I'll admit it: I sometimes envy guys like Steve Fairlie a bit. Meet Steve Fairlie of North Wales, Pennsylvania. Steve is: A "National Trial Lawyers Association" (the Givens boys of Dothan, Alabama) "Top 100 Trial Lawyer"; A "National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys" (Oklahoma City) "Top 10"; A National Advocacy for DUI Defense ("NAFDD"?) (Steven Glazer of Flagstaff, Arizona) "Superior DUI Attorney"; and An "American Society of

If I were to write a penal statute that was a content-based restriction on speech, I would come prepared with an explanation of how the statute passed constitutional muster, since such restrictions are presumptively invalid. The proponents of revenge-porn-criminalization statutes never have picked a constitutional justification for their statutes. Instead they have, in post after article after column, thrown a bunch of possible justifications at the wall,

c. An actor commits a crime of the third degree if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he discloses any photograph, film, videotape, recording or any other reproduction of the image of another person whose intimate parts are exposed or who is engaged in an act of sexual penetration or sexual contact, unless that person has consented to such disclosure. For purposes

More than one hundred seventy bikers are in jail in Waco on charges arising out of the Twin Peaks melee that killed nine. According to the LA Times article, in McLennan County, "there are just 100 [lawyers on the court-appointed list] and many of them do not do the kind of felony proceedings that have stemmed from Sunday’s violence." Each defendant has bail (not "bond") set at $1 million

House Bill 2777 (Herrero) purports to provide trial courts with broad authority to admit evidence of prior bad acts for the purpose of showing action in conformity therewith in many cases. The statute would add an article 38.371, which would state, in pertinent part, that: Notwithstanding Rules 404 and 405, Texas Rules of Evidence, evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts committed by the defendant against the

Texas Senate Bill 344: By: Huffman S.B. No. 344 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to the prosecution of the offense of online solicitation of a minor. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 33.021(a)(1), Penal Code, is amended to read as follows: (1) "Minor" means: (A) an individual who is [represents himself or herself to be] younger

In 2010 D is charged with communicating through a commercial online service in a sexually explicit manner with a minor under Section 33.021(b) of the Texas Penal Code. He is convicted in 2011 and put on probation, which he complies with until 2014, when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that Section 33.021(b) is unconstitutional. In 2015  D files an application for writ of habeas corpus in the

That's a cop allowing a girl to get out of a minor-in-possession ticket by winning a game of rock-paper-scissors. Here's Burleson County Precinct 2 Constable Dennis Gaas's take: Gaas says he found out about the incident last night. This morning he told all three officers that they will not be allowed to work security at future Chilfests. He also notified the two departments the officers work for

Ex Parte J.I.L. (that’s the real name; it’s a juvenile case) is pending in the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas. Cocounsel Josh Andor of McKinney and I are challenging the constitutionality of the Online Impersonation statute, Texas Penal Code Section 33.07. I had to go to Collin County to make this challenge because the Harris County DA’s Office had been dismissing online-impersonation cases out from under me

I was picking one of my kids up from school the other day when a guy in a clapped-out Ford Taurus drove by the crowded schoolyard honking his horn and screaming obscenities ("shitbag" was one). Curious, I tracked the car to the City of Houston, then to the Houston Police Department, then to Senior Police Officer George Garcia of the Criminal Intelligence Division, who was using the