Category Archives: Orwellian Threats to Rights

Prosecutorial Misconduct: How Bad Is It? Dallas Chief Investigator Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribe

Prosecutors are the attorneys who earn their salary by working for the government in enforcing criminal laws in the criminal justice system. They are supposed to be interested in justice, not personal career wins or financial gain. That’s not the reality today — prosecutorial misconduct is a catch phrase that is trending. We’ve written about…


Immigration Holds in North Texas: Indefinite Stays and Dallas County Sheriff

There’s a reason that you get nervous when you see that police car in your rearview mirror: police officers have tremendous power in this country, and we all depend upon them to exercise that power (in legalese, their “police powers”) responsibly. Not that this gives many of us much comfort. DWI Held on Immigration Bond…


Forfeiture Victory for Police: They Can Seize and Keep Assets Even In an Illegal Search Says Texas Supreme Court

Texas law allows the police to take property from someone even if the property owner is never charged, much less convicted of a crime. This is called “civil forfeiture,” it’s allowed under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. arts. 59.01-.14 et seq., and we’ve discussed this several times before. Lots of people are against civil forfeiture…


Is There Chaos in the Dallas Criminal Justice System? Consider These Five News Stories in May 2016

Criminal defense lawyers tend to see the world a bit differently than most. Maybe that’s because we are privy to things that most of the general public is not and it skews our perspective. However, if anyone has been reading the news stories for the past three or four weeks coming out of Dallas County,…


Do You Have Any Privacy From the Police in Texas? Laredo vs. Dallas

If you watched the CBS crime show “Hawaii Five-O” last week, you saw the elite police squad use a device that allowed them to see through the walls of a building and view not only the location of the kidnapping victim but also the location and movements of her captors. The gizmo read the heat…


Forfeiture Funds are Back as Equitable Sharing Program Gears Up in Dallas County and State of Texas

Back in March, the Department of Justice issued a news release that had to have been met with lots of joy in law enforcement offices all over the State of Texas: the “Equitable Sharing Program” was back, effective immediately! Both the March 28, 2016 Letter Sent by the Department of Justice to State, Local, and…


Privacy of Your Smart Phone: Police Search and Seizure and Apple’s Fight Against the FBI

There is a huge privacy fight going on this month up in Washington regarding privacy and your smart phone, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wants access to all the data that is setting encrypted on the iPhone taken by the local police in the aftermath of the San Bernardino shootings. Some may argue…


Prosecutorial Misconduct in Texas Murder Trials: Prosecutors Fighting Against Misconduct Allegations

Prosecutors in Texas doing bad things is a serious problem – and one that is slow to be corrected. We’ve discussed this issue in case after case, coming from all parts of the state, for several years now. For past examples, read our posts including: August 2015: District Attorneys Keep Doing Bad Things: More Texas…


Lesson For Texans From Netflix’s “Making of a Murderer”: Public Defenders vs. Hired Defense Lawyers

If you haven’t watched the documentary “Making of a Murderer” yet, odds are high that you’ve heard about it. A Netflix Original, the 10-episode documentary took 10 years to make and debuted on Netflix back in December 2015. It follows the story of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin local boy Steven Avery, known to most in his…


Prosecutor Deals, the Bill Cosby Criminal Case, and Probable Cause Examining Trials in Texas

The Bill Cosby scandal continues to grab headlines almost daily: we all know about how the famous comedian was arrested in December 2015 on felony sexual assault charges up in Pennsylvania. This, on top of all the civil defamation lawsuits that have been filed against Cosby, and the countering claims he’s filed as well. Read…