The quality of legal defense that a person gets after they get accused of a crime in Texas is not always equal. One unfortunate truth about criminal defense in Texas is that while there many talented criminal defense attorneys who are capable of bringing the best possible defenses for their clients into the courts, not all of those attorneys serve in positions where they can do that. Several types of attorneys are available to people who get accused of crimes in Texas. Private counsel are available to anyone who is willing and able to pay their fees or get help from family or friends to do so. Public defenders are available to people who meet specific criteria regarding the economic resources they have available to them. Inmates incarcerated in the Texas Penal System who get accused of committing crimes while they are incarcerated have access to yet another group of attorneys, the State Counsel for Offenders (SFCO).

Each of the aforementioned groups of attorneys experiences different financial, time, and other pressures regarding their work. Sometimes those pressures result in situations where talented attorneys are not permitted to perform the quality of work that they can do. For example, public defenders often get burdened by large caseloads and therefore experience time pressures that do not permit them to spend the amount of time on each client’s case that they would like to spend on it. The attorneys who are part of the SFCO face a different type of pressure in the form of a conflict of interest between the work that they are charged with doing – representing indigent inmates – and the goals of the agency that funds them and has control over their work – the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

A recent report states that SCFO attorneys have fewer resources available to them than the prosecutors that they must face in court. This means that sometimes, even though the SFCO attorneys know what defense strategies, expert witnesses and other things would make the best cases for their clients they are not always able to access all of them and present the case the way that they would like to. The clients in those cases do not get the best possible defenses in their cases.

Whenever possible, it is crucial that people who get charged with crimes in Texas get help from private counsel. Your Texas Criminal Defense Attorney has represented many clients charged with crimes in Texas, and they know how to present a strong defense on your behalf. Whether this is your first criminal charge or a repeat offense, your attorney can analyze the facts of your case and craft a defense strategy that gives you a good chance of achieving a positive result in your case. Your attorney can help you understand your charges, and they can help you understand and navigate the various impacts that your criminal charge is likely to have in your life.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Strong Support for Texas Defendants

A criminal charge can throw many things in your life off course. Fortunately, you do not have to navigate your Texas criminal case alone. A Texas Criminal Defense Attorney can support you every step of the way as you work to get your life back on track. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.

It should come as no surprise that if you have anything on your criminal record, you will experience some consequences related to those crimes. Unfortunately, what many people do not know until they have one or more convictions on their records is that the effects of criminal convictions can extend far beyond fines and jail time into just about every area of a person’s life, for many years after the conviction occurred.

While we would like to think that people who commit crimes experience punishment, and then choose to live their lives as upstanding citizens after having learned from their mistakes could do that without running into additional detriment from their earlier misdeeds, it is unfortunately not true. The effects of a criminal conviction can follow an individual far into the future and jeopardize things that they have worked very hard to accomplish.

For example, a man who started a successful locksmith business over thirty years ago is now being denied an operating license because he had participated in crime while he was a teenager. The man, whose company has served over a hundred thousand customers and has garnered excellent reviews from the Better Business Bureau and other business ranking agencies, did not commit any other crimes after he drove the getaway car for his roommates after they broke into someone’s house. Not only did he not commit any more crimes, he got punished for his role in the break-in – he spent five years on probation and also paid restitution.

What’s more, after the Texas DPS started regulating locksmithing and other professions, the man was able to get a locksmith license based upon the length of time since his conviction and his good behavior since that single mistake. He maintained that license until last year when he got a notice that said that his license would not get renewed because of the past conviction. It is unclear why the license wasn’t renewed after getting renewed for many years despite the conviction, and it could be because of a technical glitch or some other error. He’s currently pursuing reinstatement of his license, but he is already experiencing negative consequences of being unlicensed – he’s been unable to work as a locksmith for over six months, he has lost his BBB accreditation because he’s not licensed, and more.

Unfortunately, the locksmith isn’t the only person whose past mistake is causing him present-day harm. Over two hundred Texas laws that relate to employment bar people with past convictions from certain types of work. Those laws send a message that rehabilitation and reform don’t happen, that crime is a permanent barrier to many kinds of employment. That is not a message that it would be helpful for society to believe, nor is it a message that will prove useful in deterring crime.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Defending the Accused

If your criminal record prevents you from pursuing the work that you want to do, a Texas Criminal Defense Attorney might be able to help you. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or contact us through our website by using our online contact form.

The widespread use of technology and social media have created many ways for people to interact with each other. Unfortunately, the nature of online interactions isn’t always positive. From people trolling each other on social media and leaving nasty comments on the details of other people’s lives to creating and posting online content with the intent of embarrassing or harming others, technology has created plenty of ways for people to be unkind towards each other.

For example, Joe Barton recently apologized for a sexually explicit photo of him that has been circulating on social media. Barton did not post the picture, nor did he give permission for it to get posted, but there it was on the internet, leaving him in the unenviable position of having to decide what to do about it. That would be a difficult thing for anyone to do, but even more unfortunately for Barton, he is a politician, and his career depends in large part upon the public’s opinion of him. Barton chose to acknowledge the image and the relationship portrayed therein, and he apologized to his constituents for letting them down, because he knew that at least some people would not have approved of that relationship. As of yet, no one has released information about the source of the image and any potential motivation for posting it – it could be a political opponent, an angry former lover, or any other person who wanted to embarrass Barton and harm his reputation.

