Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

If the police pull you over for a traffic violation, did you know that they can parlay this into arresting you for DWI? We all think of traffic stops by Houston police as stops intended to keep the public safe. If a driver is running red lights, speeding, or driving while texting, we can all see the value in stopping these dangerous behaviors. But according to a recent Houston Chronicle report, one in five of Texas's 2,500 law enforcement agency stops were for so-called "vehicle violations." A vehicle violation is a stop for something wrong with the car, such as a broken or burned-out taillight, a partially obstructed license plate, or an expired registration.

Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies often use vehicle violations as a pretext to stop a driver and interview them, look inside their car, and search for contraband or illegal activity. According to La Vernia's chief of police, his officers stop drivers with vehicle violations as a "courtesy." But he also told the Houston Chronicle that they also use this as an opportunity to look for crimes, stating drivers "may not have a driver's license, they may not have insurance. They may have dope in the car." He compared traffic stops to further probe drivers to guns and handcuffs as "just another tool to keep the community safe."

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

Around holidays and big events, we've all become used to seeing flashing blue lights set up on the side of the road pulling people over. We take roadblocks and drunk traps for granted now, and the police bill them as an important safety measure to protect Texas communities. But do these roadblocks really get dangerous drivers off the street? According to recent reports in the Houston Chronicle, Texas law enforcement agencies often use these stops as pretexts to search for illegal activity and inconvenience many innocent people along the way.

The Chronicle reports that deputies search four of every ten drivers they stop in some communities like Henderson County. Only one in five of these stops resulted in an arrest. In contrast, in the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas's busiest traffic enforcement department, officers searched only about five percent of the drivers they stopped. This rate is one-eighth as high as Henderson County. In Texline, a small panhandle community, officers searched one in three drivers they stopped.

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

The last week of November was a deadly time for crashes in Houston. In a span of ten days, six people died, including two 16-year-olds. The police suspect that drinking and driving was a factor in several of the crashes. Being arrested for a suspected DWI is always scary, but when you've also been involved in a serious accident, it can be even more stressful. You could be facing serious or life-threatening injuries, and a hospital stay. The criminal justice system can be difficult to navigate, even for someone perfectly healthy, but what happens if you're in the hospital, disabled, or have memory loss?

What Happens if I'm Injured?

If you're seriously injured in a crash and the police suspect you were drinking and driving, you probably have many questions about your rights. It's imperative that you understand what the police and medical professionals can do without your consent and that you have someone protecting your rights.

Can the Police Take My Blood While I'm in the Hospital?

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

If you're facing a charge for DWI, you could be worried that this may be the end of your career or your reputation in the community. But it's important to remember that a DWI arrest is not the end of the game. You are innocent until proven guilty, and a strong defense can get you back on track. A perfect example of a come-back story is football coach Joey McGuire.

In 2015, Cedar Hill ISD football coach McGuire faced a DWI in Tarrant County. The arrest came after McGuire led his team to three state championships and turned down a coaching job at the University of Texas to coach his son at Cedar Hill. After his arrest, the school announced:

Cedar Hill ISD Head Football Coach Joey McGuire was arrested in Tarrant County early Friday morning, April 10, 2015, for an alleged Driving While Intoxicated incident. Coach McGuire voluntarily reported the incident to CHISD Administration as soon as he was able to do so. We are still in the process of gathering information and will handle any discipline internally and take appropriate action.

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

If you're facing a trial for a suspected DWI, you may wonder what rights you have before your trial. Can the police continue to test you for drugs and alcohol? How much information will the state have if you seek medical treatment? Your individual rights and personal medical history can become complex issues if police have charged you with a drug or alcohol-related crime in Texas.

Some of these issues came to light when a 24-year-old Gallup man collapsed in court before his recent sentencing hearing. The man was convicted of DWI homicide in April 2021 for a 2017 head-on collision that killed a 59-year-old man. The defendant faces up to 15 years in prison when the court sentences him for the conviction.

Emergency responders took the defendant to the hospital, and he complained of pain during the ambulance ride. State district judge Robert Aragon postponed the sentencing and ordered drug and alcohol testing of the man at the prosecutor's request. The state assistant attorney general said drug and alcohol testing was appropriate given the nature of the defendant's conviction. However, the defendant's attorney noted that he is on many medications due to his medical condition and would likely test positive for prescription pain medications.

