Our team of attorneys are experienced in everything from Public Intoxication to Murder. We have managed thousands of cases including assault, domestic violence, drug, and theft offenses. While we manage every type of criminal offense, we get a lot of calls regarding someone learning that they have a warrant out for their arrest, or a detective or investigator is calling them, and they do not know what to do. Hopefully, this information below will give you a better understanding of the process and what to expect.

Fort Worth or Tarrant County Detective Has Called You?

If you have received a phone call from a Fort Worth or Tarrant County detective, you need to speak to an experienced and aggressive criminal defense attorney that can guide you through this process to protect your rights.

A detective has called you and asked you to speak to him? He wants you to answer questions regarding an incident you know nothing about. Should you speak to him? Let us examine the cost-benefit analysis of the decision-making process that you should make with your criminal defense lawyer.

What could happen if you allow the investigator to interrogate you?

First and foremost, please understand that everything you say, even the innocent statements, will be used against you. It is very tempting to believe that a detective will meet up with you and allow you to tell your story and hash it out to a conclusion that allows you to go back home with no concerns. Unfortunately, this almost never happens. To the contrary, if a detective is calling you asking for a meeting to discuss allegations, there is a very high probability that he has gathered evidence sufficient to make him believe you have committed a crime.

Most detectives are trained to make you feel like they are on your side and that you have nothing to fear. They want you to believe that if you are transparent with them, they will drop the investigation. If you choose to speak to the detective, you should expect to be recorded and interrogated.

Remember, EVERYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU! It is not just what you say that can be used against you, it is what you do not say also! What if the detective asks you questions and you do not respond like he thinks you should? He could easily write down in his report that you seemed nervous or evasive and that he believes this is a sign that you are guilty. What if you are 100% innocent of the charges and you attempt to persuade the detective with evidence of an alibi or other exculpatory evidence? Can you really trust that the detective will write down your explanation accurately? Can you trust that the detective will not twist and manipulate the explanation to make it appear you were confessing to a crime?

A criminal interrogation involves the detective asking you closed-ended questions that require a yes or no answer. Many of these questions will start with the detective reminding you that he already knows what happened and that it will only get better for you if you tell him what he already knows. This is a tactic that detectives are trained to use to make you feel like you have no other choice. If you answer these unfair questions, it will be used to establish probable cause to obtain an arrest warrant and criminal charges.

What Can A Criminal Attorney Do For You If You Received A Call From A Detective?

Hiring an experienced and aggressive criminal defense attorney is the smartest thing you can do if you have received a phone call from a detective. Why? As we have already discussed, if you do the talking, the detective will twist your statements and use them against you. If you exercise your Sixth Amendment right under the U.S. Constitution to hire an attorney, your criminal lawyer can convey all the answers to the detective’s questions, while protecting you from those answers being used against you. Everything a criminal defense lawyer says to the detective is hearsay and inadmissible in court.

What if there was no evidence to establish probable cause and the detective is only trying to get you to say something to get you arrested? Your criminal lawyer can protect you from being wrongfully arrested by acting as a firewall between you and the detective to ensure the detective will have to develop probable cause only from the evidence he has collected.

Will hiring a criminal attorney make you look guilty to the detective? No!! Who cares what the detective thinks! You have a constitutional right to hire a lawyer to help you. In fact, if the detective starts interrogating you, the easy way to deal with the situation is to blame your criminal lawyer. Tell the detective you are more than willing to answer their questions, but your criminal defense attorney was adamant that he be present and manage the process. By blaming your lawyer, it appears you are being cooperative while exercising your constitutional right to counsel.

Warrant For Your Arrest? What Can You Do?

Has a Fort Worth or Tarrant County detective called you and informed you that you have an active warrant for your arrest? You need to immediately contact a Fort Worth criminal attorney to develop a plan to either keep you out of jail or minimize the time you will be in jail to process the warrant.