It is even possible that Joe Barton is the victim of a crime. Some Texans may not know that there is a state law that makes it a crime to intentionally disclose pictures or videos that “depict another person with the person’s intimate parts exposed or engaging in sexual conduct” without their consent. This type of disclosure is often referred to as “revenge porn” because that’s one possible motivation for many posts of this nature. Posting this type of content could get you charged with a Class A misdemeanor with a sentence of up to a year in the county jail and a fine of up to four thousand dollars. The law was passed to protect people who were in consensual relationships at the time that the images got created, but who do not consent to the posting of the images online.

If you have been accused of posting revenge porn in violation of the new statute, it is imperative that you get help from an experienced Texas Criminal Defense Attorney. Just as is the case with any crime, it is possible that you could present a defense to the court that could result in the charges getting dropped or the penalty getting reduced.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – An Ally for the Accused

If you get charged with a crime in Texas, consult an attorney right away. An experienced Texas Criminal Defense Attorney can build a strong case on your behalf, especially if you retain them immediately. The consequences of being charged with or convicted of a crime can extend far beyond fines and imprisonment, so it is essential that you do whatever you can to protect your rights at this critical time. If you got charged with a crime in Texas, call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or connect with us on our website through our online contact form.

Texas will close more prisons in 2017 than it has in any other year in history. The prison closures are possible because of a decrease in crime as well as an increase in options for resolving criminal cases without resorting to incarceration. Four prisons will get closed this year, which brings the total amount of closures to eight facilities over a period of six years.

The decrease in crimes being committed in Texas has been taking place gradually over the past decade or so. During that same time frame, lawmakers have brought about changes that give some individuals who get charged with crimes other options besides going to prison. Programs like diversion not only help Texans stay out of prison, they help them address the underlying issues that landed them there in the first place and give them the support and skills that they can use to choose different paths for their lives. For individuals that get charged with criminal behavior that is likely the result of a mental illness, mental health services provide a chance for a better life, instead of just passing the time behind bars only to be troubled by the same issues while they get incarcerated and after they are released. Legislative changes also contributed to a reduction in criminal charges and therefore a reduction in the amount of prison beds that the state needs. Property crime laws got overhauled in 2015, relieving the state of laws that doled out felony punishments to people who stole items that were worth very little. Reforms in other areas of the law have gotten proposed, but they have yet to pass, so it is unclear which, if any initiatives like changes to drug crime laws and modifications to age requirements for incarceration, will eventually become law.

The closure of Texas prisons started with the massive Central Unit in Sugar Land, followed by the Jesse R. Dawson State Jail and a pre-parole unit in Mineral Wells. Some of the facilities that got closed were state-run facilities and others, such as a privately operated intermediate sanctions facility in Houston that got closed last year. The decrease in the number of available prison beds had not created a shortage of beds, though, because the number of people who are getting sent to jail continues to drop. When prisons get closed, inmates get brought to other facilities and staff are also reassigned to other facilities, which has alleviated some of the problems that those facilities had been having with hiring and retaining good employees.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Strong and Confident Assistance for Texas Defendants

Texas defendants might not know just how many options they might have for resolving their criminal cases. If you got charged with a crime, you might be able to work with an attorney to find an outcome that meets your needs better than you might expect. To learn more, call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499 or connect with us through our online contact form.

Recently, a man got charged with a crime that many people think exists only in legends from days gone by. The man is charged with cattle rustling, stealing cattle. Since the animals that the man got charged with stealing belonged to his very elderly stepfather, it is possible that if the man is convicted, he will receive an enhanced penalty because his stepfather is ninety-seven years old. If the victim of a crime is sixty-five years old or older, any offense against them is a crime against the elderly and eligible for an enhanced penalty.

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is the agency that has authority to investigate cattle rustling cases. When the Special Ranger who was assigned to investigate the case looked into whast had happened, he found that the man took some of his stepfather’s cattle to be auctioned at a cattle market. He sold some of the cattle on behalf of his stepfather but he sold other cattle under his own name and profited more than seven thousand dollars from those sales.

The case above is not a unique occurrence. Special Rangers who work for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association investigated over seven hundred agriculture-related cases last year, many of which involved the unauthorized sale of livestock. The incidence of livestock theft follows the price of meat – when the price of beef is up, more cattle get stolen. When prices fall, there is less incentive to steal cattle, so fewer people do it. Fortunately, unlike the people who were responsible for tracking down cattle rustlers in years past, the Special Rangers have modern tools and technologies to assist them in their quest to catch cattle crooks. Digital databases track every head of cattle sold in Texas. The ear tags that have been used to mark cattle for years have been updated to include tracking devices that are so sophisticated that they are capable of sending notifications to their owners’ smartphones or email addresses. DNA evidence helps prove whether cattle are stolen or not by providing information about their genealogy. Stealing cattle involves a high risk of getting caught, but, unfortunately, that does not deter all would-be cattle thieves. The Rangers report that the people who commit the crime of cattle rustling are often individuals who work on farms and ranches because handling cattle and getting them to market involves both access to cattle and skilled knowledge. Modern cattle thieves don’t operate in a standard manner, sometimes it is just a few head of cattle that get stolen, at other times, massive thefts occur.

The penalties for cattle theft vary, depending upon the amount of head of cattle that get stolen. For example, if fewer than ten head of cattle is involved, the person or people who took the cattle may be charged with a third-degree felony which carried a penalty of up to ten years in jail. If the victim or victims of the crime were over sixty-five years old, additional penalties might get imposed.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Strong Representation for Texas Defendants

If you get charged with any crime, it is essential that you talk with a Texas criminal defense attorney about what to do. The choices that you make now affect how your criminal case affects your life. If you’ve got a Texas criminal law question, call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or connect with us through the online contact form on our website.