Criminal Law

Things that should always/ never happen

Posted on April 20, 2008
I've been called out. Yep, Scott Greenfield wants to know where I've been and why I have responded to his posts about things that should always happen and things that should never happen. I will admit I have been somewhat...

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Posted on April 19, 2008
It's certainly no secret that I am the personification of Alex P. Keaton. I am the Young Conservative Republican everyone loves to hate. It has gotten me in trouble. It has gotten me invitations. It has gotten me dates. Well,...

A Defensive Coup?

Posted on April 12, 2008
Last week was the Republican runoff for the 213th District Court. As I have written before, this is a criminal court, and obviously is of some importance for people like me. During the primary, there were three candidates; Bill Ray,...

Texas Supreme Court upholds juvenile's right to counsel

Posted on April 11, 2008
In an opinion issued today, the Texas Supreme Court did something it had only ever done one time before. It talked about Miranda. The Texas Supreme Court is a civil court. It doesn't hear criminal cases. Usually. As of 2003,...

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Heard at the Courthouse today

Posted on April 10, 2008
"If you don't like the offer, why don't you just blog about it? It seems the only thing blogging is for is to talk about how great you are and bitch about stuff." Um, ok. I'll bitch. My Tigers finally...

Sturns remains on the bench

Posted on April 09, 2008
Judge Louis Sturns held on to his seat as judge of the 213th District Court in the April 8 Republican runoff. It was reported that Judge Sturns won 57 percent of the vote, handing Tarrant County prosecutor Lisa Callaghan a...

The visit

Posted on April 06, 2008
I hate going to the jail to visit clients. I'm not sure there are too many attorneys that actually enjoy it. The bureaucracy. The waiting. The smell. There are any number of things to hate about the trip. Of all...

The Duel in the 213th

Posted on March 26, 2008
As many of you know, there is an April 8 run-off election here in Texas. One of the races up for grabs on the Republican ticket is the race for the 213th District Court of Tarrant County. The 213th is...

The Judge Berry Fallout: Where are the sanctions?

Posted on March 25, 2008
That is what well-respected defense attorney Jack Strickland has asked. As I have posted here, two local defense attorneys, Glynis McGinty and Lesa Pamplin issued a news release calling for Judge Berry's immediate resignation as well as for the court...

Choices

Posted on March 23, 2008
Last week I sat waiting for my client's arraignment in federal court. There were several cases, and me being me, I was the last one up. Oh, for the patience of Job. As I sat there, I noticed a woman...

Bloggers are losers

Posted on March 18, 2008
For the most part, probably. But it must be true because Bob Costas said it. I mean, he knows stuff. Although he tries, the English language is not one of the things he knows well. Apparently Mr. Costas (we in...

The Judge Berry saga continues

Posted on March 18, 2008
I recently posted about the story of allegations levied against Judge Elizabeth Berry of Criminal District Court Number 3. The allegations were that Judge Berry had sent an email containing a racial epithet to her court reporter, Judy Miller. Now,...

Shark?

Posted on March 16, 2008
I've been called a lot of things before. Trust me on this. I can't repeat most of them. This is a family site. However, in the last week, I have been called a shark three times. I'm not sure if...

Who's out to get Judge Berry?

Posted on March 14, 2008
Recently, it was alleged that Judge Elizabeth Berry of Criminal District Court 3 had sent an email containing a racially insensitive remark. Allegedly, the email contained the word. You know. I heard the rumor at the courthouse, and dismissed it...

Yes, I'm still alive

Posted on March 14, 2008
I know I haven't posted in a while. I was in trial for the better part of this week, and it was slightly exhausting. So I took a few days off. I'll be back later today.

Codes and characters

Posted on March 08, 2008
So Mark Bennett recently said he doesn't think lawyers have codes to live by like everyone else does. I gave him a couple of mine in response. "Trial is war. There are no points for second place." "No case is...

