Texas Law Fellowships Honors Chris Perri with Public Service Award

At the Texas Law Fellowships' Excellence in Public Interest Awards ceremony, Chris Perri received The Excellence in Public Interest Award for his service. For the past two years, Chris has volunteered his time supervising law students running an expunction clinic for indigent clients in the community. Chris is considered a statewide expert on expunction law, and he believes anyone who has had their case dismissed should be able to clear it from their arrest record.

Remember, in the court of law, we are all presumed innocent until proven otherwise. An arrest is not proof of guilt, yet its presence on a background check can still create employment and educational obstacles. 

Chris was honored to be recognized along with these other outstanding members of the legal community: Claire Marie Bow, Paul Quinzi, Chris Roberts, and Bryan Zubay. 

You may not go to jail for pot possession in Austin, but you can’t ignore the ticket

It’s a beautiful December day in Austin, and Sue, a student at the University of Texas, wants to celebrate the end of the semester with friends at the Greenbelt. While relaxing in the 70-degree weather near a swimming hole, one of Sue’s friends lights up a joint. Sue doesn’t usually smoke pot, but she’s cutting loose today, so she closes her eyes as she takes a long drag off of the joint, the stresses of the semester exhaling out of her with the sweet smoke of her friend’s kindbud. She then opens her eyes, and her momentary relaxation gives way to full-fledged panic as she spots a uniformed police officer on a bicycle stopped on a nearby trail. The officer calls out for her to bring him the joint. Sue’s mind and heart race, as she remembers what happened to her older brother in their small town where he was arrested for marijuana possession and spent the night in jail.

The cop sternly warns Sue about the illegality of smoking marijuana: “This isn’t Colorado, young lady.” However, to her delight, he bikes off after handing her a citation that looks almost exactly like a speeding ticket. Sue can’t believe her luck in not getting arrested! Maybe she won’t even have to tell her parents. There’s a date listed on the ticket to report to “Justice of the Peace – Precinct 5” on December 22. Sue’s going to be back home for the holidays by then, so she later tosses the ticket on a stack of old books in her apartment, figuring that she can just deal with it when she returns to school in January for the spring semester.

Given that the ticket doesn’t look a whole different than a traffic citation, it’s understandable that Sue might think it’s no big deal. In reality, Sue’s offense is a class B misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 180 days in the county jail and a $2,000 fine. Unlike most counties in Texas, where you’ll be cuffed and carted off to jail for anything worse than a class C misdemeanor traffic offense, Travis County is different. Here, the police are authorized to issue tickets for misdemeanor marijuana possession (four ounces or less), along with a few other class B misdemeanors (driving with license invalid, theft, graffiti, criminal mischief). These tickets are called “field-release citations” because the police release the defendants without booking them into jail. The rationale behind this policy is that arresting people takes several hours, resulting in fewer police officers patrolling the streets.

However, just because Sue received a citation doesn’t mean that she’s avoiding an arrest record. Instead, the arrest occurs during what is called a “jail walkthrough” when Sue reports to the Justice of the Peace at the time designated on her ticket. Below, I’ve outlined the steps of the process:

1.     Report to Justice of the Peace – Precinct 5 (located at 1000 Guadalupe Street in downtown Austin) to receive paperwork and instructions about the walkthrough process.

2.     Report to Pretrial Services in order to apply for a personal bond.

3.     Return to the Justice of the Peace, who will magistrate the defendant, meaning that the defendant is informed about constitutional rights and the penalty range of the offense.

4.     Obtain approval of the personal bond from the Justice of the Peace.

5.     Report to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office at their bonding desk in the courthouse.

Upon reporting to the sheriff, Sue is officially arrested. The sheriff’s deputy would take her fingerprints and a mugshot. Sue would then be released from custody without ever being handcuffed. She would also receive a copy of her personal bond with a court date.

Following this “arrest,” Sue’s case would be assigned to one of the county courts-at-law, and her lawyer could then begin resolving your case by requesting discovery materials (offense reports, video/audio of the incident, etc.) and negotiating with the prosecutor.

Like many people issued similar citations, Sue doesn’t immediately realize the importance of reporting to the Justice of the Peace on the date and time designated on the ticket. This is a very bad idea because failure to appear results in an arrest warrant. There is no “jail walkthrough” for Sue if she is later arrested on a warrant, and the process of getting booked in and out of jail would take 12-24 hours. Her initial fear of spending a night in jail would become a reality.

Here’s what Sue should do immediately upon receiving the citation: contact an experienced attorney, such as Chris Perri Law, to assist her with the jail walkthrough process. An attorney can waive the third step of the process (magistration by the judge) in order to ensure that Sue is one of the first people to report to the sheriff’s office for the booking procedures. Often, Chris Perri Law can get somebody through the entire process in less than an hour. Without an attorney, the process can take up to four hours because there’s often a long line of people with similar tickets, and the sheriff’s office only has two deputies (at most) working on the walkthrough process at any given time.

