Beat The Rap
Defending The Accused in the Modern World
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 By Q. Tate Williams
I knew it was going to be a rough day when the almost 17 hands tall thoroughbred gelding bit me after I gave him a carrot this morning. I thought curry-combing and brushing him before I saddled might ...
Continue reading "Getting Back On" »
Posted on Jan 19, 2012 By Q. Tate Williams
Former Mississippi Governor, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and of the Republican Governor's Association, Haley Barbour, has been at the center of a firestorm of criticism and ...
Continue reading "Unpardonable Criticism" »
Posted on Jan 15, 2012 By Q. Tate Williams
This week a former employee of the Austin Police Department's crime lab filed a complaint with authorities claiming, the Austin American Statesman reports , "lab administrators do not have ...
Continue reading "You Can't Take Crime Labs' Word For It" »
Posted on Jan 7, 2012 By Q. Tate Williams
A 19 year old Houston woman, Rebecca Bowman, was arrested late last night for intoxication manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid. Bail was set in each case at $50,000, for a total of ...
Continue reading "A Tough Call" »
Posted on Jan 2, 2012 By Q. Tate Williams
According to the information available from the District Clerk's web site , more than a hundred people were arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI or DUI) and related crimes over ...
Continue reading "100+ Houstonians Ring In New Year with a DWI Arrest (Updated)" »
Posted on Dec 21, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
The local Fox affiliate reported Monday night that Harris County is accepting bids to privatize the Harris County Jail, including one from the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Problems with ...
Continue reading "Prison Profiteers Coming to Town? (Updated)" »
Posted on Dec 14, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
Today, the Houston Chronicle, citing TXDoT, reported that in 2010 there were 3,409 cell phone related accidents with 46 fatalities. The article was about the unlikelihood of Texas following the ...
Continue reading "Texas Likely to Ignore NTSB on Cell Phones" »
Posted on Dec 8, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
A jury of twelve people, who had no reasonable doubt about LaDondrell Montgomery's guilt, got it wrong. He was in jail when the robbery they convicted him of last month occurred. (Chronicle Story ...
Continue reading "Oops!...We Did it Again" »
Posted on Dec 6, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
I recently told a jury in opening statements that they, "would see a video-recorded walk-through of the home the day after the fire, showing nothing packed, a cell phone still on a bedside table ...
Continue reading "Video Evidence - Don't Ask, Don't Tell" »
Posted on Dec 5, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
It's often said that a DWI arrest can happen to anyone, and does. This past weekend both the current head of the Federal Aviation Adminstration (FAA), Randy Babitt , and 2010 Miss USA, Rima Fakih ...
Continue reading "Beauty Queen Blows, Texans Probably Shouldn't" »
Posted on Dec 2, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
The extent to which this blog will comment on the race for Harris County District Attorney (as if anyone cares what I think) is to make the following observations about matters that will affect ...
Continue reading "Gov. Perry Will Decide Republican DA Primary, Not Cops" »
Posted on Dec 1, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
News reports indicate that Dennis Earley and Paulette Parsons, an Alabama couple, are being held in the Liberty County Jail after allegedly leading police on a high speed chase in a stolen car that ...
Continue reading "Two for the Road" »
Posted on Nov 30, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
It seems I'll never get away from the "Candy Man." Dean Corll , the so-called "Candy Man," was a serial killer Northwest Houston parents used for years as a cautionary tale to ...
Continue reading "Candy Man Cases Still Being Unwrapped" »
Posted on Nov 22, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
A Fort Bend County man accused of a nearly decade old murder was granted reasonable bail because he was not indicted within ninety days of his arrest. The trial court judge followed Texas law when ...
Continue reading "Reasonable Bail Is a Right, Not a Mistake (Updated)" »
Posted on Nov 21, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
Large amounts of drugs detected by drug-sniffing dogs are frequently the subject of news reports like this one from today's Houston Chronicle. The police apparently failed to inform to the ...
Continue reading "Fruit of the Poisonous Traffic Stop" »
Posted on Nov 15, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
The Harris County District Attorneys Office's DIVERT Program, a pre-trial intervention style program for qualifying DWI Defendants, has been praised by a variety of parties, including the ...
Continue reading "DIVERT Program Found Unconstitutional (Updated)" »
Posted on Nov 11, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
There are libraries of books about the Great War, about the generation it killed and the generation that survived, perhaps neither understanding what it was about and the latter knowing only for ...
Continue reading "Remembering Armistice Day" »
Posted on Nov 8, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
The controversey surrounding the Houston Police Department's BAT Vans and alleged DA's office cover-up is but one reminder that area prosecutors regularly have to contend with news of police ...
Continue reading "Bad Cops Make Good Jurors" »
Posted on Nov 2, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
A California man accused in Federal Court of hacking into the online accounts of numerous celebrities entered a plea of not-guilty today. His bond was set at $110,000. According to an article in the ...
Continue reading "Feds Target Johansson Hacker, Still Ignore Wall Street" »
Posted on Nov 1, 2011 By Law Offices of Q. Tate Williams
Playwright George Bernard Shaw supposedly quipped, "Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language." A recent article on mandatory sentencing in England and Wales from ...
Continue reading "Separated by More than a Common Language" »
Posted on Oct 26, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
The Houston Chronicle reports that a grand jury empaneled by the 185th District Court has requested the appointment of a special prosecutor and an extension of its term. Speculation by the paper and ...
Continue reading "Much Ado About Nothing? (Updated)" »
Posted on Oct 26, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
Revelations about the cause of the death of singer Amy Winehouse may help put Texas DWI laws into context. According to a CNN.com article today , The pathologist's tests revealed that ...
Continue reading "Winehouse Pathology Illuminates DWI Laws" »
Posted on Oct 1, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
As noted in an earlier post , the Wall Street Journal has lately taken up the crusade against overcriminalization in a series that began with the July 23 article, "As Criminal Laws Proliferate, ...
Continue reading "WSJ Looks Out for Its Own" »
Posted on Sep 22, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
On Wednesday, the State of Georgia executed Troy Davis for his part in the death of an off-duty police officer. MSNBC had hours of coverage across various shows. The Vatican weighed in. The foreign ...
Continue reading "A Tale of Two Executions" »
Posted on Sep 20, 2011 By Q. Tate Williams
Ordinary drivers involved in collisions or who commit traffic violations at night on busy streets are often investigated by HPD for driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence. HPD ...
Continue reading "Houston Police Driving the News" »