Attorney Alexander B. Wathen's Legal Cases

Appeals

Azeez v. State

Mar 05, 2008

OUTCOME: Conviction reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

The defendant was charged with failure to appear. The charging instrument appeared to be under the Penal Code. Defendant argued that it should be under the Texas Transportation Code. The state argue ... d that the defendant was actually charged under a city ordinance. The Texas Court of Appeals for the Fourteenth District in Houston held that it actually was under the Transportation Code stating that neither the Penal Code nor the city ordinance applied in this situation. (Citation: 203 S.W. 3d 456). The only problem that the appellate court forgot about was that the fine was above the maximum allowed by the Transportation Code. Nonetheless, the appellate court denied a rehearing but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a petition for discretionary review. On March 5, 2008, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the lower courts holding that the defendant was charged under the Penal Code when he really should have been charged under the Transportation Code. This is an incredible victory for all failure to appear defendants in Texas as most failure to appear charges are under the wrong statute.

Bankruptcy and debt

Holder v. Texas Department of Public Safety

Sep 28, 2007

OUTCOME: Affirmed

The case was brought to get the Texas Department of Public Safety to comply with the Bankruptcy Code and stay surcharge suspensions of drivers licenses when there is a pending bankruptcy and to declare ... to what extent surcharges are dischargeable in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. While the court ruled that the stay violations were harmless and most of the surcharges are not dischargeable in a Chapter 7, which may force a lot of people into Chapter 13 to dishcarge surcharges, the case has created change in the Texas Department of Public Safety and forced them to comply with the Bankruptcy Code. Note that this decision is not a binding precdent and other judges can rule differently more in favor of the bankruptcy debtors.

Bankruptcy and debt

Darby v. Time Warner Cable

Nov 14, 2006

OUTCOME: Affirmed

This case has set the standard for what is a utility under the Bankruptcy Code. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that Section 366 the Bankruptcy Code gives special protect ... ion to debtors for utilitiy service because it is the necessity of such services that creates the special position that debtors are in vis-a-vis utilities. A party seeking to establish that a service is a utility must prove its necessity.

Speeding and traffic ticket

Jamshedji v. State

Jul 20, 2006

OUTCOME: Appeal dismissed

Mr. Jamshedji appealed his revocation of a deferred disposition (a form of probation) on the grounds that he was not afforded his proper constitutional rights during the revocation proceeding. The Tex ... as Court of Appeals for the Fourteenth District in Houston held that there is no right to a direct appeal from a revocation of a deferred disposition and that when a county court dismisses a case rather than affirms there is no right to appeal to a Texas Court of Appeals. This case has answered a couple of important questions about the right to appeal from a Texas justice court or municipal court. It has been cited as the gold standard. Post-conviction writs are now the only remedies available for a wrongfully conducted revocation proceeding.

Appeals

Sanchez v. State

May 20, 2004

OUTCOME: Conviction reversed and acquittal entered

The Texas Court of Appeals for the First District in Houston overturned Mr. Sanchez' conviction for failure to maintain proof of financial responsibility. When Mr. Sanchez was stopped the officer only ... asked him to produce "aseguranza" which is Spanish for insurance. The officer never asked for proof of financial responsibilty which are the magic words required by Texas law. The state argued that the law had changed but the appeals court agreed that the changes were not material and officers must still ask for proof of financial responsibility or the evidence will be insufficient. The reason for this is that there are other forms of financial responsibilty other than insurance such as surety bonds, deposits, and self-insurance and if the officer does not ask the right question then someone who has one of the other methods could be ticketed even though they are innocent.

Appeals

State v. Kassem

N/A

OUTCOME: Conviction Reversed

The Texas Court of Appeals for the First District reversed Mr. Kassem's conviction because the prosecutor had used all three of his peremptory strikes on African-American jurors and the trial judge did ... not require the prosecutor articulate race neutral reasons for the strikes.

Speeding and traffic ticket

Kassem v. State

N/A

OUTCOME: Reversal of conviction

The prosecutor used all three of his peremptory challenges to strike African-American jurors. The judge refused to disallow the strike arguing that the defendant was not of the same race as the strick ... en jurors and could therefore not complain about the strikes. The Texas Court of Appeals for the First District reversed the conviction on the basis that it is well established law that one can complain about racially movitated strikes regardless of the race involved.

Alexander B. Wathen's Legal Cases (7)

Azeez v. State

Holder v. Texas Department of Public Safety

Darby v. Time Warner Cable

Jamshedji v. State

Sanchez v. State

State v. Kassem

Kassem v. State