Do not panic if you do get a hearing date right away.  The hearing date will be well past the 40 days and running at the very least 4 months from the DWI arrest.  At the ALR hearing the Government must prove the following: 1. that there was a reasonable suspicion for the stop or that probable cause to arrest the driver; 2. there was probable cause that the driver was driving while intoxicated; 3. the driver was placed under arrest and asked to submit to a breath test; and 4. that the driver declined the breath test or provided a breath sample above the legal limit of .08 in Texas.  While it is easier for the Government to win at ALR hearing since it has a much lower burden of proof called the preponderance of the evidence at the hearing compared to beyond a reasonable doubt in the DWI case many cases are won at the ALR saving a person's drivers license.

If you would like to speak to a Houston DWI Lawyer please contact our law firm at (713) 225-1038.

As a Houston DWI Lawyer I have a few clients that are interested in the Harris County DWI Divert program.  They have been evaluated, approved, and are now waiting for the opportunity to take the test, and be interviewed by the Community Supervisions Department.  The problem that I have been encountered so far has been trying to schedule the appointment time for my clients. 

Apparently, I am not the only one that has experienced this problem.  Starting this week the new policy will be that one of the prosecutors from the court will call someone from the DIVERT program to schedule the appointment.  After that, the case will be reset a week after the confirmed interview date.

I do not know about you, but I have not written a check to pay for something in years.  I dread being behind someone in a grocery store line that decides to write a check after the clerk totals their bill.  Had I seen the checkbook prior to joining the line I would skipped it and moved onto the next one.  The person using a check typically waits patiently viewing every item being scanned before taking out their checkbook.  The least they could be doing while waiting for the total is writing down the obvious information like the date, the store's name, and signing the check.  I see the need to write a check in some instances, but when a check/debit card is available it is much more convenient to use that form of payment.

The Federal Reserve estimates that check cashing has decreased by over three billion in the last ten years.  Not surprisingly, check/debit card has more then doubled during the same period.  This .trend is likely to increase in future since most recurring bills are paid online by people and point of purchase machines are readily available at most locations.  While our Houston Criminal Law office still accepts checks most of our business is conducted via credit card transactions.

I wonder how this has impacted the Check Fraud Division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.  It has long been considered that part of the Office is a "pseudo" collection agency for Houston businesses.  Nevertheless, with the downward trend of check writing how much longer will the Check Fraud Division be sustainable.  The time is fast approaching to combine it with another department within the Harris County District Attorney's Office. 

Steve Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University, quizzes Houstonians on their thoughts, fears, and feelings. In a recent Economist article he says concerns about crime usually correspond fairly well to the actual crime rates, and such is the case this year. The number of people who are very worried about crime is down, the number who are not worried is up, and for the most part people are far more preoccupied with the economy. 

When it comes to crime in Houston we need to look past the hype.