Take a look at our criminal defense case wins. If you are ready to schedule a consultation to discuss your case call us at (214) 891-7444.
Bond hearing on a $50,000 and a $25,000 bond on first and second-degree felonies. Judge gave PR bonds on both and the first-degree charge was later dismissed. It’s hard to afford a proper criminal defense lawyer when you’re locked up. Client is out of jail and back to work.
Helped a college athlete with a Title IX hearing at his university stemming from a claim of sexual assault against a female student. Let’s first make it clear; I don’t typically handle Title IX matters. But a good friend requested help for his son and paid a small fee. While an esteemed colleague mentioned he might charge forty thousand for the work involved and to be really careful, I kept it exceedingly simple, advised the student and helped him draft a carefully worded response letter. A few weeks later the university dropped the matter.
Client was charged with an assault she did not commit. The accusation seemed part of a coordinated effort to pursue other legal claims against my client’s family. On the morning of trial, the “victim’s” attorney came by the court with a friendly warning that his client had brought unbiased witnesses and trial would be a waste of time likely ending in my client’s conviction. He suggested deferred dismissal as our best bet. But I had several reasons not to like his advice. And never has an attorney who was not a prosecutor tried to talk me out of a trial. When he saw I was at odds with his point of view, he said his goodbyes and left. But just as trial was starting, I noticed he had returned, quietly settled in the back of the courtroom. Wishing to deny him any chance to compare testimony and coach witnesses, I had the judge exclude him from the courtroom and we went on to win a not guilty.
Our client was charged with a first-degree felony for Possession of a Controlled Substance, Manufacturing and Delivery. She had been on a short road trip between cities when she was stopped in a vehicle containing an extremely large quantity of methamphetamines. The stop occurred in a semi-rural and extremely conservative county. The penalty for a first-degree felony is up to 99 years or life and the state was only offering penitentiary time. We learned the client’s story and background and were able to use that to persuade the state to offer pretrial diversion. This means upon satisfactory completion of the diversion program, all charges will be dismissed.
Client called distraught over a warrant for arrest on a motion to revoke felony probation. She had been on probation for nine years, had failed to complete numerous conditions, was behind on fines and fees and had picked up a new criminal case. She had already been extended three times and had stopped going to work from fear of being arrested. She was even too afraid to drive downtown to meet at our office. After three failed attempts of coming to us, I finally went to her, explained what we would try to do and quoted her a fee. However, when I couldn’t guarantee her warrant would be lifted she was hesitant.(Clients sometimes want guarantees we can’t ethically provide). Nonetheless, she paid us at noon and by 2 pm we had her probation back on track and her warrant recalled so she could start going to work without worry again.
Warrant on Motion to RevokeProbation Extended, Warrant Recalled without Need for bond
Client was traveling near the Texas state line when he was stopped for speeding and arrested, initially only for unlawful carrying of a handgun. He and his car were legally searched because of the smell of marijuana, his admission to having recently used marijuana and alcohol and having a handgun in plain view of the trooper from the roadside. Both the stop and the arrest were also valid and no evidence suppression issues were present.
Upon arrest, a lawful inventory search of his vehicle turned up nearly 200 bottles of prescription meds and other substances inside duffel bags. As a result, the state trooper added Possession of a Controlled Substance, Manufacturing and Delivery / Possession with Intent to Distribute, a 2nd degree felony. This charge calls for up to a $10,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison.
It’s easy to imagine other lawyers might have accepted a felony probation deal early on. This goes along with my contention that without a careful lawyer, bad police work is often good enough. Instead, we dug into documents and bodycam videos and found a serious error by the arresting officer that led to the DA’s Office dropping the felony.
End Result? One misdemeanor deferred adjudication (which will end in a dismissal) and a dismissal of the weapon case.