Chris Perri Law also would assist Sue in resolving her case in a manner that leads to an eventual expunction of her arrest record. Even though Sue might feel like she was never arrested because the jail booking procedure was so quick, information about the offense is automatically forwarded to the Department of Public Safety (DPS), who enters it into their crime records database. Background checks will reveal the incident unless Sue successfully expunges the records of the arrest. Given that she’ll be graduating from UT and on the job market in a few years, it’s very important that Sue hires an experienced attorney who knows how to ensure that her arrest record from this incident is ultimately wiped clean.

***Sue is not a real person.

How to Avoid (or Deal With) Summertime Public Intoxication Charges

Photograph by Frank Alcazar used under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

In the summer months of Austin, Texas, time seems to stop. Everyone knows the days are long and ridiculously hot. The sun is oppressive, and we are all constantly dripping with sweat. Half of the city is on school break or traveling. Thus, it’s understandable that workdays need Barton Springs swim breaks and margarita-filled happy hours. In this heat-induced and alcohol-infused blur, it’s no surprise that summer is the most common time for people to rack up Public Intoxication (PI) arrests.

Many of us will be intoxicated in public at one point or another, and as long as you aren’t driving or acting in a way that’s unsafe, that’s perfectly legal. However, it is at the discretion of police officers to determine what behavior is deemed dangerous. The Texas Penal Code defines Public Intoxication (PI) as when: “a person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another.”

Below, Chris Perri has outlined a few general tips on how to avoid a PI and what to do if you find yourself in the back of a police car.

How to Avoid Getting a PI

• Don’t overdrink alcohol in public places. As obvious as it may sound, it’s the truth. If you want to keep the party going, move it to your house to minimize the risk of arrest.
• Avoid aggressive behavior. Police officers most commonly make PI arrests when they see people fighting or on the brink of a physical altercation.
• Adhere to pedestrian walking laws. If you are walking in the street or not following basic pedestrian laws, a police officer may interpret this as dangerous behavior. If they believe your erratic behavior is the result of drinking alcohol, then you’ll likely be in handcuffs before too long.
• Walk straight and don’t slur your words. Again, easier said than done, but if you feel yourself getting to this point, it’s a good time to flag down a taxi or call a friend to take you home.
• Avoid urinating in inappropriate places, AKA non-bathrooms. Believe it or not, this behavior happens frequently and draws attention to law enforcement.

What to Do Once You Are Arrested

If an officer has approached you and seems likely to arrest you for a PI, the best thing you can do is cooperate. Though getting arrested can be scary, remember, a PI is only a Class C Misdemeanor charge that carries no jail time. Likely, they’ll take you to the jail for one night to “sleep it off,” and you’ll be released the next day. However, if you see a judge while in custody, make sure you don’t plead “guilty” or “no contest” without consulting with an attorney. In most cases, skilled attorneys can help you get the charge dismissed and eventually expunged if you are willing to take an educational class and perform community service. However, if you plead guilty, this will lead to a conviction, which will make the crime ineligible for expunction.

The worst thing you can do when getting arrested for a PI is to resist or act aggressively. If you try to resist, you will likely be charged with Resisting Arrest, which is a Class A Misdemeanor that carries jail time and is harder to dismiss. Worst-case scenario: your resisting escalates to an Assault on a Public Servant, which is a felony, and then you’ll still be dealing with the charge when summer is long gone.

If you or a loved one has recently been arrested for a PI or a related charge, call Chris Perri at (512) 917-4378 for advice on how to best navigate the specifics of your case.

Chris Perri Law convinces State of Texas to dismiss case against man facing felony drug charge

Chris Perri Law proves to be successful in the face of injustice yet again. Police searched Chris’ client’s home in North Texas and arrested the client for a state-jail -felony amount of marijuana (between four ounces and five pounds). The client faced up to two years in prison as well as the stigma of a felony conviction.  Within six weeks of hiring Chris Perri Law, Chris was able to convince the prosecutor to dismiss the entire case. The client will now be able to get the arrest expunged from his record next year.

Utilizing his exceptional skill in navigating case law, Chris pointed out to the prosecutor that the information the police used to obtain the search warrant was gathered illegally. Thieves burglarized the client’s home and stole the client’s marijuana. The police caught the burglars and asked them how they acquired so much marijuana. The burglars then became informants and pointed the finger on Chris’ client, a victim of burglary.

However, case law states that information obtained through illegal activity cannot be used to obtain a warrant. Just like police must gather information through legal channels, so must anyone else if it will be upheld in court.

As a public citizen, I feel thankful that the courts dismissed the case because it shows our system values justice and sets a standard that illegally gathering information to hurt someone else is unacceptable.  It is shocking to think that without the help of Chris Perri Law, this man who was involved in no violent activity or crime of moral turpitude, could have been a convicted felon, never allowed to vote again.

