January 9, 2014 by David Nachtigall Imagine a world where someone meets you out at a bar or other public place, snaps your photo, and instantly pulls up detailed information about your background in real-time on his or her cell phone. This may sound like science fiction or something in the distant future, but this…
January 16, 2014 by David Nachtigall Many believe that white collar crime is primarily a federal criminal offense. In reality, there are several state statutes under which people are commonly prosecuted for white collar crime in Houston. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has an entire division devoted to the prosecution of state white collar crimes. As…
January 24, 2014 by David Nachtigall There are two basic forms of community supervision in Texas – probation (sometimes referred to as “straight” probation) and deferred adjudication. The typical conditions of straight probation and deferred adjudication are similar and may include fines, community services, anti-crime classes, and in some cases, mandatory jail time. The main…
January 31, 2014 by David Nachtigall I came across an article this week, which served as a sad reminder of the state of U.S. drug policy and mandatory minimums. In this case, an individual was sentenced to life without parole for possession of a trace amount of cocaine because of a “three strikes” law. Texas has its…
January 1, 2014 by David Nachtigall For years, Harris County has been performing mandatory blood draws on drivers suspected of DWI who refuse to agree to a breath test. Termed “no refusal”, the policy was initially limited to holidays and times of increased risk of DWI, but has more recently been expanded to effectively include…
March 16, 2014 by David Nachtigall For the past several days, the media has reported on the tragic deaths of two pedestrians and the injury of 23 others at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. According to the reports, Rashad Owens drove a vehicle into a crowd of people while attempting to evade police….
March 12, 2014 by David Nachtigall Defending a person accused of domestic violence in Texas is serious business. The Texas legislature has broadly defined family violence and imposes severe consequences for those convicted of family violence offenses. A conviction for a family violence has effects that continue long beyond the termination of the case. In…
February 23, 2014 by David Nachtigall I recently provided legal commentary to a publication called Military Spouse Magazine about a case involving a Fort Bliss solider named Corey Moss who allegedly broke into a home and stabbed the pregnant wife of another Fort Bliss Soldier while she was chatting with her husband over the Internet….
February 11, 2014 by David Nachtigall There are two basic types of protective orders issued in Texas. The first is a magistrate’s order of emergency protection, commonly referred to as a “MOEP”. This is an order that is issued by a criminal court upon a person’s arrest for a family violence or stalking offense. The…
March 30, 2014 David Nachtigall Successfully defending a drug possession case in Texas is often a mixture of attacking the government’s proof of possession (the facts) and understanding search and seizure (the law). The two most common issues in a drug possession case are (1) whether the government can prove that a person actually “possessed”…