for the defense for the defense - Voice For The Defense Online

Send your letters, pictures, gripes, bonehead gaffes, or whathave-you
to rwardroup@tcdla.com.
Kudos
Yikes: Last month’s “Catch of the Day” was attributed to Sarah
Roland when, in fact, it was the work of Sarah Gunter (whose
signature appeared at the end). A Sarah error that we deeply
regret.
On Friday, April 14th, TCDLA Strike Force members represented
Houston TCDLA member Mark Bennett in a matter
involving a third party attempting to breach the attorney/
client privilege on a contract issue between the lawyer
and his client. Our TCDLA Strike Force members were
successful in representing Mark and protecting the attorney/client
privilege. A big thank you to both Katherine
Scardino and Stan Schneider for their volunteer heroism.
TCDLA members rallied to testify in hearings on HB 626,
related to the issues to be proven by DPS at an ALR hearing.
It would have amended §724.042 of the Transportation
Code to eliminate the issues of reasonable suspicion
or probable cause to stop or arrest a defendant, and
whether probable cause existed to believe that the defendant
was operating a motor vehicle while intoxi cated.
This would have left the only issues at the ALR hearing:
whether the defendant was operating a vehicle in a public
place, was arrested, was requested to submit a specimen,
and whether (s)he refused to provide a specimen.
This would have made ALR hearings almost meaningless.
It was pointed out to the committee that this would
preclude a defendant from raising the issue of an illegal,
racially motivated, or politically motivated arrest. A dozen
TCDLA members, board members, and officers converged
upon the Homeland Security Committee to raise red flags
to the passage of this bill, including the dubious constitutionality
and suspect factual underpinnings. At the end of
the hearing, the author withdrew the bill and stated that
she would offer a Committee Substitute in order to address
concerns raised by the witnesses. That’s teamwork.
Bill Habern, Craig Jett, and John Bennet won habeas
relief on the following facts:
• Client convicted of aggravated sexual assault on
4/19/82 and sentenced to 16 years, entering prison
4/22/82;
• Notice of Appeal filed 7/12/82, Dallas Court of Appeals
reverses conviction on 11/19/84;
• State files PDR 1/11/85, Court of Criminal Appeals sets
bond, which client makes on 1/25/85;
• CCA reverses Dallas CA on 2/19/86, remands to Court
of Appeals, which affirms conviction on 7/14/87; no
warrant issued until 11/16/07;
• Client never called to appear before conviction court;
• Client arrested for DWI in Missouri 5/21/09, extradited
to Texas to serve his sentence—DWI later dismissed;
• Client was productive member of society, with no new
convictions, living openly under his own name; and,
• Court of Criminal Appeals grants relief, giving day-forday
credit for all time on the street.
State concurs in the grant of relief, which is ordered by a
unanimous court
Bill Trantham of Denton obtained a reversal of a felony
DWI conviction, with a sentence of 3 years, from the Ft.
Worth Court of Appeals. The 2nd Court of Appeals held
that the evidence was insufficient to prove that D had
been “twice (or even once) previously convicted of DWI
in the State of New Mexico . . .” As it turned out, his client
acknowledged guilt on one of the cases but told the
court that he hadn’t had counsel in either case because
he couldn’t afford one. The appellate court reviewed
the documents and observed that there were no signed
waivers of counsel in either. Though D did not contest
the conviction for misdemeanor DWI in Denton County,
since the jury was not instructed on the lesser included
offense of Class B misdemeanor DWI, the appeals court
entered an acquittal.