1433 3rd St, Floresville, TX 78114
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A Criminal Defense Firm Serving Wilson, Atascosa, Frio, Karnes, & LaSalle Counties.
Recent Blog Posts
¿Qué es exactamente una Supresión?
Una Supresión es un mecanismo legal que utilizamos para destruir y borrar completamente cualquier registro de un arresto y un proceso legal. Lo usamos después de un veredicto de no culpabilidad o una desestimación completa de los cargos por parte del estado de Texas. En pocas palabras, con una supresión, todos los registros se destruyen por completo y se le devuelve a un estado como si el arresto nunca hubiera ocurrido; ni el FBI, ni el gobierno, ni la policía tendrán acceso a los registros de su arresto en los procedimientos judiciales.
Si no fui encontrado culpable, ¿pueden los profesionales seguir viendo mi caso?
Lo hemos visto muchas veces a lo largo de los años en que alguien es arrestado por un delito. Van a la corte y se retiran los cargos; Se desestima el caso. Simplemente no son culpables. Años más tarde, durante una verificación de antecedentes de rutina para un trabajo o una solicitud de vivienda, el arresto y los procedimientos judiciales aparecen y les causan dificultades. La verdad es que a menos que tome ese paso afirmativo de obtener una orden de supresión, todavía aparecerá en las verificaciones de antecedentes penales.
Can I Legally Carry a Concealed Weapon Wearing a Mask in Texas?
Weapon laws across the United States have always been under scrutiny—are they too restrictive or not strict enough? Texas is one of the states that allows Texas residents to obtain a concealed carry license and carry a weapon a number of places while keeping it concealed from the public eye. After COVID-19 hit the United States, many states now require social distancing practices to be followed and face masks to be worn in all public places. Before this virus became an infamous pandemic, wearing a mask in a public place would likely have others wondering about your intentions. Masks are often used by those attempting to hide their identity while conducting a criminal act. For this reason, many gun owners are concerned about the status of concealed carry permits in the midst of the pandemic.
What Happens When The State Files An MTR
So if you're on probation, the thing you're trying to avoid at all costs is the motion to revoke your probation commonly referred to as an MTR. Now what happens in an MTR is your probation officer sends a letter or a violation report to the state's prosecutor, letting them know they believe you violated one of the terms of your probation. The prosecutor's office is, in turn, going to file that MTR, send it over to the judge for signature and then a warrant is going to be issued for your arrest.
What are common violations of probation?
Failing to appear, not completing court ordered classes, or failing a drug test are all common examples of probation violations we see but by far the worst violation you can possibly have is the allegation that you've committed an additional or a subsequent crime while on that probationary period. Now when a judge issues an MTR, they may or they may not set a bond when they do. Some judges wait till here physically arrested to set that bond, others wait until your attorney actually approaches them and ask for a bond. All of this can be avoided by working with a local criminal defense attorney and a bondsman to turn yourself in the jail and then immediately bond yourself right back out.
Can You Get Arrested For Driving High?
Absolutely. In Texas you can be charged with driving while intoxicated either by alcohol, drugs or pain medications prescribed to you by a doctor or a dentist. Now most people know that in Texas the legal limit for alcohol in your system is 0.08. What we don't know is that there's not really an equivalency for how much THC or other drugs you can have in your system before you're deemed to be intoxicated.
How can the state prove that I was high while driving?
So just because Texas doesn't have a legal limit, certainly doesn't mean that it's legal to smoke marijuana and then to drive. Prosecutors in the state of Texas can prove intoxication by marijuana in two ways. First, they can prove that you've lost the normal use of your mental faculties. Second, they can show that you lost the normal use of your physical faculties. Either one of those ways is going to be sufficient for the state to prove that you were driving while intoxicated by marijuana.
All About Your First Day In Court
What should I expect on my first day in court?
So people that don't have a lot of experience in the criminal justice system often wonder what's going to happen on my first court date. Now your first court date is generally called your arraignment and it's the first time the court has asked you to come to court and to address the criminal allegations against you. While most cases aren't and certainly shouldn't be resolved in one court setting, it's still an incredibly important part of your case.
What is the court process like?
Traffic, parking, and security all make getting to court take longer than expected. If you've ever been to the County Courthouse, you'll see these long lines in the morning, of people trying to get through security to get to their courtroom. Now what happens is eventually the judge will come out and he'll call all the names on the docket for that morning. We're gonna stand up with you, we're gonna let the judge know that we're there; we're your attorneys and that we're working on your case. Now judges don't like if you're late and will not hesitate to issue a warrant if you fail to appear.
What Is Shoplifting?