Felony Probation Violation Possession of a Controlled SubstanceClient hired us on a DWI. But far more concerning was preventing his felony probation from being revoked in another county (not Dallas). As expected, his court issued a probation violation warrant and our client was arrested several counties away. His family worried transfer would take weeks causing him to lose his job. He’d won a long-sought promotion and losing this job could destroy his career. In less than 24 hours we had two lawyers in front of the prosecutor to try to set a bond and get our client back to work. In this county, the bond would typically be three times the original bond. That would have been $30,000.00 as the bond had originally been $10,000.00 on a Manufacturing and Delivery charge. We could have agreed to a lower bond, paid out more money to bond him and then worked on the probation revocation later, but my true goal was to give the prosecutor good reasons to skip all the way to the end. That would mean agreeing on the spot to withdraw the motion to revoke and allow our client to continue on probation. After a brief conversation, research, and discussion with colleagues, the prosecutor agreed to withdraw the motion and have the warrant recalled. The judge signed off and a release was sent to the arresting county. Client was out by 10 am and headed to work to save his job. The court will still have the new offense available as evidence on a Motion to Proceed to Adjudication if our client messes up, but for now, he has a second chance to keep his life on track.
In New York attempting to board a plane for international travel, client was arrested on a felony theft warrant out of Dallas County. We worked quickly to keep him from being extradited, saving him weeks in custody. (He would have gotten a long trip to Texas in handcuffs and leg irons). We told him not to sign a waiver of extradition and immediately filed a Fugitive From Justice Writ (FFJ Writ) to have bond set locally. Bond was set here and posted in New York and client was released. The Dallas County Grand Jury was set to hear his case immediately. We submitted a Grand Jury packet (documents to persuade a Grand Jury not to indict) and the Grand Jury returned a No-Bill on his case. Our client will never have to go to court to face prosecutors or a judge. He is free, to travel, free from having to worry about the charge and will also be able to recover his bond money from New York.
Arrested by military police after showing up to work as a contractor on a base, client had been ducking a probation violation warrant for two years. Client was on deferred probation for felony employee theft. Shortly into his probation, he slipped up, stopped reporting, paying fees and doing any conditions. He moved to another county and was out of touch for nearly 2 years. We were hired and immediately set a bond to get him released. Prosecutor was upset about the length of our client’s non-compliance and wanted to revoke his probation or extend it 2 years with additional jail time. I used one of my favorite secret arguments to persuade the prosecutor things weren’t so bad. (What was that argument? Sorry, but it’s a secret.) After months of court dates, persuasion and our client’s good behavior we had the motion to revoke dropped and the case extended for only one year without any jail time. It was the best possible outcome under the circumstances. Client was able to keep his job, continue supporting his family and keep his case on track for dismissal.
Sitting on a curb in handcuffs after a felony stop, our client had just been caught on tape arranging the sale of heroin to undercover officers. A referral to our office from a former police officer, he and his pals had tried to make a run for it. But a marked patrol car had caught up to them, observed a minor traffic violation and pulled them over. Police found the heroin and the buy money and arrested everybody in the car. Later that night, our client signed a full written confession. His charge was manufacturing/delivery of a controlled substance, a second-degree felony. His prior attorney hadn’t seen any plan to get a better outcome. In fact, this other attorney told me to be wary of anyone who would lie to the cops. By the time we were done, the felony was dismissed and we had a deal for deferred on misdemeanor theft. How? Well, the stop was good and the driver had the heroin on him. Another passenger had warrants. But on the stop, our client had no drugs, weapons or warrants. The patrol officer hadn’t seen him commit any crime, had no knowledge of the prior activity and had arrested our client only because the undercover officer told him to. While that’s usually good enough, (because bad police work often goes unchallenged), that’s not a valid arrest. Client’s later confession was a fruit of the bad arrest and therefore suppressible. Our prosecutor had the backbone to agree. Since the State had other offenses available through the undercover officers’ testimony we took a deferred adjudication on a misdemeanor. The state (and thereby the people) avoided an expensive and mostly fruitless trial, and our client avoided a felony.
Driving across oncoming lanes of traffic late at night and plowing into a yard destroying part of a brick wall, our client had been on the way home from her boyfriend’s house and was found by officers still at the wheel. She admitted driving, admitted drinking wine and taking Ambien, all captured on the officers’ body cams. Slam dunk case for the state, really. Nonetheless, there can be many reasons a prosecutor might be persuaded to drop a DWI and offer a deferred adjudication on an obstruction of a roadway charge. Those reasons aren’t flagged for defense lawyers to find. It takes determination, discernment and creativity to find them. In this case, the reason was highly unusual but nine months later all charges were dismissed.
