Recently while driving to a pre-trial hearing in Sierra Blanca, I stopped for gas in Van Horn, which lies 35 miles to the east of Sierra Blanca along Interstate 10 in far west Texas. As I got out of my car I counted 37 Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles in one motel parking lot. The longer I stayed, the more DPS cars I saw. As it was late in the evening, I noticed troopers standing by their patrol cars conversing with each other or with U.S. Border Patrol agents parked in their familiar green and white 4 wheel drive trucks.

Van Horn, a town of about a thousand people, is headquarters for border enforcement for over a thousand square miles of ruggedly beautiful desert adjoining the Mexican border. From Pecos on IH 20 to Sierra Blanca on IH 10, down to Fort Davis, Marfa, and Alpine in the Big Bend country, and then along IH 10 from Fort Stockton in Pecos County to Ozona in Crockett County to Sonora in Sutton County, the Texas troopers patrol the highways in search of illegal drugs and illegal aliens. As the speed limit is 80 mph for two hundred miles east of the El Paso County line, speeding tickets shouldn't generate too many traffic stops.

However, I spotted over a dozen troopers working the interstate between Pecos and Van Horn, a distance of about 85 miles. Some cars were cruising at below speed limit, and some were parked in the median or on the side of the road, usually at the bend of a winding stretch of IH 10 through the mountain passes.

On one of my trips through Van Horn, I happened to be present during a DPS shift change. I watched as troopers emerged from their motel rooms to start their patrol for the night. I have learned that DPS troopers come from all over Texas for their temporary duty in the trans Pecos desert. I was told by a local motel clerk that the Department of Public Safety even rotates the motels where the troopers are housed in order to accommodate the local businesses.

It is no wonder that the Culbertson County Courthouse is a busy place; it is also no wonder that the courthouses in Hudspeth, Brewster, Pecos, and Jeff Davis counties are busy places as well. This kind of activity also extends two hundred miles to the east as far as Ozona and Sonora, where prosecutors face dockets loaded with drug cases made by searches of cars on the interstate.

All of these remote little courthouses have crowded dockets of cases against young people from out-of -state who are charged with possession of small amounts of drugs and who have had to post bail and pay storage charges on their cars impounded after their arrest.

For these areas, business is booming.

Motions for Nondisclosure of Criminal Records became necessary as a response to the barrage of internet sites whose purpose was to make criminal records available to the general public. For many years before the internet explosion, the average client, as well as his lawyer, was secure in the assumption that upon successful completion of deferred adjudication any record would remain private. Some even mistakenly believed that an individual who had completed deferred was eligible for expunction of the arrest and conviction.

Unfortunately, this was not the case, and with the onslaught of internet providers,such records formerly kept hidden away in the courthouse were being placed on internet sites, and thus became easily available to potential employers, apartment complexes, schools, and even little league sports organizations doing background checks on potential coaches or volunteers.

With the support of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, a bill was finally passed by the Texas Legislature addressing the disclosure problems brought on by the internet age. The original bill has since been amended to shorten waiting periods for felony deferred adjudication, and to allow most misdemeanors to be nondisclosed immediately upon successful discharge of the deferred sentence.

The Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint is considered a "functional equivalent of the border", which allows Border Patrol and U.S. Customs agents to conduct searches of all vehicles going east or west along Interstate 10.

All I-10 traffic is routed through the checkpoint area where drivers are routinely asked the same sort of preliminary questions directed to anyone crossing the border into the United States. If the questioning agent becomes suspicious, the offending automobile is directed to pull over into another area and a search of the vehicle is conducted. Sometimes drug dogs are used to assist the agents.

When drugs are found, most cases are referred to the state for prosecution. The larger quantities become the responsibility of the feds, and are turned over to the DEA for presentation to the United States Attorney in Alpine, Texas.

The smaller cases go to the little courthouse in Sierra Blanca.

Sierra Blanca is remote, even for West Texas. But criminal defense attorneys like myself travel long distances, despite rising gas prices. I occasionally represent folks arrested at this very busy checkpoint, and have become quite familiar with the little adobe courthouse in Hudspeth County.

