Conroe Criminal Lawyer Blog

Your Amazon Echo May Be Ratting You Out

January 16, 2017 | by M. Neufeld Law

Conroe Attorney
Amazon is facing off with law enforcement over their hot new holiday product, the Amazon Echo. If you aren’t familiar with the new device, it has a series of microphones that respond to your voice commands. You can order products from Amazon, listen to your favorite songs, and dictate your shopping list which all goes to the cloud, Amazon, and to your cell phone. The list of uses continues to grow every week.

Now the Echo is being used as a witness to a crime. Authorities in Little Rock, Arkansas are trying to get Amazon to turn over the information on the device from the night of a murder. The defendant’s friend was found dead in a hot tub and the police think the Echo may contain audio evidence. The man’s death was ruled a homicide due to evidence of a struggle that was found at the scene. The man had been drinking and was found face down in a hot tub.

Amazon has blocked prosecutors from securing the evidence stating it won’t comply with, “overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands.” This story reminds one of the FBI demand of Apple to crack the iPhone of the 2015 terrorist attack in California.

Kitty Litter Kingpin Busted

January 8, 2017 | by M. Neufeld Law

Criminal Defense Attorney
Citizens of Montgomery and Harris counties can sleep easier tonight now that a large shipment of high grade Feline Bam Bam has been taken off the street. The Kingpin was quoted as saying, “they thought they had the biggest bust in Harris County. This was the bust of the year for them.” Except that it wasn’t.

Twenty-four-year-old Ross Lebeau was charged with possession of almost half a pound of methamphetamine. On the evening of December 5, 2016, Lebeau was stopped for an unknown traffic offense. Harris County Sheriff’s Officers used the old standby technique of “smelling a strong odor of marijuana emitting from Lebeau’s vehicle,” in order to initiate a search. Lebeau was cooperative and admitted he had a small amount of marijuana in the console of his vehicle.

In the process of doing an inventory of the vehicle (a search), the officers recovered a crystal-like substance wrapped in a sock. Mr. Lebeau was questioned about the substance located in the sock and indicated that he had no clue as to what it could be.

Driving While Intoxicated…On Caffeine

December 27, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

Criminal Defense Attorney
It appears yet another lab is in hot water due to poor protocol. The Austin Police Department crime lab has been in and out of the news for years now. As you may recall, the DNA analysis section was actually shut down following claims of improper testing. In 2012, the lab was found to have many contaminated samples and reagents in the lab. One person was exonerated after a sample from a penis swab had been mixed with a vaginal swab of the victim. Yes, you read that correctly. It doesn’t get much worse than that.

Well now, the section that performs the blood analysis on DWI samples is under fire. A scientist and former employee of the lab claims the lab’s blood alcohol analysis methods were not up to existing standards in the industry. The former employee who now works at a different lab was hired to retest a sample from the APD crime lab. She states that her analysis of the sample had a much different level of alcohol and reached a different conclusion about the intoxication of the individual.

A defense attorney and former chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission recalled a similar situation involving this crime lab. The criminal defense attorney had a sample retested on behalf of a felony DWI client. In Texas, when a person is charged with their third DWI they are elevated to a third degree felony which carries a sentence of two to ten years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division and up to a $10,000 fine. That’s the big house folks. The sample tested by the DWI attorney came back with a reading that was off by 0.025. In Texas, the legal limit is .08. That creates a wide disparity in the prosecution of a Texas DWI case. The difference between a .06 and a .10 is huge in the eyes of the law. Officials believe that retesting of the sample from the questionable twelve-year period could cost over $14 million.

Got Weed? Marijuana Possession Cases in Conroe, Texas

November 15, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

Chances are, if you are reading this, you or a loved one has probably been charged with marijuana possession or another drug offense in one of the counties in which I practice: Montgomery, Walker, Grimes, Madison, and Leon Counties. Although the law is the same wherever you are in Texas, the prosecutor you are dealing with will determine the severity of the sentence if you don’t have an experienced criminal defense attorney. Why? First, because everyone has a different opinion on marijuana, and second, because some people are still naïve enough to try and represent themselves. But as we all know, thoughts on this matter are fluid and ever changing.

