Houston Criminal & DWI Lawyer & Attorney : Grant Scheiner Law Firm : Drunk Driving, Sexual Assault, Criminal Defense : Houston, Texas

The Houston Chronicle reports that Judge James Blackstock has been charged with 14 counts of official oppression.  The charges center around soon to be former Judge Blackstock condcuting himself in a lewd manner with 3 female county employees.  No details have been released as to the age, marital status, or length of employment of these employees.

Some of the conduct includes touching these women's breast and buttocks.  Obviously these were not consensual encounters or the DA's office would not know about them.  Shockingly but not surprising, the old county computer system was used to send emails and photos.  I bet Wayne Dolcefinio or however you spell that guy's name is scurrying down there with a Public Information Request.  We should have those emails before supper.  It is shocking that number one the Judge felt comfortable to give such concrete evidence against himself by sending an email but number two, he felt bullet-proof enough to do it on the Tax Payer's Computer.  Awesome.

I am impressed that Brazoria County Distrcit Attorney Jerri Yenne did not just sweep this under the rug.  At the same time, Jerri Yenne will be closely scrutinized by everyone to determine if Blackstock is treated like all other criminal defendants.  His case is listed on the Brazoria County web site like everyone else, but where is his mugshot?  Usually, there is a bond amount.  Maybe, the judge has not turned himself in yet.  I am curious to see if the Judge will be allowed to appear on a summons.

I am not sure the last time Blackstock was on the bench.  Was it this morning?  I have been in front of Judge Blackstock a time or two.  Like many judges, he gave off the "holier than thou, how can you be so stupid Mr. or Mrs. citizen."  Now he is Mr. Citizen accused of doing something stupid.  This case should remind all ADA's and Judges that we are all human and at times we all do incredibly stupid things.

Should he receive compassion?  That is up to a judge/jury!

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I get this call a lot.  People sometimes take a deferred adjudication on a charge believing that there will not be any consequences.  As discussed earlier in this blog, a person who successfully completes a deferred adjudication probation does avoid a conviction.  Yet, there are often collateral consequences that a good criminal lawyer will discuss with a person prior to agreeing to take a deferred adjudication.

Employment limitations are the biggest collateral consequences that people face.  I usually receive a frantic call right after someone is turned down for a job because of the past deferred adjudication.  The caller usually says, "I had a deferred and my lawyer said that it would not be on my record but I was just denied employment."

Well I am telling everyone now, A DEFERRED ADJUDICATION IS ON YOUR RECORD.

Apartments are also being very stringent regarding criminal histories these days.

Employers and leasing agents do not know the difference between a deferred adjudication and a conviction.  Even if they did, those persons are not going to feel any more comfortable that you had a deferred for a theft versus a conviction.

So what can you do if you had a deferred.  Well, the first thing is if you are currently on deferred you may be eligible for early termination.  If you have completed your deferred probation, then you need to file a petition for non-disclosure.  A petition for non-disclosure seals your records.  Section 411.081(d) of the Texas Government Code is where the law is written regarding sealing one's records.

How do you do that?  The easiest way is to higher a criminal lawyer who knows what they are doing.  If done properly, the law allows you to deny the existence of the past deferred if it has been properly sealed.  Some deferred adjudications are not eligible to be sealed and some require a waiting period from the date one completes the probation.

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EZINEARTICLES. COM has accurate information regarding marijuana penalites in Texas.  Possession of marijuana can be a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the amount possessed.  Less than 2 ounces of marijuana is a class B misdemeanor.  Less than 4 ounces of marijuana is a class A misdemeanor.  4 ounces to 5lbs of marijuana is a state jail felony.  5lbs to 50lbs of marijuana is a third degree felony.  50lbs to 2000lbs of marijuana is a second degree felony.  Over 2000lbs of marijuana is a first degree felony.

In some Texas counties, people caught with less than 4 ounces of marijuana receive citations.  ABC 13 reports that Harris County refuses to issue citations and instead prefers to arrest persons with small amounts of marijuana.  The article estimates that each arrest costs the county approximately $2,000.  Last year alone, nearly 10,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in Harris County.  Get your calculator and do the math on that one!

