Coronavirus and COVID-19 Updates for Williamson County Criminal Clients
Page for current updates to court settings and policies in Williamson County, Texas in response to Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 emergency
The Blog of Georgetown, TX Criminal Defense Attorney Russ Hunt, Jr.
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia--Why Shouldn't I Just Pay the Fine?
"Collateral Consequences" is a phrase that describes other stuff that happens as a result of an action. In the case of "just paying the ticket" in a Texas drug paraphernalia case, there are many direct and collateral consequences: An attorney can help avoid conviction in most drug paraphernalia cases.
What Is, Was, and May Never Be: Public Information After Austin’s Package Bomb Attacks
Following last month's horrific series of package bombings and the self-inflicted death of the bomber, we are left with many questions. Why did this happen, how did it happen, and how did the bomber get caught? It appears that investigative evidence providing answers won’t see the light of day any time soon. The hunger to know the entire story and piece together the whole truth is what drives criminal defense attorneys and law enforcement alike.
"Stormy" Relationships Can Trump Common Sense
As the President of the United States finds himself increasingly preoccupied and embroiled with stories and allegations of improper relationships in his business, personal and political lives, it is worthwhile to consider how some of the problems besetting the Leader of the Free World can affect more "ordinary" folks. Stormy Daniels is an example of a person who has been able to gather and produce independent evidence to bolster her side of the story despite her own questionable past. Use her experience to help protect yourself from a relationship that is going bad.
Steer Clear of Bad Eggs On The Road With Easter Weekend Driving Tips
At a time when many of us are still trying to burn off all that high-calorie Christmas joy, the season of Spring, renewal, and chicks and bunnies rolls around again in Central Texas. Throughout the coming weekend, multitudes of families will take part in our Lone Star tradition of delighting in spring-green trees and bluebonnets of Williamson and Travis counties while navigating highways traffic has rendered almost impassable. In this post, we share some “eggs” of wisdom to help you drive past trouble on your way--both to and from--springtime holiday fun.
NO POINTS FOR YOU! Fifth Circuit: criminal history points only count for time actually spent for the prior case
Interesting case from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today, with possible application for federal defendants with cases and or convictions in Austin: In this case, the Defendant was assessed one extra criminal history point for serving a sentence of imprisonment that he actually served o...
Your Package Arrived, ATX: Thoughts on Austin’s Deadly Spring Deliveries
The recent Austin package bombings take a high toll not only on the victims but on the entire community. Law enforcement struggles to find and stop the bomber, and the community wonders if it will happen to them or their loved ones next. When the bomber is stopped, many will seek to understand why they occurred.
ROCK ON! Eleven Tips to Stay Safe and Avoid Arrest at SXSW
Spring Break is upon us in the Austin area, and with a little common sense and foresight festival-goers can avoid the expense, heartache and shame that come from a criminal arrest or being the victim of crime.
Marijuana and DWI-No Measurable Correlation?
In drunk-driving cases where only marijuana is alleged as the intoxicant, blood THC levels are useless measures of intoxication. Various NHTSA studies reflect this fact, and criminal defense attorneys must educate courts and challenge the admission of these misleading measures in DWI cases.
Some Evidence Required for Expunction of Arrest Record
The Waco court of appeals this week threw out an expunction that had been granted despite the fact that the DPS didnamp;#39;t even show up to the hearing. In this case, the applicant had filed the appropriate request for expunction, and the DA was present during the hearing and stated that the ...
Lawyers’ Understanding of Parole Rules Helps End Hotly Contested Case
Congratulations to my father Russ Hunt Sr ‘s law partner Michelle Tuegel on a fantastic outcome to a hotly contested case in Waco. Michelle, along with Walter “Skip” Reaves and Mark Dyer were able to reach a deal in the retrial of a 28-year old arson case because of their superior understandin...
Williamson county to pay DPS $112,525.52 to speed testing
Williamson county has come up with an interesting method to speed forensic blood and drug testing–in FY 2015 they will pay the Department of Public Safety lab to hire two employees who are supposed to expedite the return of blood and drug testing. It has been obvious for some time that the DPS l...
Pretrial Intervention in Williamson County
Williamson county has a very active Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) Program for first offenders, which results in the charges being dismissed and even expungeable when the program has been successfully completed. The theory behind the PTI program is essentially that misdemeanor first offenders are ...
Warrior of the Month
Many thanks to Keith Lauerman for naming me WARRIOR OF THE MONTH on his blog. Per Keith this was a unanimous decision which is heartwarming for me. Although I think the committee consists of Keith. At any rate, I do handle a significant number of very serious cases involving allegations of Cap...
Email Discovery on Misdemeanors from Williamson County Attorney
A word of praise for the Williamson County Attorneyamp;#39;s office in their implementation of an email discovery program. Essentially, it enables me to skip one step in my usual process so that I get my discovery more quickly than I normally would. I handle a significant number of misdemeanor...
Driver’s License Surcharge Amnesty Program Now In Operation
The DPS has finally released details of their driveramp;#39;s license surcharge amnesty program. It is imperative that folks follow up immediately to ensure that they can benefit from the program since all payments must be made by April 17th, 2011. Per the DPS , the goal of the Amnesty peri...
Hilarious post about plea bargaining
An anonymous Travis county assistant DA has a blog called DA Confidential that commonly has insightful commentary from a prosecutoramp;#39;s perspective. The latest posting is a hilarious video made with Xtranormal , a tool that creates animated web videos with computer-generated voices ...
Alex Calhoun bests Dr. Coons
The CCA today handed down its opinion on a capital murder punishment retrial that Alex Calhoun and I tried 2 years ago in Waco. Click here for link to opinion. After reading the opinion I must point out the success of Walter Reaves on appea l and co- counsel Alex Calhouna's trial court ...
Federal Plea Agreements: Appeal Waiver can be Waived at Government's Discretion
This week I had a close brush with the Anders standard . An Anders brief is a no-merit brief in which the appellate lawyer informs the court of appeals that he cannot find any meritorious issue in the case to support an appeal. My friend Jamie Spencer recently wrote an interesting post ab...
Gant exception is not swallowing the rule
In 2009, TCDLA published an article of mine dealing with inventory searches that I wrote after the Supreme Courtamp;#39;s decision in Arizona v. Gant , 129 S.Ct. 1710 (2009) . In Gant , the Supreme Court said that police could no longer automatically search a vehicle whenever they had arrest...
Crack Sentencing Reductions–another piece of the puzzle
Earlier this month I wrote about the United States Sentencing Commission taking emergency action to translate the new Fair Sentencing Act into workable sentencing rules for folks charged with federal crack cocaine offenses. So now we have the United Statesamp;#39; Legislative and Judicial ...
Payoff or Workoff–Trade CSR for $$$?
I got call today on a very mundane subject which led me to do some creative thinking about a possible workaround for unaffordable probation and/or fine payments. The caller was very upset–he had been on probation for some time but had lost his job and couldnamp;#39;t afford the probation paym...
Williamson County Attorney Discovery via Email
The Williamson county attorney's office has started providing discovery of offense reports by pdf email delivery. This feature is very useful as it enables faster receipt of the information necessary to evaluate and prepare a defense for our clients. Another very important benefit to e...
Sting or Entrapment?
New ploy from law enforcement–do you think this passes the smell test? Use confidential informants to recruit prospective robbers of drug dealers
New Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing Rules Coming Sooner Than Expected?
Good News on the Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Front –relief from Draconian Sentencing Guidelines may come earlier than expected! Congress enacted The Fair Setencing Act of 2010 last month, which substantially lessened the 100:1 crack/powder cocaine disparity, at least in terms of m...