A DWI and an accident that happened last year has now led to an intoxication manslaughter charge for 36 year old John Richard Anderson.

The accident occurred when 47 year old Vivian Bass turned in front of a speeding Anderson on FM 3005. Following the accident Anderson was originally charged with DWI and possession of a controlled substance. Once lab results were returned confirming Anderson’s intoxication, the manslaughter charge was added. read more

Houston’s Harris County is the top heavily populated counties in the nation for DWI deaths. According to this article from the Houston Chronicle, the District Attorney Pat Lykos has referred to the problem as a “pandemic plague”. According to Lykos there are an estimated 10,000 DWI charges filed every year in the county.

Like many big cities, Houston’s police department has a DWI task force credited with many arrests and taking drunk drivers off the road. They reportedly get over $480,000 annually in grants for overtime to staff the task force but the task force and all of the preventative measures aren’t doing enough to keep the DWI statistics at an acceptable level for many. read more

This past weekend proved deadly for a Houston family. Two men and six kids were piled into a car that went careening off the road into a flooded ditch. The two adults and a 10 year old child escaped, but the other 5 weren’t so lucky.

According to the Associated Press, driver Chanton Jenkins is currently in police custody facing 4 counts of intoxication manslaughter, one charge for each of the children that has been found to date. Mr. Jenkins lost control of the vehicle, according to his brother and passenger, when he was talking on his phone.

The ditch had turned into a rushing torrent with recent downpours and when the vehicle plunged into the waters, it was all the adults could do to save themselves and the one child who escaped. Police say the current was so strong, the car ended up 100 feet from its initial crash site. The rushing waters are also to blame for the still missing body of a 3 year old girl.

Jenkins is said to be father to 3 of the five victims, while the other two were cousins of the family. The children who passed were ages 1, 3, 4, 7, and 11. read more

As defense attorneys, it is our responsibility to fight for you, and try to get the best possible results in court. This means knowing all of the ins and outs of your case and ensuring your rights were protected at every stage of the game. With some Texas law enforcement agencies moving toward more and more mandatory blood draws, the job can becomes more interesting and challenging.

This article from the American Statesman outlines some of the new defense strategies coming about with this new and questionable method of getting DUI convictions. As we blogged about last week, there are several counties within our state that are moving toward mandatory blood draws when you refuse to take a breathalyzer test. These blood tests are highly invasive and their use is suspect to say the least.

As the legal landscape changes and prosecutors come up with new ways to get convictions, it is my job, and the job of every good defense attorney out there to also adjust our game plan to ensure that our clients are being treated fairly.

This new approach in DWI convictions has proven to be a difficult one to fight in court. Having said that, however, there is hope for your case. read more

More and more people realize that they don’t have to consent to a breath test if they are pulled over and suspected of DWI. While they may still be arrested and charged with the offense this refusal could increase the chances that those charges would be dropped or the jury would return a not guilty verdict. This is exactly why Dallas has started mandatory DUI blood draws in some cases.

If you refuse a breath test in Dallas but the police believe you are intoxicated, they can request a warrant for your blood. This trend is gaining popularity despite dissent from the ACLU and many other groups. According to this report from the Dallas Observer, even some judges wonder if this is the right thing to do, especially when they learn of people physically resisting the blood draw.

Evaluations showed, however, that cases where the alleged drunk driver refused testing they were acquitted. Groups like MADD and prosecutors alike didn’t like this. It made the police and prosecution work very hard to build a DWI case that was a slam dunk. read more

Texas police and law enforcement officers now have instant access to data on what vehicles and drivers are driving without required auto liability insurance coverage. A pilot program from the DPS is being rolled out statewide to provide this data to all local Texas police departments.

According the the report, 20% of all drivers in Texas are on the roads without the required car insurance.

Currently, the data is only accessible to an officer who manually enters a license plate or VIN number in his or her computer. But it can only be a matter of time before this data is linked with Automatic License Plate Scanners. When that starts to happen, police officers with that technology in their cruisers could be constantly pulling over cars.

And if you are stopped for driving your car without insurance, other arrests can result from that stop. If you have had anything to drink, you could end up being arrested on a DWI charge. If your license is suspended, or you have outstanding criminal warrant for failure to appear, you will also be arrested.

And if in the course of the police stopping you, you are searched and found to have any drugs, you will be arrested for drug possession.

With all the new monitoring tools the police have at their disposal, it is critically important to make sure your license, insurance, and paperwork is in order when you hit the road.

A charge of driving without liability insurance carries a maximum fine of $350. A second offense can result in a 2 year license suspension.

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If you are charged with a crime in Texas, please contact our criminal defense attorneys for a free legal consultation and case evaluation. We can go over your specific situation, and make recommendations and suggestions for what you can do to get out of a legal criminal jam.

The courts of Midland County are imposing new alcohol monitoring restrictions during pre-trial for those who are facing a 2nd offense DWI conviction. These monitoring systems include ignition interlock devices, which stop your car from starting if you have consumed alcohol, and SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) ankle bracelets, which monitor any alcohol levels in the bloodstream in real time.

