Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | September 9, 2010
For your perusal: Harris County misdemeanor courts, DWI statistics compared between the year ending July 31, 2010 and the previous year (roughly DIVERT and pre-DIVERT). August 2009-July 2010 August 2008-July 2009 DWI Cases Pending at Start of Period 6,687 6,039 New DWI Cases Filed 12,315 11,341 DWI Motions to Revoke Probation Filed 775 656 Other [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 | 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 [...]
Mark Bennett | July 30, 2009
Prosecutors, do you want to learn about the new DIVERT program that your office adopted without consulting with you? Defense lawyers, do you want to learn about the ethics of ex parte agreements with judges about minimum sentences in DWI cases? Incumbent judges,* do you want to find out who is going to support your [...]
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