To Arrest or Ticket.  The question really is where does the county wish to allocate its financial resources and jail bed space.  It is well-documented that Harris County inmates are being shipped to Louisiana because of overcrowding. 

Most persons arrested for such a small amount of marijuana have bonds as low as $500, which would only cost about $75 to bond out.  As a local criminal lawyer, my experience is that the final disposition of a marijuana case is typically probation consisting of community service and random urinalysis. 

Therefore, although statutorily possible, incarceration is never really an issue for misdemeanor drug cases.  Similiar to traffic tickets, there is no reason to arrest people who are not facing jail time.  Police officers only "arrest on traffic" as a pretext to conduct an otherwise illegal search, but that is a whole different issue.

What would be different if the night in jail was replaced with a written citation?  Would less people appear for their court dates?  Maybe, but then you would just put a warrant out for their arrest and add an additional charge for failure to appear.

Travis County is already writing citations and Dallas County will begin the practice soon.  These counties are not saying that marijuana is not a problem.  They are just choosing to approach the issue with a different approach.

Taxpayers and friends of logic and reason, what do you all think?

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Anyone charged with a criminal offense in Harris County, Texas is likely to be overwhelmed with the number of courts in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.

The Harris County Criminal Justice Center is located at 1201 Franklin Street in downtown Houston.

There are fifteen county criminal courts at law.  The courts are found on floors 8, 9, 10, and 11.  The county criminal courts hear all class B misdemeanors and class A misdemeanors.   Class B misdemeanors are offenses that are punishable by up to 180 days in jail and/or a fine not to exceed $2,000.  The range of punishment for a Class A misdemeanor is up to 1 year in the Harris County Jail.

The District Courts are located on floors 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19.  The District Courts hear all felony cases from first degree murder down to state jail felony drug cases.

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The Houston Chronicle reported that a Harris County man was arrested and charged with capital murder in the death of his son.  From what I gathered from the article, the autopsy revealed no external injuries and the cause of death was severe trauma to the brain which the Detectives believe is consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

As a Harris County criminal defense lawyer, I do not feel it is appropriate to discuss this case given the early stages of the case, the seriousness of the charge, and the small amount of information contained in the Houston Chronicle article.   The man is presumed innocent and we will leave it at that for now. Yet, I am curious to know what the general public thinks about Shaken Baby Syndrome. 

Do people belives this phenomenon exists?  Does our medical community and modern science know enough about the brain to make such a determinaton?

The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome is the first place I looked.  The site at  http://don'tshake.com/ is the first web site I viewed.  This is a very well-intended site meant to prevent child abuse.  It is clear the organization is well organized and active.  Similiar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one cannot be at odds with the purpose and reason for existence of the organization.  The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome's mission is to protect babies from abuse.

Yet, I found it unsettling that the site has a page titled "The Legal System's Role in Facilitating Irresponsible Expert Testimony."  The purpose of this page was to accuse criminal lawyers of paying an expert to say the syndrome does not exist.  Outright, out in the open propaganda. 

I have used experts in many cases.  You pay for the expert's time and the expert gives you the opinion.  You do not pay for the "opinion."

So does anyone think Shaken Baby Syndrome does not exist?  In a very intersting article, Shaken Baby Syndrome was put to the test.   Michael Prange, Ph.D., Brittany Coats, B.S., Ann-Christine Duhaime M.D. and Susan Margulies, Ph.D., medical researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, tested the shaken baby hypothesis. They published their results last year in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Models were used to simulate forces thought to cause shaken baby syndrome.  The research showed that a grown man is not strong enough to shake a baby hard enough to tear brain tissue and cause bleeding.  Wonder what inmates convicted of this charge think about that research?  

Typically, shaken baby syndrome excludes injuries to the neck.  The experiment showed that shaking the model baby would definitely cause injuries to the neck.

So I believe that is a major issue in a Shaken Baby Case.  Was the baby's neck injured?  Medical research and common sense should require some injury to the baby's neck to be consistent with violent shaking of a baby.

A shaken baby case is a hard case to prosecute because there is credible medical research that disputes the existence of such a phenomenon.  On the other hand, these cases are even harder to defend because there is a deceased infant and loved ones and police want to hold someone responsible.  Too many times there is a perfect scapegoat such as the babysitter or ill-tempered boyfriend.

