Category Archives: Search and Seizures

More Texas DWI Convictions Will Be Overturned Because of Warrantless Blood Draws

Over in Tyler, somebody had a very good day recently – specifically, Samuel Gentry who saw his lawyer win a DWI appeal before the Tyler Court of Appeals and get his 3d DWI conviction overturned along with the Life Sentence he was serving.     Warrantless Blood Draw in DWI Case What happened? The police…


Supreme Court Says No to Police: Cops Cannot Search Cell Phones Without a Warrant

This morning, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Riley v. California (joined with United States v. Wurie), two cases we’ve been monitoring for a long while now.  This is very big deal for all Americans and very good news for anyone arrested in the United States with their cell phone in their…


Lessons of The Gas Pipe Bust: Traffic Stop Leads to Major Synthetic Marijuana Bust and Big Federal Forfeiture Grab

It all began with a simple traffic stop back on December 4, 2013.  That’s when a Denton County Deputy Sheriff pulled over a Ford pickup truck and asked the driver if he could search the vehicle. The driver said okay, and the Deputy Sheriff discovered stuff used to grow marijuana, as well as marijuana residue…


Seal Broken by Judge Today and Now We Know How The Police Are Eavesdropping on Public With Stingray Devices

For a long while, criminal defense lawyers along with civil rights activists as well as citizens who have been arrested by law enforcement in Police Departments all over the country have known that police have been using new technology to eavesdrop on phone calls and text messages. That’s not news. It’s been a real big…


The Forfeiture Epidemic: When the Government Just Takes Your Property and Keeps It

Many people here in Dallas and around the State of Texas naively assume that their property is theirs, protected by state laws and the federal Constitution from being taken from them without legal due process. They are wrong. There are laws on the books, passed by the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress, that allow…


Navarette v. California: Supreme Court Okays Anonymous Tip for Traffic Stop — We’ve All Lost Something Today

Back in January, we warned about what happened today: the United States Supreme Court has okayed police pulling people over to search their vehicles based upon an anonymous tip in the case of Navarette v. California. In February, we were still reeling from the SCOTUS decision in Fernandez, where they found it legally permissible and…


Privacy of Lawyer-Client Communications In Danger: The Growing Need for Greater Protections of Communications Between Attorney and Client

A couple of weeks ago, the American Bar Association (ABA) wrote the National Security Agency (NSA) about several concerns that lawyers all over the United States have (regardless of whether or not they are members of the ABA) regarding news that the NSA collecting confidential communications between an American law firm and its client, with…


The Power of the Police to Search Your Home and Property: 2 New High Court Opinions On When Police Can Search Without a Warrant in Texas

It seems like there are weekly, if not daily, news stories covering excessive force or unwarranted use of police power by law enforcement officers around the country and it is only through the criminal justice system – particularly criminal defense fights and judicial reasoning and opinion – that people can find justice from overzealous police…


U.S. Supreme Court Will Make Big Decisions on Your Privacy Rights from Police this Year: the Boundaries of Law Enforcement Intrusion

Yesterday’s State of the Union address is still the talk of many today, with many discussing the extent of the executive branch’s power and exactly what “checks and balances” means. However, for many criminal defense practitioners there’s more to be considered in 2014 than what the President or Congress may be doing up in Washington,…


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…