Client had been followed by undercover narcotics officers who radioed a uniformed officer to make a traffic stop. They believed our client was a dealer carrying large amounts of drugs and contraband but didn’t want to blow their cover. They also wanted to ensure they had a good stop and arrest. The 25+ year veteran officer who made the stop had our client get out of the car and did a pat-down search for weapons (Terry frisk). During the search, the officer quickly found a large bag of methamphetamines in our client’s pocket with much more hidden in other areas of his clothing. He also found a large amount of marijuana in client’s vehicle as well as materials for packaging and sale of narcotics. Client was facing 5 to 99 years on first-degree felony Manufacturing with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance. We carefully reviewed the video and filed a motion to suppress evidence based on several problems with the officer’s search. We carefully crafted questions to show via the officer’s own testimony that our client’s search was illegal in several respects. In the end, even though our client had verbally agreed to let the officer search his pocket, the judge agreed that under the circumstances the consent was not voluntary and the search was invalid. All of the narcotics, all of the marijuana, all of the materials for packaging and sale were suppressed as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” That left the state with no evidence and the entire case was dismissed. The judge warned the client that he had gotten lucky this time but that if he kept it up he’d be back and probably wouldn’t be so lucky again. Happily, the client is doing very well and his new profession doesn’t require him to transport contraband.
Client referred by a friend was facing 5 to 99 years on two first degree felonies and one state jail felony. He had been arrested after a traffic stop revealed he was carrying a massive amount of illegal drugs in his vehicle. When we say massive, the veteran prosecutor commented it was the most drugs he had ever seen on one person. What’s worse, the client had just started probation on an assault charge from the same felony court only two days earlier. He had barely left the courthouse when he picked up three huge new cases. Bonds were set at $100,000.00 on each of his three cases. The family was unable to make the high bonds and we moved quickly to have each of his bonds reduced to a maximum of $5000.00 the very next day. The State then filed a motion to revoke his probation and issued a warrant. We then filed a motion “Nunc Pro Tunc” (it means “Then for Now”) to have his probation changed from a felony to a misdemeanor reflecting the intent of the original plea. That allowed us to request a misdemeanor level bond. We then bonded our client on the new warrant and began to work all of his cases. We counseled our client on the many things he could begin doing to make a good impression on those who were deciding his fate. To his credit, he stayed out of trouble, changed his surroundings and began working a legitimate job. He always showed up for court well dressed. After many months we were able to get the state to agree to continue our client on probation and offer an 8-year deferred adjudication on the two first degree charges and a 5 year deferred on the State Jail Felony. If the client complies with all terms of his probation we can petition the court for early discharge after a couple of years and the case will be dismissed.
Client admitted to police that she had taken a baseball bat to her boyfriend’s windshield, totally destroying it. Whether or not he deserved it was never decided by the court. But we got the case dismissed. On the downside, my parking tab at the courthouse was $15 for 35 minutes.
Our client was seen hitting her sworn enemy on the head with a standard claw hammer. The client was a nurse and the case would have caused severe consequences to her professional prospects. We were able to get the case dismissed for a variety of good reasons.
Very difficult occupational driver’s license granted in the Dallas County Criminal Courts. Client had never had a Texas Driver License and had racked up two pages of surcharges, violations and suspensions. Filing an ODL when the client has never had a DL is not easy because almost nobody at the courthouse knows how to do it and nobody wants to let it be done. But there is a way to do it and today we did.
Interference with Emergency Telephone call case. Client had ripped the phone cord out of the wall as his wife tried to call police. The case was reduced to a Class C misdemeanor with time served credit for all fines and court costs.
Our client was arrested outside the premises of his employer after a brief chase. They had video of the actions leading up to the theft and had recovered the stolen materials at the scene. They obtained a confession as well. Client faced serious immigration consequences if he took a plea bargain on these cases. Dismissals or not guilty’s were the only outcomes that would suffice. After careful work on his matter and despite video evidence and the signed written confession we obtained dismissals on both cases.
