Criminal Law Blog
Driving While Intoxicated FAQ
What does it mean to be ‘intoxicated’ under Texas Law?
Texas Police Accused of Planting Drugs on Innocent Man: Aransas Pass Police Department Corruption Charges Escalate
What is going on with the Aransas Pass Police Department — is there widespread corruption there, as more and more news stories suggest? Consider this: just last week, we posted about the situation involving the Aransas Pass Police Department being investigated by the Texas Rangers after Martin Ortiz ended up comatose in a Corpus Christi…
Texas Judge Suzanne Wooten Still Facing Felony Bribery Charges – But the FBI Investigation May Point Fingers at Her Prosecutors, Stay Tuned
Texas Judge Suzanne Wooten’s predicament — being indicted on 6 counts of bribery while presiding over a Collin County judicial bench — was something that we first discussed last October, when Judge Wooten’s attorneys were arguing this was all politically motivated hogwash while the prosecutor, then District Attorney John Roach, claimed his offices were merely…
Innocence Project Finds Another Innocent Man Convicted of Murder in Texas but Loses Fight to Boot Prosecutor for Bias
For the past 24 years, a man named Michael Morton has sat in a Texas prison cell after being arrested, tried, and convicted of his wife Christine’s homicide. According to the Innocence Project, Mr. Morton was wrongfully convicted, he is innocent of murdering his wife, and the prosecution shouldn’t be trusted to do the right…
Another Law to Fix Driver Responsibility Surcharges: Prove You’re Indigent, and Judge Can Waive Surcharges
Around three weeks from now (on September 1, 2011), a new law will be effective here in Texas that will impact a lot of folk who have been convicted of a moving traffic violation here in the Lone Star State. Right now, everyone who gets a traffic ticket must pay a Driver Responsibility surcharge –…
Federal Judge Sam A. Lindsay Sick and Tired of Bad Cops Getting Cushy Sentences: Orders Former Mesquite Narc Officer to 15 Months in Fed Pen for Taking $2000
Some Dallas locals may remember Sam Lindsay from his days serving as Dallas City Attorney (1992-1998); however, for many years now, he’s been Judge Sam A. Lindsay of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, presiding over a federal trial bench. And last week, Judge Sam A. Lindsay got fed up…
Ex El Paso Medical Examiner’s Doctored Resume Gets Him Fired But Texas Medical Board Rules Dr. Paul Shrode Was Qualified For the Job
Dr. Paul Shrode was the Chief Medical Examiner for El Paso for five years, until he was fired in 2010 after a controversy arose about his background and whether or not the errors on his resume (discovered and reported by the local ABC television channel, ABC-7) meant that Dr. Shrode did not have the proper…
Jury Acquits El Paso District Judge Regina Arditti of Bribery; Arditti Resumes Work, Announces Run for Reelection
Over in El Paso last week, for the first time since November 2009, Judge Regina Arditti put on her judicial robes and took to the bench of the 448th Judicial District Court. She’d been away from her job all these 18 months because she was involved in another court proceeding: her own bribery trial. El…
Who Will Bring Texas Prosecutor James Elliott to Justice In the Delma Banks Case? He’s Retrying a 30 Yr Old Death Penalty Case Despite US Supreme Ct Rebuke
In 2004, Texas Death Row inmate Delma Banks’ case came before the United States Supreme Court, where the Highest Court in the Land found that prosecutors had done very bad things — they had suppressed evidence, they had hidden their own mistakes, etc. — and because of this, Banks’ case was overturned. The Texas Tribune…
Corrupt Texas Judges Going to Jail This Month: El Paso’s Jones and Brownsville’s Limas
It’s one thing when Texas judges make the national news like the Honorable Fred Biery did this week, as the Wall Street Journal discussed the way he writes opinions filled with footnotes referencing literary, cultural, and historical tidbits (“San Antonio Judge Not a Fan of Air Conditioning, Loves Footnotes.”) It’s quite another when the reputation…
