DWI offenses are the cases that fill the misdemeanor courts across Texas, and to a lesser extent the felony courts. The majority of the trials in misdemeanor courts in Tarrant County are DWI trials. DWI cases create a lot of money for the courts, for probation, for police agencies, and for interlock companies across the state. It is big business. Most lawyers learn trial skills from DWI cases, because they go to trial so frequently. Prosecutors right out of law school get thrown into the courtroom with a playbook for getting DWI convictions. Despite all of this, DWI cases can be very complex to defend and require a different level of skill and expertise.    

DWI cases demand a lot from a criminal defense lawyer. DWI cases can be some of the most difficult criminal cases for a lawyer to maneuver. DWI cases almost always have a blood test or a breath test that state a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Defense lawyers must have a good understanding of scientific evidence to prevail. Jurors want to believe that a person’s BAC is whatever the prosecutor says it is. This can be a tough challenge for the defense lawyer requiring a great amount of both understanding the science of analytical chemistry, and how to explain that to a jury in a simple way that can be understood and digested. Most jurors do not have scientific backgrounds. A jury is already stressed with so much new information about the trial and complicated legal aspects, and they don’t have legal backgrounds either. On top of all of that, they are expected to also understand the science as well? This is a tremendous burden for anyone. The only way to lighten this load is to make a complex topic as simple as possible.          

DWI offenses are prosecuted aggressively in Texas. There is a lot of political pressure to district attorneys to secure convictions. Many special interest groups like MADD have lobbied successfully for stricter laws and put pressure on police departments and district attorneys for stricter enforcement. Blood tests and breath tests are almost universal in every DWI case. It is rare to see a DWI case without one, although this does happen in some places. There is also political pressure on judges to require interlock ignition devices in vehicles for people on bond and to keep them in there if they get on probation. Strict conditions are often required for many people who get out of jail on bond, even on first offenses. Defense lawyers have to be equally aggressive defending these cases, but also smarter.        

Aggressive enforcement of DWI law is especially true here in Tarrant County and smaller counties nearby such as Parker, Johnson and others. If you are arrested, you need a lawyer who knows how to defend a DWI case, who knows how to attack blood tests and breath tests, who knows how to cross examine zealous police officers and prosecutors and respond to judges who are not always sympathetic to you. You need someone who has a proven track record of results, results that I can show you.   

The consequences of a DWI will mean different things to different people. Depending on the severity of the charge and the circumstances of your life, the consequences can be extremely serious. A DWI conviction in Texas can cause a person to lose their job, can create problems with a person getting housing, and can mean jail time or even prison time. Regardless of the severity of the case, an experienced lawyer can make all the difference in the outcome. 

When I review a DWI case, there are many things to review and analyze. When you are pulled over in a vehicle, there must be a specific, articulable reason for the stop. Otherwise, it is an illegal stop. Police cannot pull you over on a hunch that something illegal is going on. Police must have a reason to stop and detain a citizen, a reason that they must explain clearly. Speeding, failure to signal, failure to stop at a stop sign, these are common reasons that justify a stop. If police do not have a clear and explainable reason to pull you over, this is a violation of your constitutional rights, and the case cannot go forward. A defense lawyer must know how to argue this. A DWI defense lawyer must also know the field sobriety testing backwards and forwards and exploit mistakes a police officer might make. As discussed above, challenging scientific evidence is extremely important and the most complicated skill a defense lawyer must learn. Many lawyers do not even try to.

Assault charges can be complicated charges to defend and are distinct and different from DWI charges. They require a criminal defense attorney who can evaluate several factors. Often there is not any video evidence of what happened, and prosecutors and defense attorneys look at pictures and what the people involved said happened. An assault means causing pain or injury to someone, and sometimes threatening to cause pain or injury. The injury does not have to be severe, but if the injury is greater, the severity of the charge can increase. Assault is a misdemeanor and aggravated assault is a felony. Both require that one person causes another person pain, but an assault becomes aggravated if there is a weapon involved or the injury is considered serious injury.  

If an assault happens between family members, you can be charged with assault family violence. Assault family violence is a misdemeanor but has serious additional consequences and potential pitfalls that a skilled attorney must consider and work to avoid. Assault charges might be charged as a felony or misdemeanor. Assault can become a felony if you were using a weapon or if there were serious injuries. An aggravated assault is a second-degree felony, but these charges can be defended successfully as well. Felony convictions can be avoided, and felonies can also be reduced to misdemeanors or even dismissed.     

