The Defendant pled guilty about 9 years ago for Sexual Battery after having consensual sex with his girlfriend, who was a minor. Subsequent to his plea, he was placed on the Sex Offender Registry and became subject to its provisions, which include annual registration and not being able to live and work in many locations. We filed a Motion to remove him from that registry, since the statute specifically exempts misdemeanor convictions from its requirements. After a hearing, the court agreed that he should never have been placed on the list and ordered his immediate removal!

After 3 years of sitting in jail, the day finally came to have his trial. At the last minute, the State filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court asking for the trial to be delayed while their appeal is heard on all 5 defendants. We filed a response arguing that the appeal did not apply to this defendant and therefore, his case should be severed from the appeal of the other 4 and his case be allowed to proceed to trial. The Supreme Court agreed and directed our case to proceed!

The Defendant was placed on probation in 2007 for ten years. His probation was transferred to another state, where he was working. The Defendant’s work required him to move around a lot and at some point, probation lost contact with him. He continued to send in his payments until he thought he was paid in full and thought he no longer needed to report. He was wrong. A warrant was issued for his arrest and his probation tolled. Four to five years later, he was made aware of the warrant and eventually turned himself in. There was no dispute that he had violated probation by not reporting, even if it was the result of a misunderstanding. However, in the eight years since he was placed on probation, he had not gotten into any trouble, was a productive citizen, and had not violated any other terms of his probation. So we suggested to the DA that the Defendant stipulate to the violation, be given one month in jail with credit for the time already served (six weeks), and placed back on probation to finish his last two years. The DA declined because probation told him to and we proceeded to a revocation hearing. At the hearing, we presented all of the above information as well as testimony that the probation office here really had no idea what transpired between the Defendant and his out-­of-­state probation supervisor. In addition, the office here had no proof that the Defendant had ever been contacted to inform him that he still needed to report. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge found the Defendant violated his probation and ordered him to serve one month in jail with credit for time served, be placed back on probation and that as long as he reports as directed, the probation is to terminate in two years. Sounds like we offered! So the DA wasted everyone’s time because he was a puppet for probation instead of an independent thinker and in the end, we got exactly what we wanted.

A group of people gathered at a club for a party. When the party ended, a brawl broke out in the street among a large group. During the fight, shots were fired and one person was killed while another was shot in the leg. The evidence was conflicting as to who had and fired a gun, with several persons being named. However, the person shot in the leg identified the Defendant as the shooter and he was arrested and charged with Murder and other associated crimes. He was facing Life plus 50 years. After 2 years of fighting for our client, we were able to get him a plea to Voluntary Manslaughter with a sentence of 20 years on probation (no prison time).

A Texas defendant convicted of Child Molestation was granted parole after 30 years. The Defendant was convicted of Child Molestation and sentenced to 40 years in prison. When it came time for the Defendant to be eligible for parole, he began to apply for parole. At each parole hearing, he was denied. After several unsuccessful attempts at parole, we were hired to represent him in obtaining parole. We presented a parole package to the parole board at his next available hearing date. After almost 30 years in prison, we were successful at obtaining parole for him.

The 18 year old Defendant was accused of having sexual intercourse and receiving oral sex from a 12 year old. It was clear from the evidence that the 12 year old instigated the sexual encounter. Although that would be meaningless in normal cases, this was not a normal case. The defendant had an extremely low IQ which meant the defendant was mentally equivalent to a 10 year old. We argued that based on his mental age, the 12 year old girl actually molested him. We also planned to challenge the constitutionality of the law as applied to the facts of the case. The defendant was facing life plus 20 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison. Facing our defense, and after discussions with the girl, the State offered a plea to Sexual Battery as a misdemeanor with 12 months probation. The defendant accepted the plea.