The slick black Dodge Chargers have low profile decals so that would be offenders do not notice them until it’s too late.  Stealth blue lights hidden inside the front grill and red lights hidden both inside the cabin and rear view mirrors give them a futuristic look worthy of a Hollywood action movie.

The 5 cars donated will no doubt be used to find drivers who are speeding, driving under the influence, and driving erratically or dangerously in general.

Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland gave Williams an HPD badge on Tuesday March 12, 2013 making him an honorary member of the squad.  Mario jokingly said during the ceremony,  “I guess one of these requires a ten car minimum”.

Williams also donated 5 Chevrolet Camaros that were stocked to the gills with special gadgets to the Houston Police Department in 2011.

Williams donated his Ford F250 pickup truck to two US Marine Purple Heart recipients in 2012.  Sergeants Justin and Cherie Hunter were chose from a long list of possible recipients by Williams, who found their story moving.

Houston is thankful for his generous donations that will help the police department keep our community safe.  Mario Williams is a class act, and an honorable member of our society.  He has the unique distinction of being a role model for our children not just for his athletic abilities and super star status, but also for his civic contributions that improve the safety of our community.

Check out this video to see the entire ceremony; Mario comes in at the three minute mark.

This seems like a reasonable request. In America, the citizen accused is read “Miranda” warnings. I don’t expect to see Texas courts allowing citizens internet access after being arrested.

It’s important to have a Houston DWI Lawyer on call!

Before you go blowin’ call Jay Cohen.

[Case]

According to reports, Canizales and Miceli were attempting to cover up cocaine that was being transported.  They allegedly accepted $ 1000 each to protect the cocaine for an “unknown party”.

Canizales and Miceli were indicted on separate charges today: possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.  They are alleged to have attempted to purchase cocaine shortly after Christmas and with the intent to sell it.

If they are convicted of violating the Hobbs Act (extortion), each officer could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and pay fines not to exceed $250,000.  If they are convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, they each face fines of up to $ 10 million dollars and 10 years in prison.  That would be difficult to pay on a police officer’s salary.

The officers are in the process of posting bail and being released. If they are found guilty they will be doing quite a bit of time. That won’t be easy time, police officers don’t do very well in prison. The $ 1000 they received won’t go very far in prison.

Both officers were released on bond until a verdict is reached.  The judge’s move to grant a $50,000 bond for the HPD officers is reasonable in federal court, very different from those defendants facing similar charges in the Harris County courts.

Miceli already hired a  criminal defense lawyer to defend him, and Canizales is expected to hire legal counsel in the near future.   With federal indictments charges compounding the severity of the situation, they will both need more than a drug lawyer.  We hope they each find suitable federal criminal defense attorneys to help them fight these serious charges.

The Kerry City Council members voted to permit driving with certain restrictions. Drivers may not consume more than three pints, or drive faster than 30 mph.

This decision will have no standing because the national government is responsible for setting the policy on road safety.

[via Fox News]

Be careful this holiday season! Call a Houston DWI Lawyer immediately if you get arrested.

[via Chron.com]

Every year after the Thanksgiving holidays, we usually hear about all of the DWI arrests made because of the controversial mandatory blood draw weekend. Why was this year different? There are many plausible answers to this question. First, the huge 140 car pile-up on Thanksgiving morning could have scared people enough to be extra cautious. Perhaps the publicity surrounding the pile-up, along with all of the advice news reporters gave about road safety and the mandatory blood draw weekend combined to do the trick. One thing’s for sure though, there were definitely no notable mentions of numerous DWI arrests last weekend.

The lower than expected number of DWI arrests Thanksgiving were not due to a lack of law enforcement effort or presence. Throughout Houston numerous DWI Task Force officers were on patrol. These Houston Police Department task force officers, along with the other departments in Harris County, form a formidable obstacle for any drivers out on the road.

