So You Got Arrested

Texas Probation Violations: What Happens When You're Arrested?

• BRCK Criminal Defense Attorneys

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0:00 | 30:34

The Texas justice system can be complex, especially when dealing with probation. In this episode of "So You Got Arrested," BRCK criminal defense attorneys break down the ins and outs of probation, focusing specifically on what happens when a violation of probation—also known as a Motion to Revoke (MTR) or a Motion to Adjudicate (MTA)—is filed.

We clarify the difference between the two main types of probation—Deferred Adjudication (where successful completion leads to dismissal) and Regular/Straight Probation (where you are already convicted and a sentence is suspended)—and how a violation affects each one differently, including the maximum potential punishment.

Key Topics Covered:

  • 🛑 What is Probation? Understanding "Community Supervision" and the conditions you must follow.
  • 🚨 The Revocation Process: From a minor violation (like a dirty UA) to the warrant, no-bond status, and the attorney's role in securing a bond.
  • 💰 Failure to Pay vs. Failure to Report: The critical difference and why stopping supervision fees won't revoke your probation, but stopping reporting will.
  • 🔒 Deferred vs. Regular Probation Consequences: The "all or nothing" stakes of Deferred Adjudication (potential for full range of punishment, including 99 years for a First Degree Felony) versus the caps on Regular Probation (maximum 10-year sentence).
  • ⚖️ The MTR Hearing: Your rights, the lack of a jury, and the lower "Preponderance of the Evidence" burden of proof (the 51% test) compared to "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt."
  • 📝 Pleading True with an Explanation: Strategies for admitting minor violations while seeking a non-revocation outcome.
  • 🚫 Technical vs. New Crime Violations: Why absconding (failure to report) and committing new offenses (Number One violations) are the most serious, and what to do about pending charges.
  • ✅ The Judge's Options: What the judge can do at the conclusion of an MTR hearing, including revoking probation, converting Deferred to Regular Probation, or imposing a jail sanction (up to 180 days) as a condition of continuance.

If you are facing charges or need to understand your rights, options, and the smart moves that could change everything after an arrest or probation violation, this is the essential guide you need.

Setting The Stage: Your Rights

SPEAKER_00

We talk to the people who've lived it, worked in it, and been shaped by it. Whether you're facing charges or just want to understand your rights, your options, and the smart moves that could change everything, we've got your back.

SPEAKER_03

Scott, one of the things that I wanted to talk about was probation and specifically what happens when you have a violation of probation that you know it's otherwise known as a motion to revoke or a motion to adjudicate.

SPEAKER_01

If you would just kind of explain what is probation? Okay, so probation, we use that term for two different things. One, you can either be on deferred adjudication, meaning that if you complete it successfully, the case will show is dismissed, and you can honestly say there's not a conviction, or you're on regular probation, which means you've already been convicted and it limits what the punishment can be.

SPEAKER_03

And when you're on these probations, whether it's a deferred adjudication or a regular, but sometimes referred to as strict probation, uh, you have all these conditions you have to follow. Right. And what happens is, you know, the idea of probation is you're it's also called community supervision because you're allowed to remain in the community. You're not being incarcerated, you're not being locked up, you're allowed to remain in the community so long as you follow certain conditions and you're being supervised. But when you violate one of those conditions, it triggers a process.

Violations, Warrants, And Bonds

SPEAKER_01

Right. And so, so sometimes a lot of times when you violate that the your probation officer may not file a motion to revoke. He may just say, say you're doing regular P tests and you tested positive for marijuana. He may say, When's the last time you smoked? Oh, a couple weeks ago. And it because marijuana stays in your system for 30 days. Right. Okay. And so they may not initially file a motion to revoke probation. But if the problem continues eventually, they're gonna file a motion. The DA has to sign it, and the and if the DA and judge both sign that violation of probation, a warrant goes out for your arrest. You're initially, usually that warrant is in comes with no bond. So your attorney has to go get a bond set. Now, you're not entitled to a bond if you're on regular probation, straight probation. Because you've already been convicted. Correct. But a lot, but usually we can get you a bond anyway. At least our our office can. I don't know if everybody can, but but but uh on deferred, you're entitled to a bond. Right.

SPEAKER_03

Because you're not convicted, the case is still technically unadjudicated.

SPEAKER_01

But in uh in Bear County, a lot of the times, even though you're on deferred, initially that motion to revote comes out with remand without bond, and the attorney has to go get the judge to set a bond, but the judge will set a bond because they have to.

SPEAKER_03

Let me ask you this, because I know in the jurisdiction where you know I practiced for a long time south of Bear County, prior to that motion to revoke being issued, they would have like an administrative hearing in office with probation where maybe they would tell the probationer, hey, you keep testing positive for meth or whatever it is. We would like you to attend rehab. And then if the probationer says, no, I'm not gonna do that, then it triggers the motion to revoke. Do they have a process like that in Bird County?

