The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office has announced that this weekend, Memorial Day 2010, will be a "no refusal" weekend. That means that when you are pulled over, the police will find some pretext for claiming you are intoxicated so they can draw your blood.
Should you refuse to comply if they tell you they will get a warrant and get it anyway?
YES!
Do not give your consent for your blood to be taken. You do NOT have to comply with any of their demands and it is your Constitutional right not to do so.
Do not take any tests offered, to "make sure you are OK to drive."
Do not offer any information to the police or answer any of their questions beyond your name and providing them with your driver's license and registration and possibly insurance information.
You are being videotaped and recorded all the time. Remember that the officer is going to try and make statements on the tape that you are intoxicated. Do NOT let them get away with that and your retort should be, "I am not intoxicated."
You have the right to have an independent blood test. You have the right under Texas law to have your own blood drawn after you are placed under arrest and preserved for your defense. But you have to act quickly and call our office immediately to arrange for your own test.
You should be polite to the police, but you do NOT comply with their requests for help in gathering evidence that will later be used to convict you.
You DO NOT have to take any field sobriety tests, eye tests (Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus), or comply with any requests for further information from you after you have provided your driver's license and registration.
The police will ask seemingly innocent questions such as, "Where are you coming from tonight?" Or, "where are you going tonight?"
DO NOT ANSWER.
Tell the police you do not discuss your personal life and ask if you may leave. If you are not allowed to leave, ask to immediately call your lawyer and call me at 713-882-8826 (24/7).
If the police refuse to let you leave, and refuse to let you call your lawyer, they have arrested you. You will go to jail, but you will not have given them anything that can be used against you later. In fact, you will have denied them they very proof they need to convict you of anything.
Call me when a plea is your last option . . . not your first!

There are a handful of lawyers that can truly defend one of these cases. Most lawyers, and non-lawyers agree - blood is infallible.

One more example of how the word "on the street" does not follow the truth.

When your blood is drawn because you are suspected of driving while intoxicated, it is not certain that the blood results are accurate. Digging into the massive amount of discovery and evidence that is available can provide an accused with lots of defenses.

For an example of how mistaken blood cases can be, take a look at this recent story from Channel 2 News in Houston. Click here.

Now, the burden of proof in a CPS case is much less than that of a criminal case, but mistakes still happen with a blood draw!!!!

Fortunately for this family, their son was returned after a second test was done, a week later.

Imagine if you were falsely accused of DWI and your blood was taken.

Unless you have an attorney before you are arrested or contact one immediately after, you would not be able to preserve the evidence and request an additional blood sample be taken. This is a right you have as a Texas citizen, but do you think the police will advise you that you have the right to have a second sample taken and analyzed by your attorney's team?

If you are accused of DWI and your blood is taken, you have only one choice at winning and only one chance to get it right. Keep my number on you and call me immediately if you are stopped for DWI.

Call Kelly W. Case at 713-882-8826 to defend you. Because a plea should be your last option, not your first.

Criminal Lawyers are frequently asked to perform pro bono work because we encounter the most downtrodden segment of our citizenship. I spent several hours at the DPS Substation the other day, while trying to replace my lost driver's license and ran into an old client. He and I talked a bit about his case and how grateful he was for the way things turned out for him. One of the people sitting near us overheard our conversation and began chatting to me about his legal problem. It seems that he was having trouble getting the prosecutor to believe him after he was accused of lying to the police and filing a false report. My mother would be proud of me for keeping my tongue secured between my teeth and not pointing the obvious irony of his claim. However, he was interesting and amusing and we talked while waiting on my license. I still don't know why he was there.

After almost an hour of listening, he became not so amusing anymore and I had used my allotted number of bathroom trips when my name was called to take my picture for my new driver's license that had been lost. As I got up to leave and thank my neighbor for keeping my time occupied so I didn't have to be annoyed with responding to paying client's emails and phone calls, he asked me if I could represent him. Now I do take a minimum of 2 pro bono cases per year. That means that the clients I agree to represent do not pay anything in legal fees, however they may be forced to cover any expenses as I am not a banker, yet.

I thanked the gentleman for the opportunity but explained to him that my pro bono work was limited to DWI cases and not those where the radio waves are interfering with his communicating with his home planet.

Most lawyers do quite a bit of pro bono work, especially criminal defense lawyers. We take calls in the middle of the night, answer questions at parties and usually help people in traffic court when we are there so they understand the process a little better. Most criminal lawyers have a soft spot for someone in need. But there is also the need to earn a living and while I love to help and contribute in general to the betterment of society, bread costs the same for my family as it does for everyone else.

I politely declined my new friend's invitation to represent him, wished him well and asked him if he had a place to stay or anything to eat? He was grateful but would not accept anything from me and we parted ways.

Hopefully, he will go on to better things and get the help he needs, and I won't ever have to go back to the Department of Public Safety . . . ever!

Finally, just want to send a big mighty fine "THANK YOU" to Jason Smelley at DeMontrond Volkswagon in Houston for losing my license while going to copy it during my car shopping experience. Without you, this blog and the experience behind it would not have been possible.

Keep up the good work.

Have a great weekend everybody!