Assault requires a level of intent, which means what was your mindset at the time the assault happened? This is a question that requires analyzing the circumstances because people rarely announce their intent. If you deliberately strike or hit someone in the face, this is an assault. If you swing your fist wildly into a crowd with your eyes closed and someone gets struck in the face, this is an assault because it is reckless behavior. However, purely accidental injuries are not criminal offenses. Distinguishing between what is intentional and what is reckless and what is neither can require legal skill and expertise.

According to the Texas Penal Code, you can be charged with assault if you:

• Deliberately or carelessly inflict bodily harm on another person, including any family member
• Make a threat of substantial physical harm deliberately to somebody else, including any family member
• Purposefully or deliberately make physical bodily contact with someone when the individual is aware or has reasonable grounds for believing that the touch would be harmful

Assault charges can impact careers and limit where you can live, even before you are convicted. A conviction for an assault of a family member will prevent you from owning guns for the rest of your life. Nobody should be forced to live with a permanent criminal record simply because they got into a heated fight. Call me to discuss your situation and learn how we can represent you and discuss your case and resolving it in a way that.

In the criminal justice system, drugs are referred to as controlled substances. There are many drugs that are illegal to possess in Texas. There are hundreds, most of which have unrecognizable names to people without a chemistry background. Generally, people are arrested for possession drugs everyone is familiar with, such as cocaine, THC oil, methamphetamine, and heroin. These drugs and their penalties are listed in section 481 of the Texas Health and Safety Code. People can also arrested for possessing prescription drugs without a prescription.

The penalties for a drug charge depend on three things:

• The kind of drug
• The amount
• If police decide you are simply possessing it or if you are trying to sell it

Controlled substances are separated into four groups with different penalties for each group. The drugs are organized into these groups based on their acknowledged medicinal value and their risk for dependency. The drugs that are deemed to have the least medical value and put the user at the highest rate for addiction are the most heavily penalized. These are Group 1 drugs, and includes cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ketamine, to name only a few. Methamphetamine, for instance, has little medical value—it would not be prescribed by a doctor—and is very addictive. Possessing any amount of any group I drug will result in a felony, even trace amounts.

Penalty Group 2 contains THC oil. THC is the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, meaning it is the part of marijuana that gets you high. THC is very popular, and people are arrested all the time for having it. THC is used for a variety of medical and recreational reasons, and many who get arrested for it do not realize it such a serious criminal offense. Possession of any amount of THC, even an amount under one gram, is a felony. Penalty group 3 includes phentermine, and many benzodiazepines such as alprazolam, otherwise known as Xanax.      

The level of the charge depends on the amount that you had. The weight is measured in grams. As noted above, possession of any amount of cocaine or heroin will mean a felony. Anything under one gram is a state jail felony in Texas. One gram is not very much and is equivalent to the amount in popular artificial sweetener packets at coffee shops. A state jail felony is the lowest level of felony in Texas (6 months to 2 years in state jail). Anything more than one gram but less than four grams is a third-degree felony (2 to 10 years in prison). Anything more than four but less than two hundred is a second-degree felony (2 to 20 years in prison). Any amount over that between two hundred and four hundred is a first-degree felony (5 to 99 years in prison). Anything more than four hundred carries a risk of life or between 10 and 99 years in prison.     

Call me if you have been arrested or charged with any drug crime. I will thoroughly examine your situation in order to find solutions to avoid the consequences that could alter your life forever. My defense strategy for your case will be determined by the penalty category you fall under if you are guilty of a drug offense in Texas. If you are found guilty and convicted, there will be life-altering results. If you have a lawyer who is skilled at defending drug crimes who cares deeply about preventing this from happening, you put yourself in the best position to come out unscathed. You need to fight. There are favorable solutions even in tough cases, regardless of whether you are guilty or not.

Disputes between couples and family members are common. Sometimes conflicts can get out of hand and the police get involved. Stress, financial struggles, and living together during stressful times can lead to unfortunate cases. Domestic violence is a serious thing, and I don’t mean to treat it lightly. There is very serious political pressure on police and prosecutors to make arrests and aggressively pursue cases. Police are trained to make an arrest and ask questions later. It is very easy to get arrested for domestic violence. In many counties in Texas, if someone calls the police and police show up, the other person will get arrested and charged. A conviction for domestic violence might lead to a permanent criminal record, destroy your gun rights, limit your opportunities to find employment or even a place to live.  

In Texas, domestic violence is called assault family violence. This means that there is an assault between two family members. The law in Texas broadly defines what a family member is, and includes both your family, anyone you have a dating relationship with, and even anyone you live with, even a roommate.

Assault family violence is a class A misdemeanor, but it is the most serious misdemeanor in the Texas Penal Code. A conviction or even a deferred adjudication for this offense will stain your record permanently. It will impact your gun rights under both Texas and Federal Law. If you have previously been convicted for domestic violence, any subsequent assault family violence charge will be a third-degree felony. A domestic violence conviction could also jeopardize your parental rights in the event of a separation or divorce, although you would need to contact a family lawyer for more information on that.