A 56-year-old commercial truck driver came to us after being arrested for DWI. He told us he had to try to beat his case because his career depended on it. On the night he was stopped he had an open container (ice cold six pack with one open), admitted drinking, his blood tested at a .22 and he admitted taking multiple prescription meds, some which cautioned against operating heavy machinery or driving. He had four handguns in the cab of his truck and a loaded .32 semiautomatic in his back pocket as well as a disassembled rifle in a duffel bag. He also had hundreds of rounds of ammo (with hollow points and tracer rounds) in his vehicle. He was stopped in a high crime (prostitution) area late at night with a hundred dollar bill hanging out of his shirt pocket. Cross-examination of the officer exposed problems with the stop and arrest. Our expert’s testimony both explained the science of the blood test and demonstrated flaws in the state lab’s procedures. Further doubt was cast by flaws in the state’s paperwork and the fact that the client’s performance on the video did not seem consistent with such a high blood alcohol content. Not guilty by Jury. Our client was able to get another job as a commercial truck driver and go back to his normal life.
Our client came to us very upset over what he felt was unfair treatment at the hands of local police. Client was approached by three officers while he was creating a disturbance in his mother’s backyard. One of the officers expanded his collapsible baton upon approaching. Seeing this, our client feared the officers were going to beat him before arresting him. He wasn’t looking forward to being beaten. Client was not a particularly large man but strong and sturdy (much like Popeye). Officers approached and tried to put him in handcuffs but client would not put his hands behind his back. Officers called for backup. Three of them dragged him still standing through the house and onto the front porch. It took ten officers to finally get our client subdued and into handcuffs. Two officers received minor injuries during the arrest. Client was charged with two counts of Aggravated Assault on Public Servant. We presented a packet to the Grand Jurors using an analogy to show why our client was not at fault for the officers’ injuries. We compared the officers’ injuries to those movers might get trying to move a large refrigerator through a kitchen. Moving a large refrigerator might cause similar injuries but it wouldn’t be because of an assault. Similarly, all our client did was resist. They may have been injured because of his resistance, but not from an assault. We asked them to No Bill him or charge him instead with resisting arrest. The Grand Jury No-Billed our client and all charges were dropped. No other charges were ever filed.
Our client was already in jail accruing back time on a prior case and had a Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) hold as well. Her new DWI 3rd case was unresolved. Our client did not want to dispute the new case, just wanted to minimize the amount of time it would cost her in jail and prison. We arranged for the minimum possible sentence for a third-degree felony allowing client to serve the sentence concurrently with her other case. We also got our client credit for all back time to greatly reduce the amount of time in custody and speed up her parole eligibility. Additionally, we asked the judge to run court costs and fines concurrently so client will not owe money when she’s released from TDC. Everything the client wanted and more was achieved. Winning for the client is not always about winning at trial
Client, a referral from a friend, was a hard-working man with a nice peaceful life. On the road one day he collided with a vehicle that turned in front of him, totaling his beloved sports car. He believed the other driver was at fault. However, when police arrived they believed he was at fault (perhaps because of the sports car) and immediately began investigating our client for DWI. After informing officers of his bad leg and other health problems, he attempted the roadside sobriety tests. When it became clear the officer believed he had failed the roadside tests our client decided to refuse the requested breath test. That’s a direct route to a DWI charge. We tried the case to a jury and they returned a verdict of not guilty.
Client had been scared and on the run from her felony probation for 8 years. She was afraid the court would give her prison time for violating her probation so badly and for absconding for so long. She knew she had unfinished business with the court but carried on with her life hoping she could build a family and a future anyway. During those 8 years, she had put her old ways behind her, had become a mother and begun a career as a teacher. Eventually, she was arrested as a passenger in a traffic stop and brought before the court. We showed that despite there being an active warrant for her arrest for 8 years, the sheriff’s department did not do enough to try to get her into custody. Even though they had good addresses on her, they had never come out and attempted to serve the warrant. The law requires that the sheriff at least try to serve such warrants. Letting cases languish without making good faith efforts to get the defendant back into custody is disfavored by the courts because it prevents people from being able to put their cases behind them and get on with their lives. Courts recognize that many will not voluntarily turn themselves in on active warrants. The judge agreed, recalled the warrant and set the case for hearing. At her motion to proceed to adjudication hearing we presented witnesses of our client’s character, life changes and testimony that she had been in Dallas the whole time. The judge discharged the case through non-adjudication of her deferred and the case was dismissed.