You have two options to clear your criminal arrest warrant in Fort Worth:

1. Schedule a time to turn yourself in at the Tarrant County Jail located at 100 North Lamar Street and be prepared to post your bond after book in. In this scenario, you should be prepared to turn yourself on a weekday and, ideally, as early in the morning as possible. Your criminal defense lawyer should be able to contact your detective and find out the exact charge and recommended bond amount. At this point, you can coordinate your bond arrangement with a trusted bondsman that your criminal defense attorney can help you with so that you know that you will be released from jail.

2. Contact a Fort Worth criminal defense attorney that has surety with Tarrant County and request a possible waiver of magistrate or “walk through.” Under this option, rather than having to pay a bondsman the price of a bond, you only pay your criminal attorney to post your bond and you do not waste money by having to pay twice. Additionally, you shield yourself from an unsavory bondsman that may place onerous conditions of reporting and check-ins that could jeopardize your freedom if there are small communication problems. How does this work? You can only qualify for this option if your detective issued a warrant with a set bond amount, as opposed to a recommend bond. A recommended bond will require your criminal defense lawyer to contact the detective to obtain the arrest warrant affidavit to submit to a Tarrant County magistrate do determine if the magistrate will allow you to process a walk through. However, if you have a set bond, you will meet your criminal attorney at the Tarrant County jail and you can process your active warrant without having to go to jail (this assumes your offense is a qualifying offense – must not be a sex-based or domestic violence-based crime).

What if your friend or loved one was arrested and already in the Tarrant County jail? You still have the option to contact a local bondsman and have them post the bond or you can contact The Fulgham Law Firm and we can help you in several ways. Is the bond set for your friend or loved one too high? If so, we can file a motion to set reasonable bond and request an immediate hearing to try to save you money by not having to pay a high fee for posting an unreasonably high bond. Additionally, if your friend or loved one needs to be bonded and you do not want to have to pay both a bondsman and an attorney, we may be able to assist you with the bonding of your friend or family member.

Upon completing your book in and book out process, what happens next? In Fort Worth, you can expect that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office will file the criminal case and you will receive an initial appearance court date.

There is only two primary purposes for an initial appearance court date: determine if you are hiring a criminal attorney and to determine if you need additional bond conditions. If you have retained a criminal attorney prior to your court date, there is a good chance your criminal defense attorney can get you excused from this court date. However, if the court believes that your criminal offense is serious enough that you need additional bond conditions, your criminal lawyer can be present to argue that the bond conditions may be too restrictive or unreasonable.

After completing your Initial Appearance setting, we must then determine if your charge is a misdemeanor or felony crime. Misdemeanor crimes take a very different process and procedure compared to felony charges. For instance, misdemeanor crimes will be immediately staffed to one of the county criminal courts and scheduled for a court date to begin negotiations. Your misdemeanor criminal attorney needs to get access to your police reports and videos and share the nature of the charges and evidence with you as soon as possible so that you can partner together to begin preparing a defense strategy.

For instance, in Tarrant County, the average time to resolve a misdemeanor case can range from three months to twelve months, depending upon the nature of the misdemeanor crime and if there is an alleged victim involved. Misdemeanor crimes carry a punishment range of up to one year in county jail and up to a $4,000 fine. If you are a first-time offender, it is critical that you do not take a misdemeanor conviction on your criminal record.

If you are facing a felony charge in Fort Worth or surrounding cities in Tarrant County, Texas, it is important that you have a strategy for your defense because felony crimes carry the possibility of hefty fines and a prison sentence. Felony crimes in Texas follow a different path than misdemeanors. After being released from jail on a felony case, the next step is for the Tarrant County District Attorneys’ Office to file the felony case and staff it to a Grand Jury attorney.

The Grand Jury is a panel of citizens tasked with the responsibility of reviewing every felony case to determine probable cause exists. In fact, Texas criminal law requires that every felony in Texas be indicted by a grand jury. A grand jury attorney with the prosecutor’s office has the responsibility of presenting approximately forty felony cases per week to a grand jury for authorization for indictment.