So, what’s new? Well now there are twenty-six states legalizing weed in some shape or form. As of last week, three more states will soon join the above twenty-six after passing new measures permitting the use of medical marijuana. In addition, seven states and the District of Columbia adopted more expansive laws which will legalize marijuana for recreational use. On Super Tuesday, California, Massachusetts, and Nevada all passed the use of recreational weed. Notably, California’s measures will allow anyone twenty-one or older to not only possess up to one ounce of weed, but can also grow up to six plants in their home. How is that going to work? Only time will tell. Last I checked, marijuana has changed a lot since I was a kid, not only being stronger with a higher THC content, more varied, and the plants can be gigantic. THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis or marijuana. In Nevada, adults will be allowed to possess up to one ounce of weed beginning New Year’s Day of this next year and similarly, Massachusetts will allow possession beginning on December 15. Clearly, the states aren’t wasting any time. Recreational use of marijuana in Maine narrowly passed but they are still recounting the ballots. Other states have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

So, what’s going on in Texas? Not much. Although the state approved certain dispensaries to sell products with low level THC like cannabis oil, it’s been slow to start. The program was supposed to start on January 10^th of this year but the reality is that the first license for a dispensary won’t happen until June of 2017.

DWI Crime Labs and the Presidential Election “It’s not the crime that gets you…it’s the cover up”

November 7, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

Lying DWI scientist
On the Watergate scandal, Nixon was quoted as saying, “It’s not the crime that gets you…it’s the cover up.” Nixon knew that he may have avoided the whole Watergate scandal if instead of lying and covering his tracks, he had admitted his wrongdoing early on. Mismanagement is one thing; obstruction of justice is not forgivable. Now in the wake of the Wikileaks email dumps, we are finding that our government isn’t as bad as we thought it was, it’s much worse. How does this massive government corruption parallel drug and alcohol arrests in Texas, specifically driving while intoxicated or DWI arrests? A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about mistakes being made in the Houston and Dallas crime labs. Recently, new information has surfaced about the cover up by Texas crime lab scientists.

Today, we know that one state forensic scientist that I discussed earlier will no longer perform services as an expert witness or perform lab work in drunken driving cases in Texas. But wait, what happens to the thousands of samples where this scientist performed an analysis? This DWI blood analysis evidence should no longer be used. It’s tainted.

A little background, this scientist performed blood analysis in drug and DWI cases for the DPS crime lab in north Texas. The DPS scientist then testified in court about his findings. Just as the DPS scientists do in almost all blood testing trials here in Montgomery, Walker, Leon, Grimes, and Madison counties in trials against my clients. In the only instance where the DPS scientist was caught, yes I said it, the only time he was caught, a driver that had not been drinking was shown to have a blood alcohol of 0.152. That’s almost twice the legal limit for DWI in Texas which is 0.08. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the error was caught within a matter of days and corrected. DPS claimed this was an isolated incident. Uh, huh…sure it was. See my last article here to see that DPS doesn’t follow the proper lab protocol for blood testing. Therefore, the probability for mistakes skyrockets. Okay, Mr. Scientist, you perform thousands of tests, and you don’t follow protocol, but we are supposed to believe this is an isolated incident?

DWI, Was I Really Over the Legal Limit?

October 27, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

Conroe DWI Lawyer
Maybe not. A Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime lab scientist is under fire for conflicting statements he made in a misdemeanor DWI trial this month. In May of 2013 the DPS crime lab switched two samples and delivered the wrong results to the police. The error resulted in a woman who had not been drinking being charged with driving with twice the Texas DWI legal limit for alcohol. When the DPS scientist was questioned about the switch, he lied and stated that he had not switched the vials. When caught in his lie, the DPS scientist invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Why is this an extremely scary scenario? If you read the above paragraph again, you notice I said Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab. Yes, that’s right, the police use their own “so called” scientists with their own “so called” lab protocol. In other words, cops in lab coats. These are the guys that do most the forensic work for the police in Texas. And yes, that includes thousands upon thousands of blood tests in Texas driving while intoxicated cases. If you listen to the testimony of these scientists in court you would be led to believe that their work is infallible. Yet, experienced criminal defense DWI lawyers know that these labs simply do not follow the protocol of non-state run independent labs. The thinking of the DPS labs is one of, “hey, it’s good enough.” Is it? Is a little bit of glass in your baby food good enough? Most of the blood in the Montgomery, Walker, Madison, Grimes, and Leon County areas are sent to the Houston DPS Crime Lab. A quick Google search will show you that year after year, thousands of DWIs are thrown out when the errors in this particular lab are discovered by criminal defense attorneys. No other lab in the state has been plagued by more corruption.