These are complex cases that require a skilled defense lawyer. If you are facing any domestic violence allegation, please call me to discuss your case and your defense. I have handled many of these cases and have had great results. I have resolved many of these cases favorably in a variety of different ways. Each case is different, and this is especially true in assault family violence cases.

There are many crimes in the Texas Penal Code that criminalize possessing an illegal weapon, using a weapon, firing a weapon in unlawful circumstances. Possession of an illegal weapon, carrying a weapon while committing another crime, firing a firearm unlawfully, or using a firearm to commit another crime. If you have a prior felony conviction, getting caught with a gun will be another felony. The penalties for these crimes vary depending on what happened but can be very serious. Even an Unlawful Carry of a Weapon charge, which is a misdemeanor, does not look good when it shows up on any background check.      

If you are accused of a weapons charge, you may face criminal charges and harsh consequences. You could be jailed in Texas—not just if you have or use an illegal weapon, but also if you sell or give a weapon to someone else.

A conviction might cost you your job and curtail your career opportunities. Many companies will not hire someone with a weapons charge. Many landlords will not rent to someone who has one. And this does not even include the possibility of jail time, stiff conditions of probation, giving up your gun rights. If you are convicted of a felony weapons charge, your gun rights are gone for the rest of your life.

You will need legal guidance regarding the complexity of weapons laws. I am here to assist you, and answer all of your questions about your case. I have defended many of these cases and seen all sorts of scenarios. I understand the laws, know how to work within them to achieve results, and can successfully defend you.

Call me to discuss your arrest, your case, and your options.

Theft is a criminal allegation that everyone already knows. Taking something that does not belong to you. Legally, theft means to deprive someone of their property without their consent. The penalties for a theft crime will increase in seriousness, depending on the value of what was taken. Theft charges can be as low as a class C misdemeanor all the way up to a first-degree felony. Regardless of the severity, an arrest for theft—even at the lowest level—is one of the most harmful things to have on your criminal record. Employers and anyone else who do a background search on you and find a conviction for theft will stay away. Theft crimes are among the most important for a criminal defense lawyer to set up in the right way so that they can be sealed or expunged down the road. The importance of this cannot be overstated.

Some crimes that involve a theft can be substantially more serious felonies. These are crimes such as burglary and robbery. Burglary is the unlawful entry into a home or a building with the intent to commit either a felony, an assault, or a theft. Robbery is causing injury or threatening injury to someone while stealing from them.

Theft is considered a crime of moral turpitude. If you are not a United States citizen, this is something that can be very damaging to your ability to remain in the United States. Federal immigration law can deny renewal of green cards and even institute removal proceedings for non-citizens charged with crimes of moral turpitude. Although I often defend people who are in this situation, I am not an immigration lawyer. In cases like this, I often work closely with immigration lawyers to resolve these cases.     

If you facing a theft accusation, you need a lawyer. For the reasons mentioned above, it is critical that you talk to a skilled Fort Worth criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible. There are ways to avoid the worst consequences for a theft case, and it is important to start early. Although the consequences for every kind of criminal case are serious, the stakes are high in theft cases. Do not take your case lightly or your choice in who you hire as a defense lawyer.

Sex offenses can be prosecuted very harshly in Texas. Depending on the charge, they are usually very serious felonies. These crimes have stiff penalties in the legal system, but also day-to-day life. There are very harsh penalties. There can be long prison sentences. There could be forced lifetime registration as a sex offender. Facing a sex crime charge in Texas can alter the trajectory of your entire existence. As you cope with the possibility of a criminal conviction, potentially a prison sentence, possible registration as a sex offender, you definitely need an attorney to help you and counsel you. This is not to mention the unnecessary stress, and the loss of your career, your freedom, the destruction of your reputation.     

Sexual assault charges are very serious crimes to deal with, and people facing these charges are in serious need of legal help and counsel. These are sensitive cases that require the lawyer to have a lot of skill and adaptability. They require a defense lawyer to be tough, to have the capacity to battle long and hard against prosecutors who are equally as tough and unrelenting.    

These charges can be the most terrifying imaginable thing for someone to face, regardless of what may have happened in your case. Sometimes people do get charged for crimes they did not commit. If someone makes an allegation to police that is untrue and the result is that you get arrested and charged, this is a complete nightmare. It is a tragic situation that happens in real life to real people. If you are facing a sexual assault charge, regardless of what happened or didn’t happen, you need help. You need to consider your defense seriously, and you should strongly consider retaining a lawyer as soon as possible.