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

If you or someone you know faces an arrest after a DWI with a fatality, you understand how tragic this can be. Knowing that someone died, even if you weren't drunk, is heartbreaking. You are still innocent unless proven guilty under the law, but you'll need an experienced and board certified DWI attorney to navigate you through the criminal justice process, particularly if you face felony DWI manslaughter charges. A Houston mother recently faced this situation.

DWI-Related Fatality

In November, a mother was driving home from a baby shower at 4:30 am and struck a traffic light in the 4200 block of E. Sam Houston Pkwy. N. The light tipped over, and then she struck a concrete barrier wall and came to a stop in a southbound service road near Woodforest. The driver had five children, ranging from two to ten years old, in the car. An ambulance took all of the children to Texas Children's Hospital for treatment. The driver's four-year-old daughter later died. Police believe that the four-year-old was unrestrained in the car and possibly sitting on the lap of another child.

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

The state of Texas takes drug crimes very seriously. Our state has some of the toughest penalties in the nation, and every year the legislature adds new "designer drugs" to Texas drug laws. And the Texas Controlled Substances Act is written broadly in an attempt to include chemically similar designer drugs. However, the law can't comprehensively prohibit what doesn't yet exist. But what if it can? Researchers at the University of British Columbia may have developed a way to predict illegal behavior related to designer drugs, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.

What are Designer Drugs?

Designer drugs are typically synthetic drugs created by slightly changing the chemical properties of a drug that comes from a plant. Synthetic marijuana variants, synthetic opioids, and bath salts are common in the U.S. These designer drugs mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug but change the chemical composition just enough to remain technically legal and avoid detection on standard drug tests. As new designer drugs hit the streets, legislators in Texas add them to the state's drug laws. But in the meantime, it can take law enforcement agencies months to identify new substances in designer drugs and determine whether they may be illegal.

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

An arrest is always stressful. You end up worried about what will happen if you're convicted, where you'll go, and how the process works. When you're facing criminal charges, knowing what will happen next is essential. Without up-to-date knowledge about your case and the criminal justice system, you could be left floundering in jail without any idea when you'll get out.

According to a recent story in the Dallas Observer, the average jail stay for defendants awaiting trial in Harris County is 201 days. For those who receive a bench warrant in Dallas County, the average time spent in jail in the "legal process" leading up to trial is 249 days. While these lengthy stays are common in Texas's larger counties, jails aren't meant to house prisoners long-term. The Dallas Observer article highlighted some of the problems that defendants can face without an experienced attorney to advocate on their behalf.

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 Posted on January 01,2022 in Uncategorized

If you or someone you love is facing drug charges related to prescription medications, you may be confused about the line between legal and illegal prescription medication. Often, we think of "legal" and "illegal" drugs, but prescription drugs that aren't prescribed legally are also illegal. We imagine a sketchy guy standing on a street corner selling baggies of pills. But illegal prescription drug charges encompass a lot more than simple possession or distribution, from medical professionals writing illegal prescriptions to organized theft of controlled substances from pharmacies or doctors' offices.

A Texas doctor recently faced charges for criminally prescribing more than 1.3 million doses of opioids. The U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted him, stating he "conspired to and did unlawfully prescribe controlled substances from 2014 through February 2016 for patients" at a Houston medical clinic. He now awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances and four counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances. He could face up to 20 years for each count.

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 Posted on December 12,2021 in Uncategorized

A recent media stor y highlights the unreliability of cheap, quick, and simple drug field tests. These cheap drug field tests enable authorities to pop a substance into a bag of chemicals, give it a shake, and watch the color change for a purportedly positive test result. The national story depicts the tests as popular among prison officials, including Texas prison officials, as a way to quickly and inexpensively detect illegal drugs smuggled in for prisoner abuse. Prison drug smuggling is a real problem. Drugs even come in sprayed or doused on paper and note cards for the prisoners to smoke for some kind of high. Detecting drugs is an important policing function, not just on DWI traffic stops but even in prisons. Police and the public can certainly benefit if police have available to them cheap, quick, and simple drug tests.

Drug Test Faults

Yet the national story points to the unreliability of the cheap drug field tests--and the potential long-term and serious harms from false positive tests. The story shows how false positive tests in prisons can turn an innocent inmate's world upside down, resulting in lockdowns, confiscations, daily strip searches, midnight interrogations, isolation, and extended sentences. A prisoner advocacy organization shares a story of how prison officials have mistaken a spice for marijuana, motor oil for heroin, candy for meth, breath mints for crack, and vitamins for amphetamines, resulting in months of extra jail time. The organization even used a demonstration of how just air blown into the bag of testing chemicals can produce a false positive result.

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