Category Archives: Crime News
Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent DWI Intoxication Manslaughter Trial Provides Lessons in Police Drunk Driving Blood Testing and Privacy Rights
This week, lots of people are following a trial here in Dallas as the intoxication manslaughter criminal trial of recently retired Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent got underway this week. For those of you who don’t know what’s going on here, pro football player Josh Brent and his best friend Jerry Brown, Jr., were in a…
Six AM No Knock Warrant Gets Burleson County Deputy Killed as Homeowner Arrested for Capital Murder: Is There an 1983 Suit Here?
Around an hour before sunrise one Thursday this month, in rural Burleson County near the town of Somerville, a man named Henry Goedrich Magee was awakened to the sound of someone breaking into his mobile home and as his lawyer explained later, thinking that he was the victim of a home invasion, Magee grabbed his…
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…
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…
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…
Dallas is a Marijuana Marketplace: Another Federal Marijuana Trafficking Bust as US Attorney John Bales Announces $1.7 Cash Seized, 17 People Arrested
This week, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas John M. Bales announced to the media that federal authorities have taken possession of almost two million dollars in cash ($1.7 million) as well as arresting seventeen (17) people in a big sting operation operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety (leading agency)…