Administrative Sanctions And Officer Discretion

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they do. Uh it's just haphazard depending on which judge, every judge does it a little bit differently. Okay. And of course, each probation officer handles it a little differently. So what I always tell my clients when they're on probation, some probation officers are pleasant, some probation officers are jerks. Doesn't matter. You bet, yeah, you better get along well with your probation officer. Right. So so there's a possibility that they're gonna just add conditions without putting out the warrant I talked about. So the conditions might be go to rehab. Go to rehab, or you know, initially maybe it's just like seek outpatient treatment, and then if you don't go, or they may say, We're gonna you're gonna have to come in instead of monthly UAs, you're gonna have to come in every week. Right, right. And we have people who can't who who don't submit the the urine sample, because it's like it's like 15 bucks every time you do a UA, and they don't and they don't go submit because they don't have the$15. And they won't let them do it, by the way, without the money. Right, right. And so we get people, and you get the violation shows violated condition number two, which is using substance, but they didn't really violate it. There's not a positive UA, it shows failed to submit on the violations. Right. So it's kind of chicken shit in a in a way, but but but uh but this is the the real reality of the situation.

Money Problems And Failed Reporting

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And and you know, there there's so many things that you raise an interesting point. Um, because when people are on probation, a lot of times the what happens is they may have a minor violation, um, like Scott mentioned, where maybe they didn't have the money to pay for the UA. And so they just, you know, whatever. Or maybe they didn't pay their fine. Okay, you know, but because of that minor violation, they quit reporting. Exactly. And and can you explain what happens at that point?

SPEAKER_01

So I think it's important for all attorneys to tell this to their clients because what happened, I've you and I, we've seen it a hundred times. They're not paying their supervisory fee. When you go into probation, you have to pay like$40 to$60 supervisory fee every month, and you have to pay your fine and court costs. Well, they don't have any money because they can't get a job because they had a criminal case. Right, right. Right. And so they're reporting, they're doing what they're supposed to do, but they the probation officer keeps saying, Yeah, I gotta start paying money. If you don't start paying money, I'm gonna revoke you. And then next thing you know, they stop showing up. No one will ever revoke your probation because you haven't paid money. We don't have debtors' prison here in the United States. In fact, it's a defense. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

If you're if you're indigenous, um, they cannot hold the fact that you haven't paid your fines and your fees against you during a probation revocation proceeding.

SPEAKER_01

But once you get afraid because they told you they're gonna re issue a warrant because you're behind on fees and you stop reporting, they will revoke your probation. That is perhaps the most serious violation. Yeah, well, the most serious ones to commit a new crime. Sure, but but failure to report is up there. Because it's one of the simplest ones to do. If you're not gonna do that one, you probably aren't gonna go to rehab either or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03

So we were talking about, you mentioned um, you know, the two different types of probation. You can be on this deferred adjudication or you can be on regular probation. One of the things that's interesting is that when your deferred adjudication, I've always explained it to clients as it's all or nothing, right? Because on deferred adjudication, if you successfully complete it, that case is dismissed. Um, and you can say, hey, I've never been convicted of an offense. But if you violate it and the violation is serious enough, and the judge goes ahead and you know finds the violation to be true and adjudicates you, you are now subject to the entire range of punishment for that offense, you know, up to the maximum amount of punishment. But it might be different on straight probation, right?

SPEAKER_01

Right. So, so, and let's talk about it in terms of felonies. Okay. Because there's not too much difference between misdemeanor, regular uh, but so if if I have a third-degree drug case, okay, uh, and so I have regular probation, four years suspended, probated for four years. If I've violated my probation, the most the judge can give me is four years. Right. Because on regular probation, you're actually sentenced to time, right?

SPEAKER_03

But then the judge suspends the sentence and puts you on probation.

SPEAKER_01

And what we're used to is usually the underlying sentence, the first number, is kind of the same as the time on probation, but it doesn't have to be. Right. You could be uh sometimes what I used to do as a prosecutor, I'd be like, I I don't I hated when prosecutors wanted to put you on 10 years probation. That's the maximum term of probation. Right. Nobody the probation office isn't equipped to have people on that long. Right. So so it's from the minimum is two years, the maximum is 10 years. Right. Right. And so, you know, g give me five years probation, and then they'd say, Well, okay, but I want the the biggest underlying sentence, 10 years. And if I and if the defense attorney said to me, Well, I don't want him to have a a high underlying sentence, I'm like, You're saying he's not gonna do well in probation? Is that what you're telling me? Because because you shouldn't get you should want the and so I kind of want a high underlying sentence. Sure. But but most times in Bear County, in smaller jurisdictions, it's different. But most times in Bear County, the judges like the underlying sentence to be the same as the length of probation.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't they just like it like that because it just confuses people. I don't know why. Yeah, but so on deferred, so I always told I saw somebody yesterday when I was in court get put on deferred for a first degree felony, and that scares the piss out of me. I I never like to put my client on deferred because a first degree felony is punishable by five to ninety-nine. If you mess up your probation, you can be revoked and get 99 years. Right, right. So that makes me nervous. Right.