Client was arrested for DWI on DFW International Airport property just inside the Tarrant County line. The case was filed in Dallas County as allowed by law. We had a short bench trial that ended abruptly with a directed verdict of Not Guilty after state’s close of evidence. We had requested a directed verdict after demonstrating that despite the case being properly filed, the prosecutor failed to present proper evidence regarding jurisdiction. The judge granted our motion and directed the jury to find the client Not Guilty. Memorably, after trial the judge asked the prosecutor, “You see how he tricked you?” But it wasn’t really a trick, just a tricky case for the prosecutor to prove. But we did try to make sure the prosecutor didn’t realize he had a problem until it was too late. Directed verdicts are rare but with careful attention can be a really nice way to win trials that would otherwise be lost.
Our client was a hard-working father and husband who was awakened twice in one night, once by his wife and again by the police. He came to us after being charged with Felony Assault – Family Violence. (His case was charged as a felony because of a prior assault family violence conviction.) His wife had come home extremely drunk late at night while he was sleeping. He had to get up early for work the next day but she came into the house yelling and looking for an argument. My client was 6 foot 4 and 200+ pounds and his wife was small. Rather than argue with or assault her, he picked her up as she continued to scream, kick, and scratch, and placed her outside the house on the front porch. He kept her keys and locked her outside hoping she would sober up so he could go back to sleep. Needless to say, she wasn’t happier on the front porch and didn’t want to stop. So she called the police and showed them her marks and bruises from struggling against his removal. She neglected to tell police how she’d really gotten the marks. Our client called us from jail and we bonded him out and began preparing his defense. When the case came before a Grand Jury, we presented a packet explaining the incident, injuries and surrounding circumstances. Our client was No-Billed by the Grand Jury and we later had the case expunged.
Client was a business traveler who accidentally left his revolver inside his duffel bag when he went through airport security. TSA found it quite easily and arrested him for “Places Where Weapons Prohibited,” a third-degree felony. Yes, I know it sounds odd, but that is the actual name of the charge. We prepared a packet for the Grand Jury explaining the circumstances, promising it would never happen again, etc. Our focus was to demonstrate the ‘non-criminal’ nature of the incident by showing that it was an innocent mistake, that he was simply guilty of forgetting the weapon was there and failing to remove it. Though there was more to the packet than just explaining the situation, suffice it to say that the result was a No-Bill from the Grand Jury.
Client called for advice and counsel after a car he owned was involved in a single car accident. The accident had also demolished part of a building. Police likely assumed our client was driving, was intoxicated and abandoned the vehicle. The vehicle was impounded and a hold placed on it as evidence. Client was advised how to proceed and what not to say or do. A call was placed to the detective assigned to the matter and we arranged to have the vehicle hold lifted and the car released. No warrant was ever issued, client was not arrested for any offense and no charges were ever filed.
A commercial driver was cited for speeding on his way to work. His job was on the line as commercial drivers can’t take deferred adjudication to keep traffic tickets off their driving records. The only way to avoid conviction is to win at trial. We ordered up a jury and had a trial on the matter and were ready to follow the prosecution’s case with evidence of our own but never got the opportunity. We made a motion for directed verdict when the state failed to offer evidence on one of the elements of the offense. The judge granted our motion and entered a verdict of not guilty and released the jury. Our client kept his CDL and his job.
A professional gambler came to us with a ticket he had received for running a stop sign. He calculated the precise odds of paying the ticket versus paying us our fee and “rolling the dice” at trial. He decided to pay us to take the case to trial. His gamble paid off. We won the case not because the officer wrote the ticket for the wrong location, but because the jury felt our client wouldn’t have bothered to have a trial if he was guilty. So, we only needed to win once but we could have won this one twice.
Won a jury trial in Carrollton on a tough speeding case. Client was 23 years old driving a Dodge Hemi Challenger 106 mph on the George Bush Tollway (on an occupational driver’s license.) I made a big deal about the officer not bringing in dashcam video but the real goal was to distract the prosecutor long enough to get a directed verdict. The prosecutor had failed to properly prove zoning. Carrollton might be the last place most lawyers would expect a judge to grant a motion for directed verdict. But the judge went out for about 15 minutes to review the tape and confer with the other judge before coming back and granting my motion. The judge told them they had the privilege of witnessing something very rare in our judicial system. It may be rare for them but it’s not rare for me. The jury was at first confused and then pissed. But they followed the judge’s direction and entered a plea of not guilty. Then they met me out front to express their anger. I explained the legal situation further but that didn’t make them like it anymore. One thing is certain; I’ll take tough judges who are fair over soft judges who aren’t any day!
