Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The prior story of a veteran whom authorities deported after a second DWI but who finally won his legal readmission to the U.S. described the veteran's long and lonely road out of the U.S. Consider here the veteran's short road back.

The story resumes with the deported veteran still working in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from the El Paso home in which his wife and kids lived, a situation that had persisted on and off for around twenty years. Fortunately, though, the veteran had in 2016 met a public-interest lawyer who helped the veteran apply for naturalization under the 2004 Supreme Court decision that removed a simple DWI as an automatically deportable offense.

The story continues that the veteran's application languished for years until September 2020, when federal officials called the veteran to the U.S. border at El Paso. They had a surprise for him: they would swear him in there as a citizen and admit him permanently to the U.S. Incredibly, after about two decades of living apart from his own wife and children, the veteran was free to rejoin them in El Paso, where the veteran promptly found technician work once again.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The report is that in early 2020 the Texas legislature will again consider legislation legalizing marijuana use. Last year, the governor signed legislation allowing Texas farmers to grow low-THC hemp, already legal for sale in Texas. The report indicates the legislature also last year included terminal cancer and autism as medical conditions qualifying Texas residents for a low-THC medical-cannabis program. THC is the psychoactive element in marijuana.

The question of marijuana legalization is fraught with social, cultural, medical, and economic considerations. The report indicates that legislators in Texas divide on the issue, just as they do in other states, the Texas House having passed a decriminalization bill last year, only to have it die in the Senate. Other states are joining the legalization trend. Consider, though, what legalization would mean for DWI arrests in Texas.

Driving Under Marijuana's Influence Can Lead to a DWI Arrest

Decriminalizing marijuana in Texas wouldn't change the grounds for a DWI arrest. Texas Penal Code Section 49.04(a) defines a DWI as when "the person is intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle in a public place." Intoxication, whether from alcohol or drugs, is the statute's element, not the legality or illegality of the intoxicating agent. Most DWI charges involve intoxication from perfectly legal alcohol. Some DWI charges involve intoxication from perfectly legal drugs.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The story of a Texas drunk driver allegedly streaming himself on Facebook Live must be another sign of our social-media times.

Maybe in this twenty-first century it's not so surprising that someone would record questionable conduct live on social media. A 2017 report alleged nearly fifty separate acts of violence transmitted across Facebook Live. In 2019, the world saw a New Zealand man use Facebook Live to livestream a massacre. We've also seen a mid-2020 report of a driver recorded on Facebook Live while fleeing police, right up to his gunshot death.

What makes this late 2020 Texas DWI story especially concerning is the allegation that the driver's actions resulted in multiple traffic deaths. The story reports that the video, occurring just minutes before the fatal crash, recorded the driver drinking beer, also passed among the vehicle's three passengers, one of whom streamed the event. The story reports that the driver allegedly said that he drives better when he drinks.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The story of a recent fatal Austin motor-vehicle accident allegedly caused by an intoxicated driver is another sad one among many. The allegedly intoxicated driver ran a flashing red light, colliding with a vehicle driven by a hard-working recent immigrant whose seven children are now forever without their father's love and support. The deceased immigrant was also the sole support of his non-English speaking wife for whom, the story reports, he did everything.

The allegedly intoxicated driver now faces intoxication-manslaughter charges, which is the DWI charge when the intoxicated driving causes another's death. Those criminal charges were certainly predictable enough, although the charge alone does not mean a conviction. As DWI Specialist Doug Murphy explains here, defenses to the criminal charge may exist, such as that any intoxication, if intoxication was, in fact, present, did not cause the accident, which occurred in this case at a four-way flashing-red stop.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

If you've been involved in an accident in Texas and had an open container of alcohol in your vehicle, you probably realized the seriousness of the matter. Even if no one is hurt, you can face charges of driving with an open container and will undoubtedly face investigation for driving while intoxicated. But it's important to understand the rights you have when facing questioning from the police and whether police have the right to require you to take a blood-alcohol test.

A Bryan, Texas man recently faced this situation after flipping his truck on 29th Street. Police allegedly found the truck empty and abandoned but with alcohol in the vehicle. Police reported they found the man about a block away, where he claimed he had not been drinking. Police also reported that the man was unable to stand on his own and refused a blood alcohol test. After obtaining a warrant, police took him to the hospital, where several people had to hold him down to obtain blood for the BAC test. Police arrested the man for driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest or search.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The Pandemic's Impact. COVID-19 has affected the legal system just like everything else. Safety measures have delayed trials, the delays clogging courts and jails. The pandemic has also made potential hotspots and death traps out of jails, where virus-laden stale air can circulate among closely packed inmates. Harris County's jail, one of the country's largest with over 9,000 inmates, has already had six inmate and two guard COVID-related deaths and could have many more, given a critical shortage of quarantine space and hospital beds. One national story reports that COVID-19 has devastated some jail populations around the U.S.

