Houston DWI Lawyer | DWI Defense in Houston, TX

While there is been a lot of talk about building a new jail in Harris County, Texas there has not been much discussion about reducing the amount of people that are in jail today for a low level misdemeanor offense such as marijuana possession.  I have stated before that the law in Texas allows for a police officer to cite a person to appear in one of our fifteen County Criminal Court at Law for marijuana possession.  The Harris County District Attorney's Office (HCDAO) has openly refused to allow officers to do this for the past two years despite the aim of the law being reduction of jail overcrowding.  The HCDAO prides itself on following the law, but for some reason is not doing it in this instance.  Meanwhile, people are getting arrested and await a court date while being housed in the overcrowded Harris County jail.  Why is the public allowing this to happen if current public opinion is against the policy of jail time for small amounts of marijuana possession?  Probably, because the media is not reporting this discrepancy as they should.

It is time that Sheriff Adrian Garcia, all 15 misdemeanor judges, and the Harris County District Attorney, Pat Lykos start allowing officers to write citations for low level marijuana possession like other counties have been doing for a while now.  Alternatively, if the HCDAO opposes them on this issue pretrial bonds should be granted for every person that is charged with this crime.  A pretrial bond will insure that someone is not jailed for something that the law clearly states may be handled by a citation.  In turn, this may reduce the amount of people that sit in the county jail.  I can not believe that this is that difficult to implement.

If you need the assistance of a Houston Criminal Defense Attorney with your marijuana case in Houston, Harris County, Texas please contact our law firm at (713) 242-1779 or visit our website at www.mmalaw.com.

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Part of my job as a Houston Criminal Defense lawyer is to negotiate on behalf of my clients.  In all cases the assistant district attorney (ADA) handling my client's case will make us an offer to settle the case in lieu of a trial.  In some instances, the ADA will not be able to make a reasonable offer.  If we decide that we do not find the offer to be appealing we reset the case to come back another day.  Most of the time, the ADA will keep the offer available and will let me know if they plan on withdrawing the offer at some point. It is not standard practice for an ADA to retract an offer before we formally reject it.  This rarity occurs when a new ADA is assigned to a case and they disagree with the offer that was made by their predecessor.  Recently, I had a client decide that they wanted to accept the last offer made by the ADA the day before his next court setting.  Since it was not a jury trial and I did not know that a new ADA was assigned to their case you can imagine what happened next.  The offer was doubled by the new prosecutor.  Despite detailing to the new ADA how we arrived at the proposal the offer was withdrawn.  I was surprised with their final decision and I was left trying to explain this to my client.  This left us with the easy decision of rejecting the new offer and proceeding to trial.  Fortunately, a person accused of a crime is presumed innocent and the fact that they were willing to plea guilty at one point is excluded from their trial.

This situation can happen in any type of case from a simple marijuana possession to a Murder.  It is most likely to happen in a felony case.

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As we all know, Michael Jackson passed away Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest. Questions have arisen regarding the cause of his death and what if any role prescription drugs, notably painkillers, may have played in the singer's demise. Apparently Mr. Jackson had a personal doctor, a cardiologist who has an office in Houston, who was present at the time of death. According to news reports the doctor is not a suspect but the police do want to speak with him regarding the details leading up to Jackson's death. The doctor has hired a Houston Criminal Lawyer to represent him.

The abuse of drugs like Lorcet, Soma and Xanax is more common than most people are aware. As a Houston Drug Defense Lawyer  I have seen how the abuse of prescription drugs can destroy lives. While drugs like Cocaine and Heroine are horrible and deadly, prescription drugs have the same potential to ruin lives. Elvis Presley and possibly  Michael Jackson are just the iconic examples.

I have seen as aHouston Criminal Defense Attorney that the drug addict is typically the person losing their freedom and creating havoc in their families lives while drug dealers profit at their expense. It doesn't matter if the drug dealer is peddling crack cocaine on a street corner or is a doctor operating a pain clinic handing out  prescriptions without even seeing their "patient." Actually, it is much more rare for a doctor operating a pain clinic to be a arrested than your traditional drug dealer. It goes to show you that as a society we don't view prescription drug addiction as a problem.

We see more and more of these cases on a weekly basis. The most obvious example is the abuse of Xanax by suburban high school kids. Hopefully the passing of Michael Jackson will make the families of pain pill users more aware that addiction and death can come just as easily from across the counter of a pharmacy as it can from a street corner on the bad side of town.

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I have had several appearances this year in the 177Th District Court where Judge Kevin Fine is now the presiding judge.  I have noticed a refreshing change from the bench.  Judge Fine is really encouraging everyone who is fighting a drug problem to seek treatment for their addiction.  Most importantly, he has told me that he is an avid fan of early termination for people that elect community supervision.  Of course, the person must be doing well and have reached the required time to be eligible for early termination.  This benefits someone tremendously because the clock starts ticking to qualify for a motion for non disclosure if they received deferred adjudication.  Hopefully, this will be an ongoing trend in Harris County, Texas since I have found it onerous to get someone early terminated in the past.

I hope that Judge Fine continues his innovative thinking and maverick personality during his judicial tenture.

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Kevin Fine recently elected Judge of the 177th District Court of Harris County, Texas hopes to provide a fresh perspective to the bench.   I doubt many sitting judges in the country have such a remarkable story as being crippled by drug addiction and coming back from that to win a county wide election.

As a judge he will be able stare into the eyes of a defendant in his court and candidly tell them that drug abuse can be beaten.  This is vital in a felony court because so many of the defendants are drug addicts and need the hope that the "system" wants them to succeed.  On the other hand, he will be able to recognize the ones that are not ready to overcome their addiction.  He hopes to put this insightfulness to work immediately, and later assist with the "drug court" of Harris County.

While I do not know Kevin Fine personally, all of my dealings with him have been professional and courteous.  He also seems to be knowledgeable about criminal law. I look forward to seeing him grow as a judge. He is going to be a judge that is going to think "outside of the judicial box."

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