Archives for: September, 2017

How to Defend against Texas Insurance Fraud Charges

Fraud | Insurance Fraud | White Collar Crimes

After Hurricane Harvey, Texas officials will be on the lookout for insurance fraud – and for good reason. Property insurance fraud is very common after hurricanes and other natural disasters, and this drives up the premiums for property owners simply looking to protect their assets.

If you find yourself under investigation or facing charges, it is vital that you act quickly to get a knowledgeable insurance fraud lawyer. Texas takes insurance fraud very seriously, with most cases charged as either high-level misdemeanors or felonies, dependent upon the value of the claim and other circumstances surrounding the alleged fraud. If convicted you could face jail time, steep fines and a criminal record that impairs your freedom long after you’ve paid [...]

When Can You be Charged with Theft in Texas?

Theft Crimes

In the aftermath of Harvey, police are on the lookout for looters and all other kinds of crimes. Law enforcement officials have learned since Hurricane Katrina that natural disasters lead to increased theft, and they are cracking down hard on theft crimes in Texas after Hurricane Harvey.

Case-in-point: more than 40 people have been arrested in Harris County for looting since the hurricane struck. Worse, if theft, robbery, burglary, or assault occur in a Texas county declared a disaster area by the governor, penalties are greatly increased. Some looters may face up to life in prison for a burglary charge, so it’s important to understand what qualifies as theft, the penalties associated with it, and the possible defenses you [...]

Which Crimes are Considered “Sexual Offenses” Under Texas Law?

Criminal Defense | Sex Crimes

Not all crimes are created equally. Being charged with assault is a far cry from facing sexual assault charges. Not only is there a stigma attached to sexual crimes that doesn’t come with most other illegal acts, in many cases you may find yourself up against additional penalties, including the possibility of having to appear on the sex offender registry.

Because of this, it is important to understand which offenses the State of Texas defines as sex crimes. Thankfully, the Texas legal system has a detailed list of exactly these offenses, including definitions of each.

Sex Crimes in Texas and How They are Defined

Here is a list of many of the sexual offenses included in the Texas penal codes[...]

For Texas Drug Charges, the Type of Drug Matters a Lot

Drug Crimes | Drug Trafficking

Texas takes drug offenses very seriously, and if you’re caught possessing, distributing, selling, manufacturing, or trafficking drugs, you could be facing severe penalties.

The penalties for drug crimes, however, depend on two major components: the type of drug in question and the amount of drugs that you are caught with.

On Thursday, August 17, 2017, 29-year-old Brady Gaisser of Fort Worth was arrested and accused not only of manufacturing and dealing excessive amounts of Carfentanil – “a drug 150 times more deadly than heroin” – but also of running “one of the largest North Texas Carfentanil processing labs in existence.”

At Gaisser’s processing lab in Burleson, Carfentanil was changed from one form – such as a powder – to [...]