Category Archives: Cop Watch
Lineups and Showups: What They Are and Why They’re Challenged
Lineups and Showups Use Eyewitness Testimony to Identify Suspects Watch most any TV detective show and sooner or later, you’re going to see the police (and sometimes prosecutors, too) identify their Bad Guy with a lineup or showup. These are popular ways for TV police to have eyewitnesses point the finger at the bad guy. …
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Who’s Running Dallas? Big Changes in Law Enforcement – Know Your Rights With Police
Major changes here in Dallas in the world of crime and criminal justice. Big ones. What’s the likelihood that rights will be trampled in the process? From a criminal defense perspective, all these changes are a red flag for wrongful arrests, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and more. Why? What’s going on here in North Texas?…
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False Confessions: Police Get Them, Prosecutors Use Them – Three Recent Examples and How to Protect Yourself
Let’s talk about Confessions. False confessions. Think about this: you’re tried — and convicted — of a very public crime, let’s say a homicide, and sent off to prison. Your lawyers keep working; the judge orders a retrial. Then, wham! The prosecutors in the case go before the judge and file their motion to dismiss…
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Private Prison Company CCA Detention Facility Secretly Recording Lawyer – Client Meetings
How Safe are Criminal Lawyer Conversations with Clients? The Rising Danger to Attorney-Client Privileged Communications There is no justice to be had if there isn’t confidence in our ability to have safe and secure conversations with our lawyers, is there? This is particularly true when it’s a criminal defense attorney communicating with their client, who is…
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Social Media Arrests: Criminal Charges Based On Content Itself – No Warrant Necessary
Law Enforcement Monitors Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Other Social Media for Investigation – and Now as Basis for Arrest Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Periscope, Instagram: what’s your social media preference? Odds are very high that you use some form of social media, no matter what your age, what kind of work you…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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Domestic Violence in Dallas: Arrests Are a Priority for Dallas Police
Dallas crime rates are really high, and local law enforcement is doing all sorts of things to try and combat the skyrocketing numbers of criminal acts being reported in the Dallas area. There have been cries to oust the Dallas Police Chief, things are so bad — so far, Police Chief Brown is weathering the…
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Arrested then Assaulted in Texas: Jailers and Guards Caught on Video
The suicide of 28-year-old Sandra Bland got lots of people talking about the goings-on in local jails here in Texas. Ms. Bland died last July in the Waller County Jail, and the autopsy concluded that she committed suicide by hanging. Sandra Bland had said some things that should have warned her jailers that she was…
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