New Statute May Expand Expunction Rights

On Tuesday, I gave a presentation to the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer's Association on expunction law. One of my appeals has been used as authority for denying expunctions to defendants in the multiple-offense context, and I showed my fellow defense lawyers why this case shouldn't be used in this way. I also spoke about the new expunction statute, which adopts a charge-based approach to expunctions. I've been advocating for this charge-based approach for several years, and it's nice to see the Legislature listen. The expunction statute is very complex, but a simple example can show readers what I'm talking about. Take a defendant charged with a DWI. It's considered a great outcome to have the DWI dismissed in exchange for a client taking deferred adjudication on a reduced charge of Obstruction of a Highway. (Note: a deferred adjudication involves a term of probation ordered by the court). For many years, defense attorneys expunged the DWI arrest from such a client's record. However, some prosecutors and judges have interpreted the appellate case I worked on (Travis County District Attorney v. M.M.) as holding that the DWI was not eligible for expunction if the client took probation on a different charge arising out of the same arrest.

The argument between defense lawyers and prosecutors hinges on the interpretation of the term "arrest" in the expunction statute. Does arrest mean the charge that the defendant seeks to expunge (the charge-based approach), or does it mean all charges arising from a single arrest incident (the arrest-based approach)? I've advocated for the charge-based approach whereby courts view each charge as a separate arrest and determine the expungibility of that individual charge without reference to other charges arising from the arrest incident. The most recent Legislature made amendments that clarified its adoption of the charge-based approach. That means that clients can expunge their DWI arrests from their records even if they took a conviction or deferred adjudication on a reduced charge.

My talk on Tuesday provided other defense attorneys with litigation tools to help expunge their clients' arrests in situations where multiple charges arise out of a single arrest incident. I've attached my PowerPoint Expunction Law in the Wake of MM, in case anyone's interested in taking a look.

Due to the complexity of the expunction statute, it's important to hire an experienced, knowledgeable attorney when you're seeking to expunge your records. I'll make sure that you're expunging every possible charge, and I'll fight for your rights if we encounter any opposition from the prosecution.

No jail time, no convictions in marijuana transportation case

Despite being caught transporting approximately 35 pounds of marijuana across the country, my clients won’t have to spend any time in prison after I worked out an excellent plea deal with the reasonable district attorney in Carson County, Texas. My clients were pulled over along I-40 in the Texas Panhandle, and we were prepared to contest the legitimacy of the stop unless we achieved a reasonable plea bargain. The driver was adamant that his passenger's case be dismissed due to the passenger’s lack of knowledge of the illegal contents of the trunk. Eventually, the prosecutor agreed, so the passenger’s case was dismissed, and he’ll be eligible to expunge all records of the arrest in about 2.5 years. Meanwhile, the driver won’t even have a felony conviction on his record because I worked out a deferred adjudication, meaning that as long as the defendant abides by the terms of his probation, a conviction won’t be entered in the case. The catch was that he had to pay over $6500 in various fines and court costs. Still, that’s a lot better than facing the penalty range of a third-degree felony (2-10 years in the state prison, which isn’t fun for first-timers).

Also, the outcome represents an implicit understanding that marijuana isn’t a terrible drug like methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin. In fact, most of the people who were supposed to receive my clients’ marijuana were cancer patients who use it as medicine to help cope with the side effects of chemotherapy. Even though the expensive fines may seem quite harsh, that money will go to good use in the Texas Panhandle, as it can be used towards public goods, such as education and environmental initiatives. In the end, that’s a true win-win!

Another theft charge dismissed

Today, the prosecutors dismissed my client’s pending charge of class B misdemeanor theft (the value of the stolen goods was between $50 and $500).  To obtain this dismissal, I worked out a deal where my client entered into a deferred disposition agreement on a class C misdemeanor theft charge (the value of stolen goods were less than $50).  If my client completes 20 hours of community service and stays out of trouble, that charge will be dismissed in six months.  She would then be eligible to expunge all records of her theft arrest two years from the date of the offense.  After expunction, she will be able to deny that any theft arrest ever occurred.

An expunction victory

After two years of considering the case, the Third Court of Appeals in Austin decided in my client’s favor on an important expunction issue.  Prosecutors had been trying to prevent defendants from expunging their DWI arrests when they took probation on lesser charges (Reckless Driving or Obstruction of a Highway).  This was due to a strained reading of the expunction statute that I discuss more thoroughly in my blog.  The Third Court of Appeals accepted my argument that an expunction analysis should proceed by looking at each charge in isolation; as a result, a dismissed DWI is eligible for expunction regardless of what happens on another charge that stems from the same arrest.  This is a great victory for any defendant who uses plea bargaining to get rid of an unfair DWI charge. Remember, if you don’t get your charge expunged, potential employers can still see the arrest!