Lentz worked on over 185 cases, including 51 homicides.  Apparently, giving the prosecutors the evidence they wanted was his only priority regardless of whether that meant putting innocent people behind bars and potentially sending them to their death.

Lentz worked for the lab from January 2012 until he resigned in March 2014. He said the department investigated Lentz and forwarded the findings to the district attorney’s office. He said the department would not release any further information about the allegations against Lentz or comment on the situation.

I harken back to my earlier post about HPD – where HPD failed to investigate 20,000 crimes with workable leads.  Harris County prosecutors have identified over two dozen cases now in jeopardy because of this one analyst.

In 2002, forensic testing at the lab was temporarily suspended because of a number of serious management, employee and structural problems, including a leaky roof that for years dripped water on stored evidence. There was also a backlog of untested rape kits, which at one point totaled 6,600, and persisted until August 2013 when the work was outsourced.

Obviously this is an extremely serious issue.  This calls into question not only the veracity of the evidence the lab submits as evidence, but raises bigger questions about the pervasive mismanagement of HPD as a whole.

Arrested for a Possession?

Arrested for a Drug Crime?

If you’ve been accused of any offense involving Marijuana (including possession of Marijuana) or any drug crime,  contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

In my opinion this decision ignores the purpose of the legislation – to prevent criminals from acquiring guns.  However, the court disagreed, seeming to say that the real purpose was to be able to account for who are the actual purchasers and holders of specific firearms.

In a 5-4 opinion, the court held that the law applied to a Virginia man who bought a gun with the intention of transferring it to his uncle in Pennsylvania — even though the uncle is not prohibited from owning firearms.

The debate centers around federal gun laws intended to prevent sham buyers from obtaining guns for the sole purpose of giving them to someone else. The laws were part of Congress’ effort to make sure firearms did not get into the hands of unlawful recipients.

Defendant Abramski bought a Glock 19 handgun in Virginia in 2009 and later transferred it to his uncle in Pennsylvania. Abramski, a former police officer, assured the Virginia dealer he was the “actual buyer” of the weapon even though he had already offered to buy the gun for his uncle using his expired police identification to get a discount.

During the transaction, Abramski answered “yes” on a federal form asking “Are you the actual transferee buyer of the firearm(s) listed on this form? Warning: You are not the actual buyer if you are acquiring the firearm(s) on behalf of another person. If you are not the actual buyer, the dealer cannot transfer the firearm(s) to you.”

Abramski purchased the gun three days after his uncle had written him a check for $400 with “Glock 19 handgun” written in the memo line.

Justice Kagan spoke for the majority, espousing that the federal government’s elaborate system of background checks and record-keeping requirements help law enforcement investigate crimes by tracing guns to their buyers. “Those provisions would mean little if a would-be gun buyer could evade them by simply getting another person to buy the gun and fill out the paperwork.”

In dissent, Justice Scalia said the language of the law does not support making it a crime for one lawful gun owner to buy a gun for another. Expectedly, Scalia was joined by the court’s other conservatives — Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Abramski is being too honest where he doesn’t need to be, and too dishonest where it is most important to be honest!  How could this problem have been avoided?  He should have said he was buying the gun for another person that could have lawfully owned it…wait…would they have allowed that transaction to occur?

I guess this just drew attention because the mugshot is kind of humorous.  Are we happy that we jail people for public intoxication?  Houston actually has begun a new program called the “Houston Sobering Center.”  Instead of being taken to jail for public intoxication, those picked up by police for being hammered out in public they can spend the night at the center rather than being hauled off to jail, overflowing our already crowded jails and tying up the courts.

The center has recently seen an uptick in visitors, meaning more Houston police officers are giving those stopped for public intoxication a chance to dry out for a few hours at the sobriety center instead of hauling them off to jail. It frees police up from filling out paperwork to get back to patrolling the streets.

Since this has been a successful program that eases the overcrowding problem at our jails, is more humane, and leaves the police on the streets to arrest real criminals, why are these programs not being used more widely?

Arrested For Public Intoxication?

Arrested for a DWI?

If you’ve been accused of a criminal offense involving alcohol such as public intoxication, or you have been accused of a DWI, contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

Blake, 57, told U.S. District Judge Sim Lake that he’d been close to the gang for most of his adult life, and was made a “full brother” in 1991.

The Aryan Bortherhood Gang was born in the prison system of Texas in the 1980’s and still has a stronghold in prisons statewide today.

The race-based syndicate has a reach that extends from penitentiaries into the streets. Members have been imprisoned for crimes including arson, drug dealing, kidnapping, murder and an incident in which a finger was sliced from a corpse south of San Antonio as a trophy, according to court papers and testimony.

Its good to see that the US Attorneys office is spending some of its time going after violent criminal organizations.  These organizations take advantage in large part of the weaknesses in our justice system, particularly the illicit drug market.  BY keeping drugs illegal we create a black market for these organizations to use to generate revenue, fueling their other more violent crimes.

Arrested for a dog fighting?

If you’ve been accused of a criminal offense involving any criminal offense contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

Two BP employees were charged with manslaughter in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 offshore oil rig workers.  Prosecutors have asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the charges after U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. threw out 11 counts of “seaman’s manslaughter.” Duval said the seaman’s manslaughter law didn’t apply to the well leaders – prosecutors contend otherwise.

The two had been set for trial in June. However, Duval postponed activity in the case pending the outcome of the appeal on the 11 seaman’s manslaughter charges.

The two BP employees, Kaluza and Vidrine have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors claim the two botched a safety test and disregarded high pressure readings that were signs of trouble before the explosion.

