Case Results

Harris County District Attorney’s Office DIVERT Program and Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 2, Judge Harmon

November 3, 2011

David Mitcham may have successfully figured out how to professionally and respectfully handle the DIVERT issue in Court 2, the issue being that Judge Harmon has (probably correctly) used his informal veto power and said he will not allow an otherwise qualified DWI defendant to enter into the DA’s makeshift deferred adjudication program for first [...]

Read the full article →

Aquitted 3rd Offense DWI Felony Charges

May 13, 2010

Client was arrest for Felony DWI (3rd DWI in 6 years) after being stopped for swerving all over the road. A search of his car found two cold beers inside it. The officer had a hard time remembering details from the arrest and had not provided all the details in his offense report. Client performed [...]

Read the full article →

Major Impact on Drug Cases and Vehicle Searches

March 16, 2010

Arizona v. Gant An important decision was handed down that is going to have a major impact on drug cases involving vehicle searches. Up until Gant an officer could search a subjects vehicle as a search incident to arrest. If they were arresting a subject for DWI, they could then search the car and add [...]

Read the full article →

To all potential jurors

March 15, 2010

If you are set for jury duty and you are planning on coming down, please don’t if you think your job is to convict a defendant in a criminal case. I was serving on jury duty last week and as we approached noon, the crowd was dispersing and just a few of us were left [...]

Read the full article →

Changes to DWI DIVERT Policy

January 15, 2010

The DA’s office announced last week that they are changing the DIVERT policy to now accept offenders who live out of state. I had a couple clients that lived out of state and were arrested back in August. We were told that they were ineligible for DIVERT because they had to live in Texas. Those [...]

Read the full article →

2nd Offense DWI in Texas

December 18, 2009

I know what the law says. 5 days in jail are required as a condition of probation (day for day) on a second offense DWI. However, I routinely travel to other counties where the judges and prosecutors are unfamiliar with this requirement. I have seen many judges give the defendant credit for time already served [...]

Read the full article →

ALR….Smoke and Mirrors

December 17, 2009

Today I won an ALR based on a hearsay objection over a properly subpoenaed HPD Officer who ignored his subpoena and failed to show up at the hearing. There was a heated battle between the DPS Prosecutor and the Administrative Law Judge over whether or not the officer that did show up in response to [...]

Read the full article →

58 Things About Your DWI Case That No One is Telling You

December 1, 2009

5 things the District Attorney does not want you to know: 1. He may want to offer you a reduction of charges but his boss won’t let him. 2. He may be planning on dismissing your case on the day of trial. 3. He may believe your story but will try to convict you anyway. [...]

Read the full article →

After the Houston Press DWI Article

November 28, 2009

Sunshine Swallers tried her first case the Monday after my Houston Press article came out and it happened to be a DWI. She asked the jury if anybody had read the Houston Press article and they had not. She got a not guilty verdict. She was very happy. She said it was the second best [...]

Read the full article →

Tyler Flood – Action at 61 Riesner

November 10, 2009

Tyler Flood arrived at 61 Riesner, Houston Police Department’s Central Intox location armed with an order to inspect and photograph the blood vial storage area. As he walked in he was greeted by Officer LaSalle and Sgt. Follis. Follis reads over the signed order…soon Tyler is following their lead through the department to Central Intox. [...]

Read the full article →