Is there an election today?

Posted on March 04, 2008
So it's Super Tuesday, part two here in Texas. And of course there are some presidential primaries going on, but there are also some judicial races happening. Well, actually one that directly affects criminal attorneys in Tarrant County. The 213th...

When did we all become so damn serious?

Posted on March 03, 2008
I was thinking about this the other day, and it was somewhat brought back to me by Mark Bennett's post about being a good listener. At what point did we, as lawyers, become so caught up with ourselves that we...

...however, read the fine print.

Posted on March 02, 2008
Recently, I posted this apology to those that found themselves reading this blog for anything I might have written that offended them on a personal level. As I said, that has never been my intention with this blog. This blog is merely my mind on paper, well, um, you know what I mean...

Mea Culpa

Posted on February 27, 2008
I have considered whether to do this all day. I feel that this is the right thing to do considering the circumstances. Even though I was told this was not necessary (although I hope neither unwanted nor unappreciated), I have to take a moment to apologize to some readers...

Striking the religious

Posted on February 26, 2008
Every now and then, I feel the need to read. I don't just mean my subscription of ESPN the Magazine, but I mean, you know, the law. And stuff. So last week I'm doing my normal trial prep which typically involves trying to think of all the conceivable crazy things that might happen...

Just being a boy scout

Posted on February 26, 2008
So today I was set for trial in a rather nasty little assault case. My client was accused of nearly choking the alleged victim to death. My client has steadfastly refused to plead guilty to any offer. I didn't blame him. I thought from the beginning the State's case was weak...

My dogs and the law

Posted on February 24, 2008
I am writing this while sitting on my deck in the backyard. It's a beautiful day, so I am outside with the dogs. As I have been sitting here, drinking a beer smoking a cigar (not Cuban of course, because that would be illegal), my dogs have been, well, being my dogs...

What are you hiding?

Posted on February 23, 2008
No matter how we try to explain to jurors that when we object we aren't necessarily trying to hide something from them, the truth of the matter is we probably are. Not that that's a bad thing. I mean a lot of stuff the jury shouldn't hear about anyway...

God is a terrorist

Posted on February 20, 2008
I wonder about things. Certain things interest me that perhaps don't interest others. I'm a little different. I admit that. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone. So one of the things I have been wondering about lately has been the Federal Building here in Fort Worth...

Lights, camera, action.

Posted on February 19, 2008
Don't get me wrong about this. I look good on T.V. Not everyone can, but I do. It's a gift. Don't hate me. So I understand why some people might like to be on T.V. Especially lawyers. We all think we should be the CourtTV commentator. We're all experts...

County Line

Posted on February 19, 2008
As a general rule, I don't take cases outside of Tarrant County. The exception to that rule is that I will take federal cases pretty much anywhere. But for the most part, I don't go to other counties. This is true not just for Dallas County, but for the other surrounding Metroplex counties as well...

The presumption of not guilty?

Posted on February 11, 2008
About a week or so ago a friend and I were discussing various things we found important to stress at trial. One of them happened to be the presumption of innocence. I then asked, rather tongue-in-cheek I suppose, that if it really was the presumption of innocence then why don't our verdict forms read "Innocent" and "Guilty" instead of "Not Guilty...

Keeping up with the Joneses

Posted on February 06, 2008
Mark Bennett has been posting for what seems like an eternity on the slow motion meltdown of the Harris County D.A.'s office after the whole Chuck Rosenthal train wreck. That got me thinking. Why don't we have that kind of good stuff happen here? Tim Curry, the current and looooooooooooooong-time District Attorney of Tarrant County, doesn't seem to run into these types of disasters...

Super Tuesday for some

Posted on February 05, 2008
So I ran across this story from San Antonio about voters in Texas. And Super Tuesday. It appears the Bexar County Elections Department was inundated today with more than 1,000 phone calls from people wanting to know where to vote today, Super Tuesday...

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