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If you were caught carrying weed in Austin within the last year or two, you may have noticed that you got to walk away with a citation instead of going directly to jail. The recent trend of not booking everyone who commits a minor crime in Travis County seems to have caught on, with groups […]

Ok, sorry for the dramatic headline, but it’s in reference to an article that I thought was worth sharing. One of my pet issues/concerns is the inability of folks who have been convicted to keep others from finding out about it. Not so much other people they may know, but people like apartment managers, licensing

Wow, so this decision has quietly just slipped by under the radar (or maybe I’m just foolish enough to believe it isn’t already smeared across the blogosphere).  The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, not known for being defense friendly, has taken a close look at dog-sniff evidence.  Turns out they didn’t like it so much.  In a September

Travis County Warrants are like that alley cat you used to feed at your college apartment. They just never really go away. Sometimes it’s a hot check you wrote by accident, or a ticket you never paid off. Just as often it’s failure to pay surcharges for some ticket or small offense that you may

There are many offenses which require a person to register as a sex offender if convicted.  Without going into detail, most of them are sexual offenses you would consider obvious.  On the other hand, some charges labeled as sex crimes are not situations where you would consider the person deviant or dangerous at all.  In

YES!  Sorry this is such a simple post, but I sometimes get surprised talking to people at what they don’t know about police stops.  I want you to think about this- if you and a friend were pulled over, and an officer saw something illegal in the car, do you not think they could separate

I guess you could put this under the “Philosophy” category of posts.  It’s admittedly a fluff piece but the idea arose from actual events today, so hopefully it’s mildly relevant or entertaining.  Maybe relevant or mildly entertaining. I had a prospect call about representation on a case, a type of case I enjoy doing, and

Austin Police Chief Acevedo announced yesterday that the downtown foot and bike patrol officers would be trying out some cutting-edge gear, police body cameras. As reported by KXAN, the cameras will be worn on the officer’s body, with a small camera attached to the officer’s head area.  The cameras will be on continuously, but will

Figured it was time to write another fluff piece. If you couldn’t detect the sarcasm in the title, it’s a News Flash! in the muppets sense. Rumor has it pretty people also get jobs you didn’t get, have drinks bought for them, and get more dates than you do (no matter what they say). As

I have always had a gut reaction to dog searches. On the one hand, their senses are fantastic. Nothing better than a good bird dog retrieving game you would never find from the briar patch. Don’t mind the bomb-sniffers so much either. And there’s no question that dogs are highly effective at finding drugs in

Absolutely. Texas’ DWI statute makes it against the law to drive while intoxicated, which is defined as loss of the normal use of your mental or physical faculties, PERIOD. So, anything you ingest that makes you lose your normal mental or physical ability (judgment, balance, vision, mental focus, coordination, etc.) can make you a prime