So how can a criminal defense attorney help with the grand jury process? Normally, if you do not hire a criminal attorney, the grand jury will only hear one side of the story as presented by the grand jury attorney with the prosecutor’s office. In this situation, the grand jury will only hear a one-sided perspective and most felony cases are true billed and indicted by the grand jury and staffed with a felony district court. However, if you retain an experienced and aggressive criminal defense law firm like the Fulgham Law Firm, we can request an opportunity to present evidence to the grand jury to reduce or dismiss your felony case.

The grand jury has three options when hearing felony cases:

1. True Bill the felony case – this is the same thing as approving an indictment. Essentially, the grand jury has found there was sufficient evidence to establish probable cause for the felony case.

2. Reduction of the charges to a lesser misdemeanor offense – under this scenario, the grand jury reviewed the evidence and determined that a lesser misdemeanor offense was more appropriate to approval. In this situation, the felony case is dropped, and a new misdemeanor case is staffed with a county criminal court and a docket schedule is created.

3. No Bill – this is the goal when making a presentation to a grand jury. By obtaining a No Bill, you have a received the equivalent of a dismissal and your fight to exonerate your name is over. In fact, if your felony case is no billed by a grand jury, you will be eligible, after the expiration of the statute of limitations, to have your criminal record expunged.

If your misdemeanor or felony case proceeds further with subsequent court dates, the Fulgham Law Firm has some very specific goals for every client we represent:

1. We seek to keep you out of jail – the goal of every client we represent is to ensure that you maintain your freedom. Whether it is a first offense DWI or a felony case where you have several prior convictions on your criminal record, we seek to negotiate a resolution to your criminal case that provides you options to stay out of jail or prison. This is important because far too many criminal attorneys are quick to give up when their client is facing a prison offer. We understand that maintain your freedom is one of the top priorities for your criminal defense attorney and we take the very serious at the Fulgham Law Firm.

2. We seek to get your criminal case dismissed – one of the top goals of the Fulgham Law Firm is to prevent our clients from being convicted of a crime, regardless of whether it is a felony or misdemeanor offense. Being convicted of a crime can come with devastating consequences to your life. If you receive a felony conviction, you could find it very difficult to maintain or find employment. You could also lose the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury panel and the right to hold certain Occupational licenses (Nurse, Doctor, Lawyer, etc.). We understand that you must take care of your family and protect your good name and we will work tirelessly to resolve your criminal case in a manner that prevents you from being convicted of the crime.

3. We seek to clear your criminal record – maintaining your freedom and preventing a criminal conviction is important, but the goal for the Fulgham Law Firm remains that you can clear your criminal record so that you can say that you have never been in trouble for a crime. This is especially important for first-time offenders. It is important to understand that there are two ways to clear your criminal record: expunction and non-disclosure. Expunction allows you to have your criminal record destroyed and you are permitted to deny that the arrest or charges every took place. To qualify for an expunction, you must have had your criminal case resolved by either a dismissal, no bill by a grand jury, dropped to a Class C misdemeanor deferred or a not guilty verdict by a jury at a criminal trial. Another option to clear your criminal record is a non-disclosure. A non-disclosure is a way to clear your criminal record by sealing your arrest and criminal case records. To qualify for a non-disclosure, you must have received a deferred adjudication for a qualifying criminal offense, and you must have successfully completed your deferred adjudication. After waiting the required statute of limitations, your criminal defense attorney can file to get these methods approved. To qualify for these options, you need a criminal defense lawyer that knows these rules and can negotiate a result on your criminal case that gives you the option to take advantage of these options to clear your criminal record.

Criminal Charges In Fort Worth, Texas

At The Fulgham Law Firm, our team of Former Prosecutors with over 85 years of criminal law experience and over 550 criminal jury trials handle every type of felony and misdemeanor case under Texas criminal law. Although this list only reflects a small number of crimes we service, let us examine a few of the more common crimes that we service in the North Texas area.

