Criminal Defense Questions In Conroe, TX

The person is booked into the Montgomery County Jail at 1 Criminal Justice Drive in Conroe, whichever agency made the arrest. Code of Criminal Procedure art. 15.17 requires an appearance before a magistrate within 48 hours. The magistrate explains the accusation, gives warnings about the right to stay silent and to have a lawyer, and sets bail.

Code of Criminal Procedure art. 17.15 tells the magistrate to set bail high enough to secure the person's appearance but not so high that it becomes a tool of oppression. The magistrate weighs the offense, the person's ability to pay, the safety of the victim and community, and criminal history. Bond can be cash, through a surety, or personal, and it can carry conditions.

The level of the charge decides it, and the two levels sit in different buildings. Felonies go to the district courts at the Montgomery County Criminal Justice Center, 207 W Phillips St. Class A and B misdemeanors, including first and second DWI, go to the County Courts at Law in a separate building. The setting notice gives the address for each appearance.

Texas prosecutes a felony on a grand jury indictment unless the defendant waives it. The grand jury of 12 citizens hears what the prosecutor presents and decides whether probable cause exists, returning a true bill, which is the indictment, or a no-bill. A no-bill ends that presentment and can make the arrest eligible for expunction.

Chapter 12 of the Code of Criminal Procedure sets limitation periods. A misdemeanor generally must be charged within two years of the offense, and many felonies within three years, with longer periods or none for certain serious offenses. An arrest alone does not satisfy the deadline. A filed charging document does.

A criminal case is brought in the name of the State of Texas, not the complaining witness. The prosecutor's office decides whether it goes forward. A complaining witness can tell that office what he or she wants, including through an affidavit of non-prosecution, and the prosecutor may weigh it, but the choice stays with the state.

A person accused of an offense that carries possible jail time who cannot afford a lawyer has a right to appointed counsel under the Sixth Amendment and Code of Criminal Procedure art. 1.051. The request goes to the magistrate or the court, which decides indigence under the county's procedures adopted under art. 26.04.

Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.2 sets the deadline for a notice of appeal at 30 days after sentence is imposed or suspended in open court, or 90 days if a timely motion for new trial is filed. The appeal goes to the Ninth Court of Appeals, and then possibly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Texas has two kinds of relief. An expunction destroys records of an arrest that ended in an acquittal, a no-bill, a qualifying dismissal or a pardon. An order of nondisclosure seals records after deferred adjudication and some convictions, including certain first DWI cases. Both have waiting periods and excluded offenses, and both require a petition to a court.