Why is it important that this DPS scientist tell the truth about the mistakes that are made in their lab every day? It’s important for the teacher that lost her job because of a DWI. It’s important for the nurse that lost her license because of a DWI. What about the mom that must blow into a device when she picks up her children? Does the DPS scientist that lies under oath and secures a fraudulent conviction for the State think that it matters to these citizens?

Reduce Your DWI Chances in Conroe

October 10, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

DWI breathalyzer test
Worried about getting a driving while intoxicated charge in Montgomery County, Texas? You should be. It’s that time of year. We are getting into the holiday seasons. With the Conroe Catfish Festival and the Texas Renaissance Festival already upon us, law enforcement will be out looking for drunk drivers in Montgomery, Grimes, and Walker Counties in greater numbers. But how can you safeguard yourself and really know if you are driving impaired? In Colorado, the Department of Transportation may have come up with a bright idea.

The idea involved giving out 225 breathalyzers for your smart phone to a group of participants that were randomly chosen. What’s amazing is that seventy-nine percent of the chosen people believed that they had indeed driven while intoxicated in the past. Not only that but eighty-two percent thought that regular drinkers should have a breathalyzer with them when drinking. Good idea, right? Well, yeah until I have to shell out a hundred plus clams for one of these gadgets. Does the gadget really work? Will I care when I drink? Or, will it become another expensive paper weight?

The results were surprising. The study recorded almost five thousand readings. While using the breathalyzers only 12 percent reported that they may have driven while intoxicated. The average blood alcohol level was recorded at .087 percent. They have the same .08 standard for drunk driving that we have here in Texas. So either they had a lot of liars in the study or they had a massive drop in DWI behavior from 79 percent to 12 percent. At the very least it appears smartphone breathalyzers may be linked to better decision making for drinkers. For experienced criminal defense attorneys this may also lead to an interesting factor to weigh when someone is accused of an artificially high blood alcohol level that may be due to the ever so common police lab error.

DWIs, Lawn Mowers, and George Jones

August 11, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

Montgomery County DWI Lawyer

National topics in the news today include two DWI related stories. First, in our own Montgomery County, Texas, a man received a fifty-year sentence for a driving while intoxicated charge and second, an Ohio man was arrested for driving drunk on a lawn mower. Lawn mower you say? I know what you’re thinking and we will get to that later. Why was this particular individual driving a lawn mower? The reason given was that he chose the lawn mower due to a suspended license. The interesting part of the second story, aside from the lawn mower aspect, is that this was the man’s sixth DWI or DUI and he received misdemeanor punishment. Why? Ohio doesn’t count offenses that are older than twenty years. In other words, his past DWI history was too remote. In Texas we had a similar law that allowed DWI offenses to drop off your record after fifteen years. In 2005, the Texas legislature did away with that provision. Does that make sense? Some say yes, but try to explain that arbitrary law to a commercial driver that received a DWI as a teen. The Texas Department of Public Safety can and will take away your commercial driver’s license for life (as in forever) upon a second DWI. This happens more frequently than you might think. I had a client that was pulled over after his daughter’s wedding and was slightly over the legal limit. And yes, I think the .08 limit is garbage when the tests for intoxication were designed for .15, but that is another story. We fought and won that case, but imagine losing your career and company over something that happened thirty years ago. The two national news cases are in no way similar other than that both drivers had multiple DWIs. Every case is unique and deals in different views and varying levels of severity. Something that may seem trivial to you now, may not be twenty, thirty, or even more years in the future. This is why I shudder when I have clients tell me they have represented themselves in the past. It’s always a bad idea. You know the adage of the lawyer that represents himself has a fool for a client. The same holds true for everyone.

