The Wilder Law Firm. DWI Lawyer We proudly serve clients throughout: Plano, TXDallas, TXCollin CountyDallas County When you are charged with a DWI (driving while intoxicated), you can face serious consequences such as fines, jail time, and license suspension.
But if your charge is incorrect, you shouldn’t have to face these penalties.If you have been pulled over for driving while intoxicated, call Wilder Law Firm to work with a DWI Lawyer in Dallas County, TX and Collin County, TX. Fielding a Few Questions About License Revocations for Failure to Appear and Comply – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. I wrote last week about the expiration of emergency orders that had temporarily halted clerks from reporting to DMV a person’s failure to appear or to pay monies owed in a Chapter 20 criminal or infraction case.
When DMV receives such a report, it imposes a license revocation pursuant to G.S. 20-24.1, unless the person does one of the following before the revocation goes into effect: disposes of the charge;demonstrates that he or she is not the person charged with the offense;pays the penalty, fine, or costs ordered by the court; ordemonstrates to the court that his failure to pay the penalty, fine, or costs was not willful and that he is making a good faith effort to pay or that the penalty, fine, or costs should be remitted.
Someone asked me recently about these sanctions for nonappearance and nonpayment — or incentives for appearance and payment — depending upon one’s perspective. What Is a Sexual Act? – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. What acts qualify as sexual acts?
For North Carolina criminal law purposes, it depends on the context. The words “sexual act” show up in several places in the General Statutes. In G.S. 14-27.20(4), sexual act is defined as cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus, anal intercourse, or the penetration of any object into the genital or anal opening of another person’s body, but not vaginal intercourse.
That definition applies for the purposes of Article 7B of Chapter 14, Rape and Other Sexual Offenses. News Roundup – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. As the Winston-Salem Journal reports, the death of John Neville at the Forsyth County Detention Center continued to animate calls for justice and accountability in Winston-Salem this week after surveillance video footage of the circumstances surrounding his death was made public.
People gathered in Bailey Park in the city’s downtown for a vigil honoring Neville where they sang songs and listened to remarks from three speakers. Keep reading for more on this story and other news. Neville. Roughly 45 minutes of video footage was made public and is posted on the Winston-Salem Journal’s website. The footage shows detention center staff responding to Neville’s cell where he had apparently suffered a seizure and fallen out of his bunk. Part of the footage shows several detention officers struggling to remove handcuffs from Neville while he is restrained face down in a holding cell following the medical emergency. Coronavirus Testing. Arson Threat Plea. North Carolina Court of Appeals (August 4, 2020) – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. This post summarizes opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on August 4, 2020. (1) Trial court did not commit plain error in instructing the jury regarding the charges of felonious child abuse by sexual act based on the pattern jury instruction providing a broader definition of sexual act than applies to offenses under Article 7B of Chapter 14; (2) Trial court did not commit plain error by failing to strike testimony from forensic interviewer that child made a tentative rather than a full disclosure; (3) Trial court did not commit a clerical error in sentencing the defendant to a maximum sentence that was calculated based on the minimum term actually imposed.
State v. Wohlers, ___ N.C. Meet Mary Pollard, the new Director of the Office of Indigent Defense Services – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. Yesterday, Mary Pollard began work as just the third Executive Director of the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS), which began its work two decades ago in 2000.
IDS is the statewide agency responsible for overseeing and enhancing legal representation for indigent defendants and others entitled to counsel under North Carolina law. Over the weekend, before she became deluged with her new responsibilities, Mary graciously agreed to do a quick interview with me. Read on to get to know a little more about her. Tell us about your legal background. I went to Wake Forest Law School, and after graduating in 1993 I went to work as an associate attorney at Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice in Winston-Salem and then Raleigh. Time is Up: Failures To Comply Are Once Again Reported – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. Among the Chief Justice’s early emergency directives and orders to address court operations in light of the COVID-19 outbreak were extensions for the time for paying monies owed in criminal cases.
Those directives, which extended the time for doing certain acts in criminal cases and directed clerks to delay the entry of reports of failures to comply, were extended and modified in subsequent orders. The upshot was that defendants ordered to pay sums that would have resulted in entry of a “failure to comply” and the assessment of additional costs (and, in Chapter 20 cases, a report to DMV that would trigger a license revocation) had until July 31, 2020 to pay monies owed without incurring those consequences. News Roundup – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. A fatal officer involved shooting in Roxboro last Friday has been in the news this week, setting off several days of demonstrations in the city and generating divided opinions about whether the use of deadly force was appropriate in the situation.
