Does Harris County need a Public Defender’s Office?

I think so. Every major metropolitan area in the United States, other than Harris County,  has a public defender’s office.  Although there are many good judges, there are also many who are more interested in clearing their dockets as quickly and efficiently as possible than they are in rendering fairness or justice to the accused.

Moreover, an attorney who wishes to receive appointments from a judge may feel pressure to resolve a case through a plea rather than fight for his client if he knows that to do so will mean this lawyer will no longer receive court appointments. And even if this does not happen, the appointment system  raises the appearance of impropriety and decreases confidence in the criminal justice system.

In addition,  no judge wants to be accused of being soft on crime by his or her opponent when he or she is up for re-election, so most want to make sure the conviction and sentencing rate in their court is high and the best way to do this is to appoint lawyers who do not rock the boat.  Lastly, court appointed lawyers cannot possibly match the resources and manpower at the disposal of the District Attorney’s Office.

You may want to think about this when deciding whether to use a court-appointed lawyer or hiring a private attorney to defend against  your DWI or DUI charges.

Fake Intoxilyzer tests invalidate 1200 DWIs

Oy vey. Another blemish on the the lousy record of crime lab technicians in Harris County.  The Houston Chronicle reports that:

“More than 1,200 Harris County DWI convictions will be set aside and the cases revisited, prosecutors said Friday after the sentencing of Deetrice Wallace, a Department of Public Safety contractor who faked inspections of alcohol breath testing devices.

“Quite frankly, a lot of these cases are gone,” Harris County Assistant District Attorney Terese Buess said. “A lot of those cases will not have evidence to go forward again.”

About 1,000 defendants convicted of driving while intoxicated can petition for a retrial without evidence submitted by Wallace, the prosecutor said. Some defendants had more than one case affected.

Buess said Wallace signed off on about 4,000 test slips. Of those, some did not result in convictions and others were not in Harris County. Buess did not know how other counties would address the problem.

The prosecutor was not optimistic about seeking 1,200 convictions again because the office will not have test results, and other evidence has been destroyed, including videotapes.

Buess prosecuted Wallace for three counts of tampering with a governmental record, a state jail felony. State District Judge Jeannine Barr sentenced her to a year behind bars.

She had faced a maximum of two years and a fine of up to $10,000.

Wallace’s attorney, George “Mac” Secrest, said his client was contrite and embarrassed at Friday’s hearing.

“She apologized profusely,” Secrest said.

Wallace also taught robotics at Sharpstown High School and had been named Teacher of the Year in 2006 by the Education Foundation of Harris County.

DPS officials invalidated all breath tests recorded by Intoxilyzers under Wallace’s supervision because they could not pinpoint a date where she became unethical.

Falsified inspections

From 2002 until she was arrested in October 2008, Wallace handled DPS instruments that were used to determine alcohol concentration in DWI cases for at least seven police departments — League City, Friends­wood, Webster, Seabrook, Galveston, Clute and South Houston.

In court documents, Wallace told investigators that she had falsified inspection records for both the South Houston and Clute police department Intoxilyzers.

Some of the police departments owned the Intoxilyzers under Wallace’s supervision, while others borrowed or leased the devices from her.

Buess said Wallace manipulated the machines instead of changing the reference sample every month, and pocketed $146,000.

Although she was paid for work she did not do, Wallace’s impact will be on the hundreds of cases that will have to be litigated again from the very beginning.

“We were astounded to see that there were so many,” said JoAnne Musick, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyer’s Association. The group is contacting the attorneys who represented each convicted defendant.

Once contacted, the attorney of record will contact the defendant and determine if they want to try the case again. If the defendant wants a new trial, the district attorney’s office will agree to it.

The case will then start over in the court where the conviction was obtained.

Could affect felony DWIs

Buess said some defendants who were convicted of two DWIs and a felony DWI may get a clean slate after the dust clears.

One defendant who will be able to get a new trial, she said, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for a felony DWI.

“It’s just a massive problem that is not going to go away,” Buess said. “It’s a huge mess.””

Can a DWI or DUI conviction be expunged in Houston, Texas?

The DWI or DUI conviction you get on your record when you are 22 years old will be on your record forever. Texas does not allow A DWI or DUI conviction to be expunged.

The only way to keep a DWI or DUI off of your record is to receive a “not guilty” verdict or have your charges dismissed by the prosecution. Even then, you’ll have to file a petition for expungement in the District Court of the county in which you were charged in order for it to be permanently removed from your record.

Do you want the company considering you for a job against 50 other applicants to discover that you have a DWI or DUI in your past? Just another reason that you must consider hiring an attorney for your Houston DUI or DWI charge.

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