Search Results for: sexual assault

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Haltom City Police Declined to File Charges for Aggravated or 2nd Degree Sexual Assault


Categorical Approach: Longer Federal Sentences With Past Convictions

Things can get darker for those with past criminal convictions and a new federal arrest. There are times when new convictions will result in enhanced (greater, longer) punishments based upon prior criminal offenses.  How? Federal law will require the defendant’s sentence be boosted in time to be served behind bars because of something in the…


Thirteen Significant New Texas Criminal Laws Effective in 2023 

Arrests in Texas can be based upon actions or investigations by either state or federal authorities or by a combination of the two in joint operations.  From a criminal defense standpoint, the choice of law upon which the arrest is made is key. This is because criminal cases move through two entirely independent justice systems…


Texas Domestic Violence Charges: the New 2022 Federal Gun Ban

The tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, claimed the lives of nineteen children and two adults.  For details, read the coverage series provided online by the Texas Tribune. Understandably this had a tremendous and shattering impact not only for the local community who suffered personal losses, but for…


Elder Crimes: Federal Prosecutions and the Elder Justice Initiative

According to federal and state statute, anyone age 60 years or older is legally considered to be elderly. See, 42 U.S.C. § 1397j(5) and Texas Human Resources Code §102.001(5).  In some Texas criminal laws, elderly is defined as anyone who is age 65 or older. It is easy to imagine an elder as a grey-haired…


Parental Kidnapping in Texas: When Taking Your Child is a Felony

Back in 1996, our Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex was the first place in the country to use a widespread broadcasting alert to help find missing children in a system that has come to be known around the world as the “AMBER Alert System.”  Today, phone notifications, flashing highway signs, and breaking news stories share information about…


Shoplifting: The “Shopkeeper’s Privilege” in Texas and Civil Personal Injury Claims

The retail industry in the United States has yet to solve its growing problem of “retail shrink,” which is defined as “the difference between the amount of merchandise (or inventory) that the retail company owns on its books, and the results of a physical count of the merchandise.”  In 2019, $49 Billion was lost in…


The First Step Act and Texas Criminal Defense in 2019: Part 2 of 2

What Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers – and Their Clients – Need to Know About the New Federal Sentencing Reforms In our previous discussion of the First Step Act (“FSA”), we discussed various ways this new legislation, effective on December 21, 2018, changes the federal sentencing laws as well as aspects of the federal prison system. …


Defenses in Texas Criminal Cases

Criminal defense isn’t just trial work, even though it sure looks like it if you watch all the TV crime shows. A lot of defending clients charged with crimes here in Texas involves working with evidence and negotiating with the government. Defending happens a lot of the time at a desk with a keyboard, or…


Why Brendan Dassey Can’t Get Out of Jail Even Though Federal Judge Overturned His Conviction

Federal Criminal Appeals: Lessons from Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” Brendan Dassey Case How can a judge overturn a conviction as being wrongful and unjust, and the defendant still remain behind bars? That’s what is happening in the Brendan Dassey case — and it’s a great lesson to all of us on how the criminal justice…