A person placed on Deferred Adjudication probation who is discharged after having successfully completed the term of community supervision may be eligible to petition the supervising court to order criminal justice agencies not to disclose the public criminal history record information related to the offense giving rise to the deferred adjudication.

In Texas, Deferred Adjudication is a term of community supervision imposed without a finding of guilt by the court. The defendant is later discharged without a final conviction upon successfully completing the terms and conditions of community supervision. It is distinguished from probation, as probation involves a final conviction and is not able to be expunged or nondisclosed.

There is no time period for filing a Motion for Nondisclosure of Criminal Record in most misdemeanor cases. Felonies have a 5 year wait after discharge by the court. Offenses involving family violence and sex offenses are not eligible for nondisclosure.

Most courts require a hearing, and rule on each case on its own individual merits. I do many of these for younger offenders who need clean records to go to school or find good jobs. It is such a good idea that I am surprised that our Legislature passed it.

The bad news is, it is hard to get. A person has to have been either acquitted by a judge or jury, or if convicted, subsequently pardoned. Or, an indictment or information has either not been presented or, if presented, was dismissed or quashed. Further, if these conditions for expunction do exist, the statute of limitations has to have already expired, or a court has to have found that such indictment was presented by fraud or by mistake.

Expunction is also available if the Defendant was released with no final conviction, and without having served any period of probation. Expunction is not available to anyone who received Deferred Adjudication or any form of Probation.

I get a lot of calls for Expunction these days, as criminal records are more public than ever before, and public records searches are commonly done by employers, apartment management, colleges, trade schools, and other such entities.

But the bottom line is this: if you were arrested and never went to court, chances are good you may be eligible for an Expunction of the arrest; if you went to court, however, you are probably out of luck, unless the case was dismissed.

In Texas, more people are killed by the state than in all the western and "first world" or modern countries, combined. It is only when we take into consideration 'third world" countries, in which human life is considered cheap and expendable, that the Lone Star State is eclipsed in its zest for the ultimate punishment.

Capital cases are prosecuted at the sole discretion of the local District Attorney, upon whom the decision lies whether to present a case as a death or non-death case. The most common Capital case is one involving a murder committed in the act of committing another felony;such as, robbery, sexual assault, or burglary, Later modifications of the law included serial killings and murder of a police officer or prison guard.

Harris County (Houston), America's 4th largest city, is the first city of the death penalty, "the capitol of capital cases". The Houston District Attorney's office had 6 death cases lined up and ready to go after the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of the practice of "lethal injection" used by Texas and other states.

So if someone is charged with the Bank Fraud, for instance, that person can also be charged with Conspiracy to commit Bank Fraud.

Conspiracy requires that two or more people conspire to commit a Federal crime, and that one or more of these individuals do any act (sometimes referred to as an overt act) to effect the object of the conspiracy.

To be charged with Conspiracy, therefore, two or more individuals must not only discuss,scheme, or otherwise plan to commit a Federal Crime, but one or more of them must do something to accomplish the goal or object of the conspiracy.

Federal Conspiracy Laws are a powerful tool in "White Collar" cases involving multiple parties and complex financial transactions.

The Court of Criminal Appeals also handles post-conviction writs of Habeas Corpus which are first filed in the court of conviction for "fact-finding" hearings. The results of these hearings are then forwarded by the District Judge to the Court of Criminal Appeals with a recommendation as to the action to be taken. The writ is also known as an "11.07 writ," shorthand for Rule 11.07 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, where the rules for filing this pleading are found.

Most people think of street crimes such as murder, robbery, theft, burglary, assault, sexual assault and the like when the term "Crime" is used. "White Collar" crimes usually refer to embezzlement, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, mortgage fraud, bank fraud, and many Federal conspiracy crimes.

Black's Law Dictionary further defines an indictment as "an accusation in writing found and presented by a grand jury, legally convoked and sworn, to the court in which it is impaneled, charging that a person therein named has done some act, or been guilty of some omission, which by law, is a public offense, punishable on indictment."

Old Constitutional law distinguished an indictment as being " preferred at the suit of the government, and is usually framed in the first instance by the prosecuting officer of the government, and by him laid before the grand jury, to be found or ignored."

In Texas, the District Attorney prepares the accusation and presents it to the Grand Jury through a state's witness, usually a law enforcement officer. The Grand Jury only has to find that a crime was probably committed, and that the person accused (in the written accusation prepared by the prosecutor) probably did it.

