Criminal Mischief, Graffiti and Theft Crimes Get a Facelift this Session As this blog previously noted, Texas Legislators were considering a Criminal Justice bill that would update and index the property crimes thresholds from their 1993 levels to more modern values reflecting the effect of inflation. In presenting the issue to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee (which was part of the Committee’s Interim Charge), Senator Burton stated property crime values for criminal mischief, graffiti and theft have been stagnant since the levels were established by the Legislature in 1993. Testifying for the bill, Scott Henson of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition surmised: The practical effect of such stagnation is that “Texans can become a felon for stealing less and less stuff,”
Read more →Please, excuse any mess. If you notice a broken link or typo, please let me know. We are reworking some of our content and structure. Thank you for your patience.
Read more →On Sunday the FBI and the Justice Department released a statement acknowledging all except two of their microscopic hair comparison unit examiners overstated forensic matches in ways that favored the prosecution. This information comes as the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project assist the FBI in conducting a sweeping post-conviction review of forensic evidence. This extensive review began in 2012 following a Washington Post report “that flawed forensic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people since at least the 1970s, typically for murder, rape and other violent crimes nationwide.” So far, the NACDL and Innocence Project have reviewed 268 of roughly 2,500 cases in a 20-plus year period before 2000, in which the
Read more →We here at Cofer Law would like to wish all of our clients and friends a happy 4th of July! As you light your grills and crack your beers please be aware of a liberty that you will not have; the right of refusal. Tarrant County is one of the many Texas counties taking part in a 3-day “No Refusal” operation. If you are stopped under the suspicion of intoxication: * Stay calm and cooperate! – We don’t want to work any harder than we need to. * Roll your window down and locate your Driver License/insurance card before the officer gets to you. – Fumbling around frantically is not a very sober looking. * Speak as little as possible and
Read more →Earlier this year, a Dallas medic aboard a care flight helicopter was injured while caring for a patient. The injury was not caused by the actions of the pilot or faulty medical equipment but from a laser pointer. Yes, the same laser pointer that flashed across the screen of nearly every movie you went to see during the early 2000s. Laser strikes, or “lasing” crimes, have seen a recent spike in activity causing both local and federal agencies to crack down on the crime. While seemingly harmless from the ground, laser pointers aimed at aircraft can temporarily blind pilots threatening all passengers on board. Dallas authorities recognize this risk and are hoping their new joint campaign with federal agencies will
Read more →In 2013, Annie Dookhan, a chemist in one of Boston’s crime labs, made headlines when she pleaded guilty to 27 accounts of misleading investigators, filing false reports and tampering with evidence. Investigations revealed that Dookhan forged the initials of evidence officers, tested numerous samples without properly signing them out, dry labbed samples (visually identified drugs as opposed to forensic testing), and logged five times the average number of tests per month. The Dookhan scandal forced her lab to close and freed hundreds of defendants who suffered a violation of their right to a fair trial. Now sentenced to 3-5 years, Dookhan is facing the consequences for her betrayal of public trust. Now it seems as though Bexar County may have
Read more →Parker County is a quiet place, and if you’re from Dallas or Fort Worth you might only know the county for its annual peach festival. Generally, however, Parker County, which includes the cities of Azle and Weatherford, flies under the radar of local news stations. On June 1, Mark Upchurch helped to change this. On the evening of June 1, Upchurch’s girlfriend came running down the driveway of their residential neighborhood screaming, “Mark set me on fire!” One of the neighbors drove her to the hospital after noticing severe burns covering her legs. After arriving at the hospital in Azle, the woman was then airlifted to Dallas with potentially life threatening injuries. Statements released by the hospital show that the
Read more →A rabbi, a police chief, and a little league coach walk into a New York police station… This is not the start of a joke, but rather the beginnings to a federal investigation of a child porn ring centered in the New York City area. To date, the Homeland Security investigations have led to the arrest of 70 men and one woman, the seizure of 600 electronic devices, and a total of 175 terabytes (for reference, 1 terabyte can store approximately 349,500 digital pictures) of sexually explicit photos and videos of children. As information seeps out; it is not only the sheer amount of trading and collecting that took place between those involved, but the vocations held by the individuals
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