Category Archives: Crime News

Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Do Not Trust Prosecutor’s Crime Lab Forensic Evidence, When Will Public Become Aware that Crime Lab Results Aren’t Like TV Forensics?

Forensic evidence seems so darn scientific and reliable when you watch TV. Unfortunately, things are NOT the same in the real world as they are on television shows and we’ve been monitoring how bad Texas Crime Labs can be in processing evidence to be used in criminal trials for a long while now. (See, for…


Missing Prosecutor Ray Gricar – Recent Claim That Hells Angels Club Member Ordered Hit on Gricar Doesn’t Ring True. He’s Missing Not Dead – Just Ask the FBI.

Ray Gricar, remember him? He was the prosecutor handling the Penn State child sex abuse investigation against the then-beloved defensive coordinator of the Penn State football team, Jerry Sandusky, way back when and Gricar was the District Attorney who decided NOT to prosecute Jerry Sandusky, telling the press that in his opinion there wasn’t enough…


Texas Family Violence and Domestic Assault Cases Will Include New Pet Protection Act Which Becomes Law on September 1, 2013

Texas domestic assault and family violence cases are seen all too often in Dallas area criminal courts, and Texas criminal defense lawyers represent people from all walks of life who have been arrested and charged with some sort of family violence / domestic assault crime.  One reason is that many different kinds of relationships can…


Structuring Arrest in Dallas Results in Plea Deal: What is Structuring and Why is 10,000 The Magic Number?

Many people in today’s economy don’t need to worry about whether or not their bank deposit is $10,000 or more because they’re never depositing that much cash into their bank account at any one time.  On the other hand, many Texas businesses routinely have these big five-digit deposits, and they have bookkeepers or accountants that…


New DOJ Report Reveals Sexual Assaults and Rapes of Inmates Is Widespread With Texas Prisons Among the Highest Reported

The Department of Justice has released a new report which reveals that lots of people are getting raped and sexually assaulted in jails and prisons: assaults on inmates are a real problem in Texas and the United States. Read the report, “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011–12” here. Crimes Behind Bars:…


Salinas v Texas: Your Silence During Police Interrogation Does Not Get 5th Amendment Protection, Can Be Used Against You as Evidence of Guilt to the Jury

Well, prosecutors and police officers are happy today, because the United States Supreme Court just came down their way in the case of Salinas v. Texas (more about that pending case here).   It’s not too far off to imagine that interrogation training is already being revised in Dallas and across the State of Texas…


New Texas Laws Targeting Prosecutorial Misconduct: The Michael Morton Act and new Tex Gov’t Code 81.072(b) Limitations – Do They Really Help Texas Citizens?

Yesterday, the Texas Legislature sent two bills over to Governor Rick Perry’s desk for his signature:  the new Michael Morton Act (SB 1611) and an amendment to the Texas Government Code Section 81.072 (SB 825).  It’s expected that Governor Perry will sign this bills into law, and soon we’ll all be under their sway. Here’s…


Report on Crime Lab Evidence Released: DPS Lab Tech Jonathan Salvador May Have Sent 1000s to Texas Prisons in Wrongful Convictions – and the CCA is Reversing The Convictions

Juries are known by criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors alike to consider forensic evidence as being irrefutable and some of the most respected evidence in a criminal trial. Juries like lab stuff: it’s known as the “CSI effect” by some roaming around the courthouse, and it has nothing to do with the realities of what…


Texas Weapons Charges: ATF Stings Result in All Kinds of Firearms Convictions – Straw Buys, Gun Dealers, Conspiracies to Move Weapons Across State Lines and National Borders

Weapons charges face a lot of defendants here in Texas; sometimes they are tied to other charges (drug arrests, for example) but many federal cases are filed based solely on alleged violations of federal gun laws.  Recent reports from the Texas’ offices of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the…


Money Laundering and the Black Market Peso Exchange: Big Target for Federal Agency Investigations

For many profit-making enterprises that operate outside the law, business revenues and profits mean lots of cash that needs to be moved from stacks on a table or in a safe (or set of safes) into places where it can be used to buy things without raising eyebrows or the suspicions of law enforcement.  This…