Under Texas criminal law, pre-trial courts can impose restrictions as a condition of bail. The cost to the defendant for the use of these devices is around $75/month for an ignition interlock, and $300/month for a SCRAM bracelet. Midland county pretrial courts now have 5 scram units in use, and are looking to acquire more so they can monitor more defendants.

If you are facing a 2nd offense DWI charge in Texas, you are in need of immediate legal help to figure out what do you next. Please contact us for our free DWI defense consultation and case evaluation.

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Update:

Many counties are using Auto Ignition Interlock Alcohol Devices in second offense DWI cases. SCRAM bracelets are also being used in Travis County, and by many other Texas county pretrial courts.

An initially successful appeal of a DWI conviction was overturned by the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals. The issue at hand for a DWI case from Harlingen, TX  in Cameron county was that of the Right to a Speedy Trial, as guaranteed by the 6th amendment of the US Constitution.

The DWI charges were not forwarded to the DA for more than a year after the man was arrested in March 2003. The original judge in the case denied the motion to dismiss on the speedy trial grounds. The defendant pleaded guilty at the time (October 2004). However, the 13th court of appeals overturned that conviction in Feb 2007, reversing the results of the plea.

The judge Texas Criminal Court of Appeals determined that the appeals court was incorrect in overturning the conviction after analyzing the 4 elements of a speedy trial violation claim: length of delay, reason for delay, assertion of the right and prejudice to the accused.

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Appeals cases are a specialized area of the law.  If you are facing a current DWI charge in Texas, please contact us for a consultation. Or if you are interested in appealing a DWI conviction, we can help you, but you only have a very limited time to challenge a conviction result via an appeal. so do not delay.

Officers in Lubbock, Texas are enforcing mandatory blood tests for those who refuse to take a breath test after a DWI.

If you refuse to take a breath test, they will immediately take you to a medical facility as they process a warrant to extract your blood to test your BAC (blood alcohol content) to determine if you are over the legal limit for alcohol in your bloodstream while driving (aka DWI, driving while intoxicated in Texas).

Typically, a judge will approve the warrant.

This is certainly a questionable invasion of your rights to privacy, self-incrimination, and other serious constitutional issues.

Texas Defense attorneys argue that you have a clear right to refuse to take a breathalyzer test under the law, and this circumvents that right. Although it is true that under Texas’ implied consent laws, the DMV has the right to suspend your driver’s license for the refusal, as per your agreement as a condition of being a licensed driver in Texas.

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If you are facing a DWI in Texas, contact us for a legal case evaluation and free consultation on your defense options.

There is a news report from Dallas television station about a breath mint that supposedly “encourages drunk driving” by masking the smell of alcohol. I largely agree with the point that the company is certainly dancing around the edge of encouraging drunk driving to some degree. And I also agree with the police officers quoted that the product is very unlikely to help people “get away” with drunk driving, assuming the produced even works as well as stated.

What Happens in A Texas DUI Police Stop?

If a police officer pulls you over for drunk driving, there is a good chance he already suspects you of being impaired before he sees you or smells your breath. Unless you were only pulled over for speeding (which is not an indication of drunk driving), most other forms of erratic driving are instantly suspect of being alcohol related by many police officers.

If by your driving behavior or manner after the stop, the police believe you could be impaired, the police will arrest you for drunk driving. Such behavior that may be indicative of impairment could include slurred speech, glassy or bloodshot eyes, being unsteady on your feet, or failing field sobriety tests given by the side of the road. These are the common facts cited in police reports of drunk driving arrests.

So even if no alcohol smell is present, the police will find other reasons to arrest you. They may suspect that you’ve masked the alcohol smell, or you could be arrested for DWI drugs. It is illegal to drive impaired on any substance, not just alcohol.

For more info on DWI laws in Texas, go to our main DWI criminal defense page.

Bad on the Facts, But Great Marketing

The name of the product is highly suggestive of defeating police, which seems like a dubious claim. But clearly the PR company for the product, AntiPoleez, is doing a fine job. The impressive thing about this campaign is that they are getting free publicity from the news organizations covering this “story”.

Addendum: Texas DWI Stats Watch

The article again publishes the stat that “Each year, 1,600 people are killed by a drunk driver in Texas.”, which is incorrect.

The actual stats from the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) state that there are 1600 “alcohol related deaths” each year in Texas. The definition of related is that one of the drivers involved is determined to have a BAC above .08. It has always been a pet peeve of mine how these numbers are compiled.

If there is a 10 car pileup where 3 people are killed, and the last car involved had a driver who had a .08 BAC. Are those legitimately alcohol related deaths? Alcohol had nothing to do with the accident, and it wasn’t caused by an impaired driver, yet those deaths would likely count in those stats.

NHTSA could fix this controversy by releasing and restating the raw stats to determine how many deaths are actually caused by drunk drivers. But they insist on always using the phrase “alcohol related” which makes me very suspicious. The only reason I can think of to categorize them that way is to pad the stats. And because when quoted in the media, it is always restated as a number caused by drunk drivers.