DWI Cases

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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DIVERT ALERT!!!

August 28, 2009

I accompanied a client to a DIVERT interview a week and half ago and met Raymie Hairell-Sweat, the person in charge of this program at 49 San Jacinto. She was very professional and did an excellent job at calming my concerns about what questions would be asked of my client about the actual incident. I [...]

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