Curious to know people's thoughts... 

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In a very controversial case, Joe Horn was no-billed by a grand jury in Harris County, Texas.  The Houston Chronicle reported the Grand Jury reviewed this case for two weeks.

So the big question is was this the right result?  Was this the fair result?  The answers to those questions depend on who you ask.  If you ask homeowners all over the County, Joe Horn did an honorable thing.  If you ask loved ones of the deceased, Joe Horn is a murderer.

What do I think?  Well if you ask, based on the facts as presented in the media, Joe Horn did not have a legal right to shoot those men.  The evidence presented through the news was that Joe Horn was in his home and not in danger, but chose to go outside and confront these men.  If you look at it morally, it gets a little cloudier.

The whole case depends on what Joe Horn's mental state was.  In Texas, a person commits murder if one intentionally and knowingly causing the death of a person.  There is no doubt Joe Horn intentionally shot the deceased.  Therefore, the only issue is whether the killing was justified by self-defense or some other legal reason.

The worse fact for Joe Horn was that he disregarded the 911 operator's order to stay in his home.  Furthermore, Joe Horn told the 911 operator that he was going to shoot them.  Only Joe Horn knows what happened once he went outside.

A grand jury is comprised of twelve persons.  It is a secret proceeding.  In order for a citizen to be indicted, 9 out of 12 of the grand jurors must find probably cause that the citizen committed a felony.

So why did the Grand Jury no-bill the case?  Did the Grand Jury do a complex analysis of legal issues and apply them to a set of facts?  More likely, did the Grand Jury decide that the guys Joe Horn shot needed killing?  The long and short of it was well-documented.  The two deceased were here in the country illegally, they were burglarizing innocent citizen's homes, and who knows what else they would do next.

What message does this send to the community?  All people who choose to burglarize a home must know that they may be shot by a homeowner, but does this decision create a sense of vigilante justice?

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We all must applaud Mexico for its progress in attempting to legitimize the rule of law.  The Houston Chronicle reports that Mexico has enacted a constitutional amendment that will completely change the legal system in Mexico.  The article states that no longer will a judge decide a person's guilt behind closed doors only relying on written evidence.  Along with the jury trial system, the right of the Presumption of Innocence is included in the amendment.

The fact that Mexico has chosen to enact this amendment  is a compliment to the United States' criminal justice system.  Mexico had several options: 1.) Keep the system they already had; 2.) input the principles of the United States system; or 3.) follow any other system out there.

As a criminal lawyer in Houston, I am excited and optimistic of how these changes will legitimize the courts and government in Mexico.

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Deferred Adjudication is a special type of probation.  If you are charged with a crime in Houston, Texas, then you need an experienced criminal defense lawyer to  maneuver your case through the system.  If the District Attorney's Office has sufficient evidence against you to obtain a conviction in a jury trial, then deferred adjudication community supervision must be discussed.

The word "adjudication" literally means the act of pronouncing judgment based on the evidence presented .  When a judge grants deferred adjudication probation, that is exactly what he does.  The judge defers pronouncing judgment.  Upon a plea of guilty and other evidence, the judge finds that sufficient evidence exists to find a person guilty, but the judge defers that finding.  The judge places the person on probation for a period of time with certain restrictions and conditions.  If the person successfully completes the period of time on a deferred adjudication probation, then the case is dismissed.  The case is still on a person's record until one files a petition for non-disclosure.

Deferred Adjudication probations can be very risky.  If a person fails to live up to the conditions of one's probation, then the judge can sentence that person any where in the range of punishment for the offense which one is on probation.  More times than not, a person who fails to complete his deferred adjudication successfully serves a harsher sentence than if he had initially taken a plea for jail time.

Oftentimes, the prosecutor on the case does not offer deferred adjudication for various reasons.  If the prosecutor agrees to waive the State's right to a jury trial, then a criminal defendant has the option of pleading guilty to the judge and present evidence of why a deferred adjudication probation is fair and just.  If a person is considering "pleading open to the judge" in Harris County, then it is advisable to hire a criminal defense attorney that regularly practices in Harris County.

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