1. Possession of a Controlled Substance under one gram – if the State of Texas can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you intentionally or knowingly exercised care, custody or control over a controlled substance that weighs under one gram, you could be facing a State Jail Felony conviction with a punishment range of up to 2 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Most common substances associated with this crime are heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.
2. Possession of a Controlled Substance 1 – 4 grams – if the prosecutor can prove that you possessed a controlled substance that weighs more than one gram but less than four grams, you could be looking at a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
3. Possession of a Controlled Substance 4 – 200 grams – if the government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you exercised care, custody or control over a controlled substance that weighed more than four grams but less than two hundred grams, you could be looking at a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
4. Possession of a Controlled Substance 200 – 400 grams – if the State of Texas can prove that you intentionally or knowingly exercised care, custody or control of a controlled substance that weighed more than two hundred grams but less than four hundred grams, you will be charged with a first-degree felony drug charge, punishable by up to life in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
5. Possession of a Controlled Substance over 400 grams – finally, if the prosecutor can establish that you intentionally or knowingly possessed a controlled substance weighing over four hundred grams, you could be looking at a felony drug charge with a minimum prison sentence of 10 years up to life in prison and up to a $50,000 fine.

Legal Defenses To Drug Crimes

If you are facing a drug charge in Fort Worth, Texas or a surrounding city in Tarrant County, Texas, it is critical to not only hire the best drug attorney to handle your case, but it is also important to examine the most effective legal defense to drug crimes.

Illegal Search

The best drug possession attorneys know that one of the first issues to consider when preparing an effective drug possession defense is to determine if the search was legal. If the search was based upon a warrant, your criminal attorney needs to thoroughly examine the four corners of the warrant to determine if there is sufficient probable cause to justify the search. Additionally, did the drug officers abide by the parameters of the warrant? If they searched in an area that was not identified in the warrant, there is a strong argument for an illegal search. If the search was illegal, then under criminal law precedent, all evidence obtained as a result of the search warrant is inadmissible in a trial.

What if the search was the basis of a traffic stop? Did the police officer have a legal reason to pull you over? Did they only pull you over based upon a hunch? The police must establish reasonable suspicion to pull you over for a traffic stop and they must also establish probable cause to establish a reason to search your vehicle. Failure to meet these standards can lead to a dismissal of your drug charges in Texas.

Criminal Intent Can Not Be Proven

If you are facing a drug possession charge in Texas, it is important to understand that the prosecutor will be required to prove that you intentionally or knowingly exercised care, custody, or control over the illegal drug. Merely being at the scene of a crime is not sufficient to prove criminal intent.

For example: being in a car where drugs are found does not necessarily mean you were in possession of the drugs. If you had no idea the drugs were in the car, you are not criminally liable. The challenge in this situation is that the police and the prosecutor will always believe you had criminal intent. As a result, the best criminal attorneys look for evidence establishing reasonable doubts regarding criminal intent. If drugs are found under a front passenger seat and you are sitting in the back seat, your criminal lawyer needs to make the case to the grand jury that the drugs were not within your wingspan of reach and there is no independent evidence establishing you had intent or knowledge.

Possession Can Not Be Proven

Every prosecutor in Texas is required to prove that you exercised care, custody, or control over a drug in order to convict on a drug possession charge. If you did not exercise care, custody or control, the prosecutor will be required to dismiss your drug case.

Being charged with a drug crime in Texas is serious business. You need to hire the best Fort Worth criminal defense attorney you can to analyze your case facts and determine your criminal defense. The search warrant was illegal? The traffic stop was illegal? The drug dog violated your constitutional rights. Your criminal defense lawyer needs to sit down with you and analyze your facts and prepare a winning defense.