Prospects for Release. A local media story now shares that the federal judge presiding over an enduring lawsuit involving the jail's systems, already ruled unconstitutional as to some misdemeanor defendants, is urging county officials to reduce guard and inmate COVID-19 risks with releases of prisoners awaiting trial on non-violent offenses. The story reports that nearly nine out of ten of the jail's inmates are awaiting trial or other case resolution, many of them on charges for non-violent offenses. Other locales around the country have released inmates to reduce COVID risks, although the story reports that in Texas, the governor's order prohibits the no-bond release of defendants accused or previously convicted of violent offenses.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

By now, we all know that drinking while intoxicated is dangerous. But we're human, and we all make mistakes. It can easily happen. Let's say you have a few glasses of wine with dinner when you're tired, and then the police pull you over for speeding on the way home. If you're facing a DWI charge in Texas, you aren't alone. Texas has 259.6 DWI arrests per 100,000 people. We have strict DWI laws here, and they've helped lower the Texas DWI arrest rate by 32% from 2008 to 2018.

Still, Texas's strict enforcement of DWI laws can lead the police to see impairment where someone may just be tired. It's important to know that an arrest for a DWI doesn't mean that a court will convict you, even if it isn't your first arrest. But if you have multiple convictions for DWI and the police arrest you again, it's important to consult an attorney who is a Texas DWI specialist right away.

Arrest After Multiple DWI Convictions

Take, for example, an Odessa woman recently arrested for DWI on January 5, 2021, in Brazos County. Texas A&M police arrested the woman allegedly driving without lights at 10 pm, heading in the opposite direction of her intended destination. According to police, she failed several sobriety tests and admitted to using illegal drugs three days before the stop. She had four previous DWIs on her record and spent the night in Brazos County Jail.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The reports come one after another: DWI arrests of police officers and military members who one would think would know better. We tend to believe that those who enforce the law shouldn't be breaking the law. But law officers do suffer DWI arrest and charge. And when they do, they face special challenges because of their status.

Consider these two recent examples. The first report highlights the DWI arrest of a Fort Worth officer allegedly sitting asleep in his squad car outside an elementary school. The story shares the foreseeable consequences, even for a police lieutenant with fourteen years of service: transport to jail and, after release and charge, confiscation of gun and badge, and placement on restricted duty.

The second report is of another veteran officer, an off-duty San Angelo police officer, allegedly detained and then arrested in a highway traffic stop for showing signs of intoxication. The report indicates that the DWI charge resulted in an internal investigation with an Office of Professional Standards and the predictable reassignment to desk duty.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

All that it took was years and years of plain old grit. So says the story of a U.S. Navy veteran whom federal immigration authorities deported after a second DWI but who in late 2020 finally won his legal readmission to the U.S. as a naturalized citizen.

The story involves a man who entered the U.S. legally as a six-year-old child to live as a legal permanent resident in El Paso with his immigrant family. The then-young man enlisted in the Navy right out of high school, serving in the early 1990s Persian Gulf War. That wartime service turned out to be fortuitous for the young legal permanent resident because it gave him the right to naturalize as a U.S. citizen. Unfortunately, the young man didn't realize his need to naturalize. Instead, the story reports that he returned to El Paso with a drinking habit from wartime stress.

The man joined the Army National Guard at home in El Paso, where he also worked for the Veterans Administration and as an equipment technician--until he incurred a DWI for which federal authorities deported him across the Rio Grande to Ciudad Juarez. After years of odd jobs across the border, the man snuck back to El Paso to join his wife, kids, and ailing mother, only to incur a second DWI and deportation.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

Most DWI arrests are pretty tame. A few are not. And when a DWI arrest goes bad, it can go really bad. One early 2021 story illustrates the point.

The media report explains that the driver, a Dallas resident, allegedly fled after Grand Prairie police signaled the driver to stop. Police suspected an intoxicated driver because the vehicle was running on a blown-out tire's wheel rim. The driver allegedly made an escape all the way into Dallas on I-20, where police SWAT vehicles finally hemmed the suspect's vehicle in.

The report continues police closed both sides of the freeway for safety while the SWAT team coaxed the allegedly intoxicated driver to give himself up. Fortunately, the driver climbed cautiously out of his vehicle, avoiding a sure-to-be-deadly gunfire exchange. Video accompanying the story shows two armored vehicles nose-and-tail with the suspect's vehicle, while swarms of fatigue-clad SWAT officers escort the lone suspect into the back of a waiting police vehicle, later to face evading-arrest and DWI charges.

Continue Reading ››