I went to visit a client at the "IAH Adult Detention Facility" (which I thought was a private jail) in Livingston, Texas today and was greeted by a sign at the front desk with a globe logo and the legend, "Community Education Centers":Apparently my client isn't incarcerated; he's just being educated.(Because someone will inevitably find this post and ask for directions to the IAH Adult Detention Facility

HPD Officer Paul Lassalle comments on this long-ago post about his communications with Harris County Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam (who will likely be at the coronation on Thursday) concerning whether HPD has to actually use the videotaping equipment that the statute requires them to have and maintain.When a man with a gun and a badge tells me, "I would hope that you would edit your article

Houston criminal-defense lawyer Sharon Levine has passed away. Sharon was a great and caring warrior for each of her clients, but the case for which she'll always be remembered in the Houston criminal defense community was a piddly little class B misdemeanor evading arrest case of little interest to anyone but her and her client. Sharon's client's refusal in that case to cave in, to pay his

The following blogs on my blogroll bit the dust in 2008:Bad Court ThingyCuria Advisari Vultda blogHCSO BlogNorm Pattis's blogThey made my blogroll because they had something interesting to say, or an interesting way to say something. I miss them.

For those Harris County ADAs who want, very anonymously, to express their feelings about being ordered to Pat Lykos's coronation ceremony on January 1, Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum has posted a poll.

Don't go to Marquette Law School.According to David Papke, law professor at Marquette Law School,We don’t want law school to be lawyer-training school. When we cave in to demands of that sort from the ABA and assorted study commissions, we actually invite alienation among law students and lawyers. Legal education should appreciate the depth of the legal discourse and explore its rich complexities. It should operate on

Hearing about Harris County District Attorney-Elect Pat Lykos's command that all Assistant District Attorneys appear dressed in court clothes on a national holiday for her coronation, Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum raised a good question: You all gonna take a stand and not show up, or be sheep? (I think "you all" is Floridian for "all y'all". My question was, "what did you expect, working for The

The following was posted on Murray Newman's blog yesterday, but after Murray was double-plus-unhired from the office he took it down. I'm reconstructing it as nearly as I can here (with my own flourish), not because I think Murray has no backbone, nor because it's particularly good (it was created in collaboration among Murray's commenters), nor because it's particularly nice (it trends toward the nasty), but rather

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. . . . . . or a maladjusted government-loving fear-slave. Or simply a lousy lawyer. The internet is mostly terrible that way. Anonymous people say things that they would never say for attribution; even using their names, people make claims about themselves among strangers that would be risible to those who know them. (Anyone with a law degree can,

In yet another attempt at morale-building, Pat Lykos is ordering every Harris County assistant district attorney to attend her swearing-in ceremony on January 1, 2009.January 1, 2009 is a county holiday.Does anyone remember the boxing video game from the '80s? You'd hit your opponent, and the machine would say "body blow! body blow!" and then once you'd softened him up enough you swung for his jaw and