Misdemeanor Theft

1. Theft under $100 – if the value of the property or services alleged to have been stolen is less than $100, you will be facing a Class C Misdemeanor Theft under $100, punishable by a fine only of up to $500. At first glance, the crime of Theft under $100 looks petty but it is important to realize that if you pay the fine, you will receive a conviction on your criminal record for theft. If you are looking to avoid a conviction, it is important to work with a Fort Worth criminal defense lawyer that has a proven track record of resolving these cases in a manner that allows you to get the charge expunged from your criminal record.
2. Theft $100 – $750 – if the value of the property or services alleged to have been stolen is more than $100 but less than $750, you will be facing a Class B Misdemeanor Theft, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and up to a $2,000 fine. Because this misdemeanor theft charge is an arrestable offense, it is imperative that your criminal attorney negotiate a dismissal or similar resolution that allows you to get the theft arrest and charge expunged from your record.
3. Theft $750 – $2,500 – if the State of Texas can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the items alleged to have been stolen were more than $750 in value but less than $2,500 in value, you will be facing a Class A Misdemeanor Theft charge, punishable by a jail sentence of not more than 1 year and a fine not to exceed $4,000.

Felony Theft

1. Theft $2,500 – $30,000 – if the prosecutor can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the items alleged to have been stolen were more than $2,500 but less than $30,000, you will be charged with a State Jail Felony theft, punishable by a prison sentence not less than 180 days but not more than 2 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
2. Theft of a Firearm – if it can be proven that a gun was stolen, you will be charged with a State Jail Felony theft of a firearm, punishable by a prison sentence of not less than 180 days but not more than 2 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000. Breaking from normal theft laws in Texas, there is no requirement to prove value on a theft of a firearm charge. The prosecutor must only show that it was an operational firearm. As such, it does not matter if the gun was only worth a few hundred dollars or several thousand dollars, the crime will always be filed as a state jail felony.
3. Theft $30,000 – $150,000 – if the Tarrant County prosecutor can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the items allegedly stolen were more than $30,000 in value but less than $150,000, you will be charged with a third-degree felony theft, punishable by a term in prison of not less than 2 years but not more than 10 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
4. Theft $150,000 – $300,000 – if it can be shown at a criminal jury trial that the value of the items allegedly taken was more than $150,000 in value but less than $300,000, you will be charged with a third-degree felony theft, punishable by a term in prison not less than two years but not more than ten years and fine not to exceed $10,000.
5. Theft over $300,000 – if the amount of the theft is shown to be over $300,000 in value, you will be facing a first-degree felony theft, punishable by a prison term of not less than five years up to 99 years or life in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

Legal Defenses To Theft Crimes

Being arrested and charged with theft is a serious matter. It is imperative that you not only hire an experienced and knowledgeable Fort Worth theft lawyer, but you must also analyze Texas theft laws and understand what the State of Texas must prove to convict you and possible defenses that may help you get your theft case dismissed.

You Had Consent To Take The Property

The prosecutor is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you intended to take the property without the effective consent of the owner. However, what if you had a reasonable belief that you did have consent to possess the property? What if the owner had allowed you to possess or use the property in the past and that could provide a good faith belief that you had the owner’s consent on this occasion?

We find this happens frequently in employer and employee relationships. During the good times, the employee had full authority to use the property and possess it. However, once the relationship goes sour, the employer starts claiming the employee did not return the work truck or used the company credit card when he was not supposed to; maybe he has tools that he wasn’t given permission to use – all examples of previous situations we have experienced. If you have previously had consent to possess, take or use the property, then it may be difficult for the prosecutor prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you took the property knowing you did not have consent.

You Had No Intent To Deprive The Owner Of The Property

What if you were borrowing the property? What if you had the property and you have evidence establishing that you intended to return the property? In this situation, it is critical that this evidence (text messages, emails, voice mails, etc.) be shared with your criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. If your theft case is a felony, your criminal lawyer can use this evidence to prepare a grand jury packet and possibly have your felony theft case no billed by a grand jury. If your theft case is a misdemeanor, your lawyer can use this evidence as leverage to negotiate a dismissal of the charges.