So a really common crime we see in Texas is shoplifting. Shoplifting is a variation of the theft statute. Theft in Texas law is defined simply as taking someone else's property without their permission. The idea in a shoplifting case is that you're taking retail stores’ items -- their products -- without permission from the store. Now the punishment range associated with shoplifting or other theft cases is directly correlated to the value of the items that are taken. Stealing gum is very different from stealing an iPhone.
What are the penalties for shoplifting?
So a lot of the information on the Internet is actually incorrect and outdated. In September of 2015 the Texas Legislature updated the statute and the value ladder associated with it. Currently as it stands, any item less than $100 is going to be a Class C violation. Any item valued at $750 or less will be a Class B misdemeanor. Anything under $2,500, it's going to be a Class A misdemeanor. Above $2,500, and you end up looking at felony offenses and the possibility of prison and convictions. Now it is worth noting here that the cases stack as well. What that means is as you get further arrested and further convictions, the punishment ranges become more severe. The idea is that courts and prosecutors want to punish more severely someone who has multiple convictions for shoplifting as opposed to the individual that commits the offense just once in their life.
DWI & DUI Differences
So people use these terms interchangeably but really in Texas, they're very different things. DWI is an acronym for "Driving while Intoxicated." While DUI stands for "Driving Under the Influence."
Which charge is worse?
DWI is much much worse than DUI. In the DWI case the state has to prove intoxication which is a high standard. They have to prove that you either had a blood-alcohol concentration above 0.08 or that you had lost the normal use of your mental or physical faculties. Conversely, in a DUI, all the state has to prove is that someone under the age of 21 had any detectable amount of alcohol in their system. The idea here being that people under the age of 21 aren't supposed to be drinking alcohol at all. So even a sip of alcohol and then getting behind the wheel can have you be found guilty for DUI.
What are the punishment differences?
Tips For If You Are Being Pulled Over
So naturally, it is frustrating; it is upsetting to get pulled over by the police for a traffic violation. That's completely normal but the idea to remember here is that nowadays everything is being recorded -- audio and video -- and being polite is an easy way to improve your situation. It's an easy way to improve the outcome of your case. Those videos and those recordings are likely going to be reviewed by a court, by a judge, even possibly a jury, and you want to come across the right way. You want to come across professional and polite. Truth is officers have a lot of discretion in dealing with defendants and you can get on their good side by simply showing respect and following the rules. The opposite holds true as well. If you act like a jerk, if you are rude, really all you do is increase the odds that you're going to end up in handcuffs and end up at the local jail.
Can The Police Lie To Me?
So people are sometimes surprised to learn that the Police can absolutely lie to you. During a detention, during an arrest, or just doing a normal conversation. The courts have said that police are allowed to be deceptive as they put it. Some common examples of times that we see Police officers acting deceptively would be when they tell you things like a witness has already told us everything so go ahead and tell us your side of the story. We hear them lie about evidence all the time, look at your fingerprints or DNA have already been found or look, I already know you've been drinking; go ahead and tell us your side of the story. Another common way we see police officers lie is about their future actions. So we hear things like tell me your side of the story and I'll talk to the DA or to the judge and make sure you don't get in any trouble. The truth is police officers are allowed to build rapport with you, build trust, lie to you, get a statement out of you and then use that statement against you in court.
What is a Field Sobriety Test?
Sure, so we've all seen this on TV and in movies. This is where an officer suspects somebody of driving while intoxicated. They pull them over, they're on the side of the road, they're gonna ask you to perform a series of tests to try to determine whether you're intoxicated, whether it'd be safe to be driving or not.
What are the three types of field tests?
So in Texas, officers use three basic field sobriety tests and as a former DWI prosecutor, I can tell you that these tests are designed for you to fail. The first test is going to be the one leg stand. In this test, the officer is going to ask you to lift one of your feet six inches off the ground and begin to count. The officer during this test we'll be watching you for swaying, watching you for losing your balance, watching really everything you do for any signs of intoxication. The second test is the walk and turn. In this test, the officer is going to ask you to imagine a line on the ground, follow that line nine steps, do a turn, do nine steps back. Same thing as the first test, he's looking for swaying, he's looking for using your hands for balance, he's looking for you taking the wrong amount of steps. The third test is the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test or the HGN. This is where an officer uses the pen and asks you to follow with your eye. The officer is looking for involuntary twitching of your eyeball. If your eye is twitching, he's going to count that as a clue, as a reason why he believes that you're intoxicated. All three of these tests are called Divided Attention Tests, meaning they're asking you to do one thing physically, while also giving you something to do mentally. It's the same as when you initially get pulled over. First thing the officer is gonna do is ask you to pull out your driver's license while simultaneously asking you where you're coming from. The idea here is to give you something to be thinking about while also physically asking you to do something, trying to come up with signs of intoxication, trying to make it appear as though you're confused or stumbling or intoxicated.
830-769-1010
1433 3rd St, Floresville, TX 78114
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