Getting Out of DIVERT?

 Posted on November 28,2009 in Uncategorized

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 to rights and they want to be at the mercy of the Harris County DA's Office for another two years.

So what does a defendant do whose lawyer has encouraged him to sign for the DIVERT program? Tyler Flood reports:

I got a call from a gentleman who says he is on the DIVERT program and wants out. Says his lawyer never went over any of the paperwork with him and basically told him he had to take the DIVERT program. He told me that he already told the probation officer he is not going to obey any of the requirements and he wants to be off.

So Tyler's potential client is at the mercy of the DA's Office; he is refusing to comply with the conditions that he agreed to at his lawyer's urging.

We know that he could be convicted of DWI, have to do 30 days in jail, and have his license suspended. Is that the worst that could happen? Can Tyler get him out of the DIVERT program without even those consequences? We'll stay tuned to find out.