The Indictment is the first step into the system for a person accused of a crime. The process has begun whereby the case goes to a District Court, attorneys are retained or appointed by the court, and the person becomes a "Defendant" to be tried by a jury or a judge.

A subpoena is issued by the clerk of the court where the appearance of the witness is required, upon the application of the attorney for the party requesting the subpoena.

I presented hundreds of such cases in my 12 year stint with the United States Attorney's office in Houston. In these cases, evidence is presented in the form of "hearsay" testimony from a testifying agent with knowledge of the particular case. Many times in large jurisdictions such as the Southern District of Texas, over a dozen cases will be presented during a day's session. I have seen cases where over 35 indictments were returned at one session. These sessions are recorded by a court reporter; however, the accused is not entitled to a lawyer in the room during the presentation of evidence and certainly not during the Grand Jury's deliberation. The accused may request to be heard by the Grand Jury,but defense attorneys must wait outside. A helpful link to find a good outline of how a Federal Grand Jury works can be found at the University of Dayton's website entitled Federal Grand Juries.

A second purpose of a Federal Grand Jury is to serve as an investigative tool of the United States Department of Justice. Local United States Attorneys, as well as Justice Department prosecutors based in Washington, D.C., can utilize the Grand Jury process to conduct investigations of complex "white collar" crimes involving public corruption, Federal Mortgage Fraud (involving Federal agencies such as HUD or FHA or VA), as well as Mail Fraud, Money Laundering, Bank Fraud, and Conspiracy. A Federal Grand Jury has broad subpoena powers to compel the production of documents such as bank records, corporate records, ledgers, computer hard drives, and other materials in addition to live witnesses. The Government can extend the life of the Grand Jury if necessary to complete a lengthy investigation. Some of the cases in which I was involved lasted over two years. Sometimes prosecutors find it necessary to empanel a brand new Grand Jury and then present testimony in summary form from the last Grand Jury, in order to keep the investigation going forward after the term of the previous Grand Jury has expired.

Any individual who receives a subpoena from a Federal Grand Jury should contact an experienced Federal Criminal Defense Attorney immediately.

Federal Mortgage Fraud ranges from deliberate overstatement of income by borrowers in order to qualify for larger mortgage loans, to complex schemes by multiple parties to defraud lenders of large amounts of cash. These indictments involve borrowers, lenders, appraisers, real estate brokers, loan brokers, bankers, and, yes, even attorneys.

Mortgage Fraud Rings will use a "straw borrower" with a good credit report together with an appraiser to overstate the value of the mortgaged property, along with a participating property owner and a dishonest attorney to prepare duplicate sets of HUD closing documents. Some of these complex white collar frauds can go on for a number of years and involve many different parties. For example, a recent case in California has resulted in a guilty plea by a mortgage company loan officer to lying under oath to a Federal Grand Jury in connection with a mortgage fraud investigation extending from 2001 to 2006. In that case, the loan officer had lied about taking over $100,000 from a mortgage broker to process fraudulent loan applications referred by the broker.

Some Federal Districts have been prosecuting cases involving multiple loans taken out by a buyer or buyers for the same house at the same time. After funding, the buyer often leaves the country with the money. This practice is often referred to as "Shotgunnning".

"Cash Back" schemes are another method of mortgage fraud where a buyer and seller or buyer and real estate agent conspire to deceive the lender as to the sale price of the mortgaged property, and then the buyer gets a cash kickback which of course is not disclosed to the lender.

Federal Mortgage Fraud cases can also involve failure to disclose liabilities and overstatement of income by mortgage applicants. These type cases can insnare the unwary applicant who might lack any criminal intent, but who might find himself the subject of a Federal Indictment because of a "puffed up" financial statement or a sloppy or inflated Mortgage application.

All of the Federal Judicial Districts in Texas have a number of these cases on their dockets, and the FBI is busily investigating many others. They are expensive to defend, and must have proper investigation and preparation by competent white-collar defense attorneys skilled and experienced in these areas. As is the case with all white-collar cases, a good lawyer should be contacted as soon as an individual thinks he or she may be a target of such an investigation.

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