Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | February 8, 2010
Houston criminal defense lawyers Herman Martinez and Dane Johnson report separately on the state of the Harris County DA’s DWI DIVERT program. Here’s Herman:
This week the HCDAO decided that a defendant needs to decide if they want to be considered for the DIVERT program by their second court setting. This is patently unfair and lends itself [...]
Mark Bennett | January 21, 2010
I’ve said before that I would choose a lawyer who sometimes loses over one who always wins. But today I was reminded how much losing a criminal trial sucks.
The case: a “DWI-first no test no accident” in the argot. That is, a driving while intoxicated case, which was my client’s first, and in which she [...]
Mark Bennett | January 5, 2010
None of my DWI clients have yet accepted the Harris County DA’s “DIVERT” program, but I had one client who was considering it, so I acquired a copy of the standard DIVERT agreement. After reading the agreement, she decided to go to trial.
Maybe having a copy of the agreement will help someone else trying to [...]
Mark Bennett | November 28, 2009
Back in July, before the Harris County DA’s DWI DIVERT program went into effect, I noted:
There will be lots of high-volume lawyers who see this as the best thing since deferred adjudication for resolving cases without actually, y’know, trying, but I don’t see myself encouraging clients to sign it unless the State has them dead [...]
Mark Bennett | November 18, 2009
It’s not a blog of general interest, but if you’re interested in DWI law in Houston, read lawyer Dane Johnson’s Houston DWI Law Blog (a LexBlog Joint). Dane has been doing great work this week, writing successively about Houston DWI cops’ blood draw training, the falsifiability of HGN results, and the coerciveness of the Harris [...]
Mark Bennett | November 10, 2009
Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood made an irresistible target of himself by running his mouth to the Houston Press, and I was unable to resist. Whoever writes blog posts under his name at his blog managed (inadvertently, I hope) to string Christmas lights around the target by comparing him to Andy Nolen and accusing me [...]
Mark Bennett | November 6, 2009
Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood on DWI cases, from the Houston Press article (yes, it’s like crack):
“Listen, most of the people we get off are intoxicated. But that’s the justice system,” he says. “I’ve always thought people would be very concerned if they knew what we were doing.”
Tyler: You know that you’re talking to a [...]
Mark Bennett | October 18, 2009
. . . Houston criminal defense lawyer Cole Brooks’s new blog. I’m glad to see another Houston criminal defense lawyer jump into the practical blawgosphere (even if he isn’t a member of HCCLA . . . hint, hint), and Cole’s blog isn’t blatant “I’m great! hire me!” marketing, but so far it’s heavy on explications [...]
Mark Bennett | September 22, 2009
I spent the weekend in trial mode, preparing for a DWI trial in Montgomery County, north of Houston. This would’ve been only my second trial in a slow year for jury trials (the first ended in an acquittal; several others have been dismissed on the eve of trial) and my client’s career was at stake, [...]
Mark Bennett | August 4, 2009
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Roger Bridgwater has said of the DWI DIVERT (“Direct Intervention using Voluntary Education Restitution and Treatment”, I am reliably informed, and not “maybe this will make the voters love us“, as I suggested before) program:
What happens if someone tests positive for alcohol while on diversion? The program is zero tolerance. [...]