An interesting statistic would be a report of how many drivers were forced to submit to a blood test, then later learn they were below the limit. Although we cannot simply trust the crime lab’s opinion of how much alcohol is in a person’s blood. There are many people and steps involved when analyzing a blood sample. The best way to fight a DWI is with a lawyer that is trained in gas chromatography. Drunk driving articles are usually released by the DA’s office and typically focus on topics about the volume of arrests. It would be nice to see how many innocent people were arrested because officers assumed they were intoxicated, forced to submit to a blood draw, and later find they really just ate too much turkey.

Signs that law enforcement look for when pulling over drivers for suspicion of drunk driving are swerving, erratic speed, or failure to use turning signals. An overwhelming indication to law enforcement that someone is under the influence is blood shot or watery eyes. However, anyone driving a long distance over Thanksgiving weekend or wearing contact lenses is going to have blood shot or watery eyes. The number of drivers with blood shot eyes increases exponentially when you take into consideration that 50% of Texans travel over the Thanksgiving holidays.

The absence of DWI arrest headlines this Thanksgiving holiday was refreshing, yet eerily unexpected. Let’s just hope that there are not exponentially higher than normal arrests the rest of the holiday season to make up for it.

According to Click 2 Houston, several emails revealing incredible insight into the completely incompetent department were made available to them.  These emails were from Harris County probation department employees and their toxicology lab: One Source Toxicology Labs.

Numerous confirmed errors include false positives, false negatives, contaminated specimens, mislabeled specimens, switched samples, specimens off temperature, and lost or unlabeled specimen.  It’s truly amazing that the system could fail on such an epic scale, and for so long without any intervention.

This means that for the past six years, Harris County has been using inaccurate urinalysis results to determine the fate of people on probation.  This revelation could prove an even greater fiasco than the one in the early 2000s, although it is unclear exactly how many specimens may have been affected.  One could surmise, however, that if the department is unable to properly track specimen, they probably have no idea whether any of the specimen results are accurate, reliable, or came from the person’s name listed on the label.

In Click 2 Houston’s article, an excerpt from a Harris County probation employee’s email to her boss asks what they are supposed to do with the erroneous reports, because some had already been sent to judges.  Judges rely upon these results to make crucial decisions that affect the fate of people’s lives.  These decisions have separated them from their families, leading to incarceration, and sometimes much longer sentences.  All of this because the probation department was too lazy to fix problems that festered for over a decade.

Two employees of the Harris County probation department tried to implement changes that would standardize procedures and start the long process of eliminating errors.  However, just as they began to roll out changes they were divided and sent to different departments.  This doesn’t sound like a routine reassignment.

Even Harris County judges have publicly spoken against using urinary test samples from the department as a deciding factor in probation cases.  This is huge, the implications of which will soon be discovered.

How many people are in jail or prison right now who were sentenced because of inaccurate urinary analysis?  There could be dozens, or even thousands locked up as we speak who never violated their probation.

The director of One Source Toxicology Labs lashed an angry tongue at the Harris County probation department shortly after it tried to shift some of the blame to them.  Steve Harris released statements to the public that basically accused the Harris County probation department of being outdated, unorganized, irresponsible, and inept.

Now that it is clear we have had a completely broken urinary analysis system in place for the last six years, it is time to take action.  There could be hundreds, even thousands of inmates in Harris County jails and Texas state prisons that don’t belong there.  If you or someone you know has submitted to urinary analysis in Harris County in the last decade and had a false positive result, you need to call a Houston drug lawyer today.

Martinez is a resident of Humble, and has been with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department for just over 5 years.  His arrest prompted a statement from Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, exclaiming that he has tarnished the reputations of the honest officers who work hard to protect the county’s citizens.

Martinez is facing a rough time; on top of losing his career, he is facing a long sentence with criminal roommates that do not look favorably upon law enforcement.

Houston residents are bound to feel slightly uneasy; this is the third law enforcement officer charged with a drug crime in Houston in two months.  Although it is comforting to know that law enforcement agencies are holding their fellow officers to the same degree of punishment as civilians, it is still unsettling to see these arrests in such short succession.

