In Austin And Across Central Texas
A public defender or a private lawyer? Which one to choose? This decision depends upon various factors and requirements a defendant may have. To start, a public defender is a lawyer appointed by the court to the defendant for his/her defense whereas a private lawyer is a person hired by the defendant or his family for his/her defense. The roles…
A bill has been passed in the state of Texas that allows DWI first-time offenders the opportunity to have charges deferred. John Fleming, the criminal attorney of Nacogdoches County in Texas stated that “historically, DWI (driving while intoxicated) could not be deferred and deferred probation is one that if the terms and conditions of probation are completed then there is…
UPDATED: Travis County prosecutors will now reject Possession of Marijuana cases filed from June 10 forward, unless they’re accompanied by a lab report. This comes as an unintended consequence of House Bill 1325, legalizing hemp cultivation, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott last month. County Attorney David Escamilla confirmed this news to the Chronicle this afternoon. “The law is the law,” he said,…
We read stories about this type of thing on a regular basis. The person who is arrested complains that he or she was manhandled or otherwise abused by a police officer or officers, and the response is that the force was necessary in light of the fact that the suspect was “resisting arrest.” This past May, APD officer Jermaine Hopkins…
We see figures concerning crime that come from a variety of sources. Those sources include the Austin PD, the Texas Department of Public Safety, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When you take the numbers related to property crimes from all the official sources available, there are some interesting, and perhaps startling, conclusions that can be drawn. They…
It began with a report by Georgetown resident Delisha Thomas. Ms. Thomas reported to police a bizarre and disturbing sequence of events that allegedly took place last month and began in North Austin, including being kidnapped for two days, being sexually assaulted, having bleach poured on her, and being locked in the trunk of her car. An investigation by law…
When a person causes the death of someone else, most people tend to assume that any criminal charge will be a felony. After all, murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and intoxication manslaughter are all felonies of one degree or another. So when a plea agreement is struck that provides for a guilty plea to a misdemeanor in a death case,…
When we hear about traffic stops, we may think of the possibility of speeding tickets, a citation for running a red light or a stop sign, or maybe a DWI. But the fact is that traffic stops often lead to much more serious allegations. A case in point involves a recent incident that took place in Waco, Texas. And it…
A recent report concerns an incident in Pflugerville, Texas, in which a man allegedly left his child in a locked car while he went into a building around lunchtime to renew his Texas identification card. The girl was just a year old, and when another person pulled up beside the car and saw the child, she notified a customer service rep at…
If you’ve been granted a release on bail, have posted bail, and are now walking the streets, be careful what you do while your case proceeds through the court system. Whatever the conditions of your bail may be, a violation of one or more of them can lead to serious consequences. An example was reported last week involving Linda Woodman, who was…