Although my sincere sympathies go out to the families of the families that lost their loved ones – I do not think that the evidence supports a finding of manslaughter.  For such a finding, they would have to prove that the BP employees charged knowingly disregarded a known danger that could result in death.

Signs of trouble, and being aware that their negligence was dangerous is one thing, but it may not get the prosecutors far enough along when it comes to the mens rea, or guilty mind element – was it criminally negligent?  Did they know or should have known that the negligence and botched actions would result in death?…we shall see what the 5th Circuit has to say – but my bet is they will uphold the lower level courts determination that there is not sufficient evidence to support a manslaughter charge.

He is reported to have been “belligerent and uncooperative” when he encountered police officers and was allegedly drunk at an airport bar.

Like any good PR person would do in a situation requiring some damage control, a spokesman for Fox News said “He is dealing with serious personal issues at this time.”

I dug up a video where Mr. Jarrott seems to be slurring his words, or maybe he just does not have a firm grasp of the English language a little bit.  Maybe it is from…alcohol perhaps?

All joking aside – I hope if he indeed is suffering from some sort of alcohol abuse or dependence issue, he gets the help he needs.  He is like everybody else, and not immune to the tortures of alcoholism.  I hope he has the humility and courage to do what he needs to do to take care of himself right now.  If he takes action now he can stop the hemorrhaging before his career bleeds out.

Arrested For Public Intoxication?

If you’ve been accused of a criminal offense involving alcohol or accused of a DWI, contact attorney Tristan LeGrande by calling 281-684-3500.

Information has surfaced that some of the students had the worst test scores, worst grades and may not even have been able to pass the bar.

An organization known as watchdog.org stumbled upon a pattern of lawmakers and other connected persons securing admissions to UT Law for students that other by using normal objective admittance guidelines would have sent to a lot less prestigious school.  Watchdog started by looking to the February Texas Bar Exam results, which oddly placed TOP law school UT last in the state in passage at 59 percent, and then looked back at those who failed more than once. Looking at the 90 UT grads failing more than once, Watchdog isolated 24:

• At least 15 of the students are politically connected, either through office, personal relationships, or campaign donations to officeholders who have figured in the fight over UT’s leadership.
• At least 12 of the students have roots in Laredo, home of state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who is known to have pulled strings on behalf of other applicants. As Laredo has just 2 percent of the state’s population, it’s highly over represented in this sample.
• A half-dozen of the students have connections to state Rep. Joe Straus, his close allies, or a lobby shop that rose to prominence with Straus’s ascendance to speaker in 2009.
• Two of the students are known to have LSAT scores well below UT standards. James Ryan Pitts, son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, has now failed the bar exam three times since graduation after scoring a 155 and a 147 on the LSAT, which is scored on a scale of 120 to 180. Those scores rank in the 64th percentile and 33rd percentile nationwide, and are well below the scores in the mid-160s that UT usually requires.
• Another 2012 graduate with three LSAT scores in the 140s failed the bar exam twice, but because we don’t yet have scores for most of these students, we’re not singling her out and naming her.

Watchdog goes on to point out that some of the persons with piss poor performance WERE LEGISLATORS OR THEIR STAFFERS:

Two recent UT Law grads already were elected officials when they were admitted.

State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, like [Sen. Judith] Zaffirini a Democrat from Laredo [Watchdog singles out Zaffirini as the connection that comes up most often in its probe], who was first elected in 1992, failed the bar exam in 2007 and 2008, and is not a member of the Texas bar.

State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, first elected in 2002, failed the bar three times between 2010 and 2012, and is not a member of the bar, either. One of Rodriguez’s senior staffers, also a UT Law grad, failed the bar three times between 2009 and 2010.

What really bothers me about this is what bothers me about all schools that admit students that are unqualified.  Many qualified students were not given the opportunity to study at these schools- which carry with them a certain amount of prestige and honor for their graduates.  Often these are school, like UT law that churn out excellent graduates that go on to become titans in their industry.

I will not argue with anyone that UT law is not a good school – I believe it is a great school.  But this is all tainted, as many of the ivy league schools in other parts of the country have been, for the favoritism they allow to take place in admitted a portion of their students.

I can not help help but conclude that two men nabbed at a Northwest Houston Whataburger were none-too-sober when they were arrested with “cookies and cash.”  The two men stand accused of robbing a subway and dollar general store.  Apparently the cookies did not do the trick, the two were caught mid chow down at the burger joint that was only a few miles from the reported the robberies.

I must admit, it never ceases to amaze how comical some of the situations people get themselves into.  And while in criminal defense i am often inundated with serious ad sobering situations, now and again – but with aome consistency, a funny situation comes across my desk or pops up in the news.

Make no mistake – robbery is a serious crime.  But when you steal cash and cookies from a subway and then stop at a whataburer on your way out of town…

But in all seriousness, this is a good day for the justice system with regard to the police.  The conviction sends a message that police officers don’t have carte blanche to oppress citizens – in this instance by performing invasive and unwarranted searches of people’s body cavity. 

There may be some that argue…hey, well they have to do what they have to do.  They would not have to search people’s asses if they didn’t hide drugs up there. (Noted…this is NOT my opinion, just playing devil’s advocate).

Let’s put the actions of officer “Spread-your-cheeks” (DPS Officer Helleson) in some context.  It all started when the officer made a traffic stop for littering.   No drugs or other contraband were found in the searches. Prior to this conviction, the DPS previously settled civil claims made by the two women searched for $185,000.  Helleson was subsequently fired but is appealing.

Video of the stop and search