His arrest occurred amid investigations spanning several law enforcement agencies: DEA, HCSO, FBI, HPD, and Texas Rangers.  It’s a little crazy that it took investigators from five different agencies to indict Martinez on charges.

Houston drug attorneys are keeping busy with the large number of drug arrests occurring across the area.  This weekend alone there have been several major drug busts across Texas.  Our proximity to Mexico makes Houston a major drug crime hub, resulting in many drug-related crimes and arrests.

Interested in the latest drug crimes occurring across the world?  A global incident map reporting drug crimes can be viewed here.

An article in the Houston Chronicle written by Jennifer Radcliffe casually mentions the two officer’s salaries at the end, a seeming explanation of their acts.  Their salaries are reported annually in a public record, and according to that record their annual salaries were about $43,000 each.

For a journalist to elude that civil servant salaries are a logical reason for their decisions, men who were sworn to serve and protect their fellow citizens, is insulting.  Thousands of officers resist temptation and serve their communities faithfully, risking their lives on a daily basis.  Meager salary or  not, the irresponsible acts of two police officers should not be reported as a slippery slope that underpaid officers will eventually succumb to.

On the contrary, there are thousands of brave, honorable police officers working all over the Houston area every day who would never dream of participating in or allowing this type of behavior. Unfortunately, these men and women would not make such popular headlines.

It is true, policemen gone bad do make for juicy headlines.  The families of the two officers probably never dreamed they would be the ones hiring Houston criminal defense attorneys.  Theirs is a story of being human, and all of the reverie and regret that comes with it.

Millions of drivers have ended up being pulled off because of displaying suspicious driving behavior. This pushes the traffic officers to think that the motorist is drunk. And once a driver is suspected of drinking and driving, he/she needs to undergo a number of field sobriety tests. It helps a lot of know and understand the things you can expect with a field sobriety test in case you end up experiencing a similar situation.

Actually, none of the field sobriety methods are proven to be 100% accurate. However, traffic officers rely on these methods to determine if a person is intoxicated or not. Given this fact, testing can be subjective. Thus, drivers have the right to refuse a field sobriety test. Despite this, many states think this is a sign of guilt, and you might be booked for DUI. Law enforcements are stricter in Oklahoma, and drivers often do not have the option to refuse.

If you agree to undergo the field sobriety test in Oklahoma, you need to follow some tests to gauge your mental alertness, motor skills, and even eye movements. Below is a rundown of the tests you need to undergo when in Oklahoma:

• One-leg stand. This test will ask drivers to stand with legs together while the arms are on the side. The driver will also be instructed to raise one of the legs around six inches above the ground, and maintain on this position for about 30 seconds as he/she counts aloud. For one to pass this test, he/she should be able to keep the foot above the ground without losing balance.

• Walk and turn test. Apparently, the driver will be asked to walk along a straight line. One foot should be directly in front of another while counting the steps aloud. After reaching the end of the given line, the driver will be asked to repeat the entire process. This is done to assess one’s physical and mental processes.

• Horizontal gaze nystagmus. This is done to assess the driver’s involuntary eye movements. When a person is in a normal state, eyes may move involuntary if the eyes are rotated to higher peripheral angles. Meanwhile, for someone who is drunk, the movement is more apparent and prevalent regardless of the angle. Drivers are normally asked to follow a moving object with their eyes.

In Oklahoma, the mere act of driving a car or any motor vehicle somehow serves as consent to undergo the necessary tests. Drivers are actually asked to undergo chemical test on the blood, urine and breath if deemed necessary by traffic officers. These are done if the driver is suspected to be driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both. In case a driver refused to undergo, the driver needs to attend a court hearing. Based on the existing record of the driver, the State of Oklahoma may suspend the driver’s license between 180 and three years depending on the case. Oklahoma is strict when it comes to field of sobriety tests, and you might end up in trouble if you ignore the existing laws.

Edge Law Firm is the premier Tulsa criminal defense law firm in the state of Oklahoma, focusing on drug charges, criminal defense, and drunk driving.