Speaking of the lawn mower, yes drinking and driving on a lawnmower in Texas is illegal. Sounds silly doesn’t it? The truth is we represent DWIs and DUIs on lawn mowers and much more commonly, golf carts every year. But you don’t have to be criminal defense attorney to know the legend of the best DWI lawn mower story. We’ve all heard the story of “Possum” George Jones. Did it really happen? Yep. For those of us older folks, we remember George as not only a legend of country music, but also as “No Show Jones.” Jones struggled throughout his career on substance abuse issues. It’s been reported that he missed 54 shows in 1979 alone. Jones, who was born in Saratoga, Texas just outside of Beaumont was still living in that area of East Texas. Allegedly, his wife at the time began to hide the keys to all the vehicles due to George’s alcohol issues. Jones tore the house apart but could not find a set of keys. George looked out the window, and behold under the security light was a riding lawn mower with the keys in the ignition. Years later in his autobiography George recalled, “I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did.”

I bet George Jones hired a lawyer for that incident. You should, too. If you get arrested for any alcohol or drug related offense, call us today. Even if it involves a lawn mower or a golf cart.

Storm Damage? Don’t Miss Your Window.

July 5, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

Storm damage attorney
According to a May 2016 National Insurance Crime Bureau report, your beautiful State of Texas won top honors in state hail loss claims from 2013 through 2015 with 394,572 hail claims. No other state was even close to Texas for storm damage. Why is this important to you? Storm damage doesn’t just damage roofs, strong winds and hail also commonly damage windows, siding, fencing, and gutters. Frequently, the storm damage isn’t readily ascertainable by visual inspection. That means you or your adjuster could easily miss what could develop into a big problem for you.

In addition, many homeowners don’t recognize the extent of the damage until long after it occurs. So look again, or better yet contact someone that knows what to look for. Storm damage often manifests itself in the form of chipped paint, nicks in gutters and fencing, and leaking roofs and windows that occur long after the storm is gone. Often homeowners don’t realize that the high winds and hail have caused micro-fractures in the paint or metal, which leads to premature aging and discoloration. It is also not unusual for homeowners to develop leaks, cracks, and discolorations in the walls, ceilings, and windows a year or two after their homes were exposed to a catastrophic storm. But, by then, it is often too late to make a storm claim.

Don’t let this be you. If storm damage is not promptly reported, your insurance company may deny your late claim as normal wear and tear or faulty construction materials. Accordingly, most storm damage is often repaired or replaced at the homeowner’s expense (yes, that means you) and not via a properly presented storm damage claim. As with most things, you’re busy, and unless there is immediate damage sufficient to otherwise affect the use of your home, you won’t take the time to properly evaluate and assess your storm damage. You may not need a storm damage attorney at this point, but you do need one of our adjusters to make sure you’re not missing something that will haunt you later.

DWI, Crime, and Elected County Officials

June 28, 2016 | by M. Neufeld Law

DWI Attorney
Elected officials love telling you they’re tough on crime. Right? You hear, “there’s too much crime, too many drunk drivers, too many drugs.” What are they doing about it? “We’re coming down hard on criminals, we’re hammering the drunk drivers, we’re cleaning up the streets!” Blah, blah, blah. That is, until it’s the politician or his or her family that’s being charged with the crime. Double standard?

Last week a county judge from Rockwall, Texas was charged with DWI. Of course you know the drill when a politician is asked to give a blood or breath sample: they refuse. Are you shocked? Didn’t think so. In this instance, the county judge was first a city councilman and subsequently, the mayor. With all that experience in government, the judge knew damn well to refuse those field sobriety, breath, and blood tests. You should refuse, too.

Wait, elected officials charged with a crime? Doesn’t Montgomery County have several elected officials charged with criminal activity? We sure do. Last week several of the Montgomery County Commissioners and the Montgomery County Judge were all indicted by the Montgomery County District Attorney. Each was charged with nefarious activities. Do you know what your local politicians do when accused of a crime? They shut up and lawyer up. You should too.