As ABC 11 reports, Roxboro police officers responded to a 911 call reporting that a man, later identified as David Brooks Jr., was walking down the street carrying a gun. Dash camera footage shows that the officers encountered Brooks, who was carrying a shotgun, and ordered him to drop the weapon. Soon thereafter, an officer shot Brooks once in the chest, possibly after Brooks made a movement with the shotgun. The SBI now is investigating the incident. Keep reading for more on this story and other news. New Legislation on Sex Offender Registration for Out-of-State Offenses – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. In a post last year, here, I discussed some of the issues related to sex offender registration for out-of-state offenses.
Among other things, I noted a federal case in which a registrant challenged the constitutionality of North Carolina’s process (or, really, lack of process) for determining whether a conviction from another state is substantially similar to a North Carolina crime requiring registration. A subsequent case prompted a legislative change that is the main subject of today’s post. The background rule at issue is in G.S. 14-208.6(4)b. No More Minors in Jails – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. Many people assumed that the implementation of raise the age on December 1, 2019 meant the end of confinement of anyone under 18 in a jail.
That was not the case. Even under our new legal framework for juvenile jurisdiction, some youth under 18 still have cases that are handled in criminal court from the very beginning. There is currently no legal mechanism to house these youth in a juvenile detention facility instead of a jail. This changes on August 1, 2020, when Part II of Session law 2020-83 takes effect. Learning Together To “Get It Right” – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. Since its founding in 2005, the mission of the Judicial College has been to provide “education and training to judicial branch personnel to develop the abilities and values necessary to provide justice.” In the nearly four years that I have been in my role, I’ve consistently encountered a similar dedication to learning and fairness expressed by our clients: the judges, magistrates, clerks, and other court officials of North Carolina.
The great news is that the individuals who make up our judiciary are working hard to do incredibly complicated and difficult jobs, and they want to “get it right.” The Wilder Law Firm. Case Summaries – North Carolina Court of Appeals (July 21, 2020) – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. This post summarizes opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on July 21, 2020. On the limited record before the Court of Appeals, the trial court did not err in finding that the defendant failed to make a prima facie claim under Batson. State v. Campbell, ___ N.C. App. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (July 21, 2020). This case involves a first-degree murder conviction previously upheld by the Court of Appeals, ___ N.C. News Roundup – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. Clashes between federal law enforcement agents and protesters in Portland, Oregon, have been major national news this week after reports emerged that, in addition to extensive use of tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets, there have been instances where unidentified federal agents in unmarked vans are arresting and interrogating people and later releasing them without filing criminal charges.
Details about the extent of the alleged practice are hard to come by at the time of this writing, but late last week Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Federal Protective Service arguing that the agencies’ actions are unconstitutional and asking for a temporary restraining order.
Keep reading for more on this story and other news. Fourth Circuit Confronts Issues of Race and Policing – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. 2020 has so far seen several court opinions addressing racial discrimination in criminal cases in one way or another. A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U.S. ___ (2020), struck down Louisiana’s practice of allowing non-unanimous jury verdicts, pointing to the law’s racist origins (Emily Coward blogged about the decision here).
In State v. Bennett, ___ N.C. ___, 843 S.E.2d 222 (June 5, 2020) and State v. Turning to policing, the Court of Appeals recently weighed in on civil liability and the police, with a divided panel finding excessive force claims against the officer could proceed and affirming the trial court. Changes in North Carolina Jail Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. We previously shared data on jail occupancy in North Carolina for 2018 (here) and 2019 (here). Responding to requests for information regarding changes in jail populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, with this report we offer information about 2020 jail populations.
For an explanation regarding our data source and explanatory notes, please see our prior reports. Before we get to the numbers, we make two important points. First, beginning on April 6, 2020, a moratorium was placed on most inmate transfers from county jails to the state prison system.[1] As our colleague Jamie Markham explained, state officials imposed that moratorium to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Statewide Occupancy Rates. New Emergency Directives: Facemasks Now, Jury Trials Later – North Carolina Criminal LawNorth Carolina Criminal Law. The Chief Justice entered two new emergency directives last week, requiring people in court facilities to wear face coverings and directing senior resident superior court judges to craft a plan for jury trials to resume in the fall.
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