Why Some Charges Only Get Deferred

SPEAKER_03

Whereas if they were on straight probation, right, the most you could get is 10 years. Because the the way it works here in the state of Texas is for regular probation, you're not eligible if you have more than a 10-year sentence. So keep in mind, regular probation, the judge is actually sentencing you to time. Um, but if they sentence you to anything more than 10 years, you're ineligible. So on regular probation, the most amount of time you could get on a violation is the underlying sentence. And the biggest number that could be is 10 years.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Now, now the other caveat to all that is the reason some of these guys are getting deferred education for first degree. They're being set up. No, but they can't they can't get regular probation. No, I I get that.

SPEAKER_03

But I I've literally had prosecutors say uh to each other, I'm gonna offer his guy deferred because I know his guy's gonna screw it up and it's easier for us to get him into prison.

SPEAKER_01

And we can get a high sentence. That's it. But so so if you have an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, you can only get deferred adjudication. There's certain crimes that we've discussed in other podcasts. Sex offenses. Yeah, offenses, violent crimes, anything involving a weapon, where uh for I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the law doesn't let you get regular probation. You can only get deferred adjudication. Right. Okay. And so that's why you're stuck with on it. If you have an aggravated assault, that's two to twenty. So you can't get regular probation because if you're convicted, you have to go to prison. Right. So you can get four years, five years, six years deferred adjudication. But if you mess it up, you're looking at two to twenty. Now we are fortunate in in Bear County that there's not many judges who are maxing people out on revocations. But if you get into stuff the Hill Country or your county, they're judges that if you mess up that deferred, you're looking at the max. Right, right. That's exactly right. Is that like common in in in Lake Wilson or Atuscosa? Or what's going on with that?

Plea Deals On Revocations: Judge Power

SPEAKER_03

No, um, the judges are usually pretty good in that they're not automatically going to max you out. You know, one of the things that I wanted to ask you about um is on a revocation of probation. I don't know the policy in Bear County. Like I know, for example, south of Bear County and what we call the 81st, Wilson County, Carnes County, Abuskosa, you can have a plea bargain right on a motion to revoke, meaning you've revoked your probation. Um, now they're trying to figure out what to do. Maybe the violation's clear, right? Maybe since then you've been convicted of a new offense. Um, maybe you didn't report for a year, you what we call absconded. Now you're back in court, we're trying to decide how to fix this. And uh you can actually negotiate an outcome with the prosecution and go to the judge and say, judge, we have this agreement either on a sentence or that this guy's gonna go to rehab or whatever it is. I know some judges don't allow that. Some judges, you're on their probation and they're gonna decide what happens.

SPEAKER_01

So as we sit now, all the judges in Bear, all the felony judges in Bear County will uh uh uh go along with the plea agreement, okay? But they will tell you ahead of time they don't have to. In other words, unlike a plea, where if the judge doesn't go along with it, you can withdraw your plea. Uh on an MTR, once you plea true and you're pleaing true to getting revoked and getting four years' prison, if the judge decides to give you eight, you're stuck like Chuck.

SPEAKER_03

You can't withdraw your plea and say, well, that violated the plea bargain agreement.

SPEAKER_01

Right. No, you're you and the judge and so we don't have that ability. But in Bear County, all the judges currently, right now, have been honoring those types of agreements. Okay. We used to have a couple judges in district court who would tell you right up front, you can't negotiate, you're either pleading true or it's set for a contested, because I don't care what the state says. This is my probation.

SPEAKER_03

That was my experience. My experience was that hey, they don't allow play bargains here. You're just at the mercy of whatever the judge is.

What Counts As A Serious Violation

SPEAKER_01

No, those judges aren't around anymore. The couple who did that uh aren't doing that anymore. Uh, but it is uh a more you have to go in with eyes wide open. Right. And when so a new what we call a new there's two types of violations, technical violations and non-technical violations or new number ones, yeah. And they're called number ones because it the by the first condition of probation is not to commit new crimes. So if you commit a new crime, they don't have to, you're not entitled to a jury trial on that issue. I just had that play out. Yeah, I I I saw that.

SPEAKER_03

And and so, yeah, it it is different because um you when you get placed on probation, you have a list of like 20 different rules that you have to follow, right? And violation, you shouldn't violate any of the rules, right? But there are some violations that are much more serious than others. And you know, in my experience, the most serious violations are gonna be violations of either one, you committed a new offense, right? That that's very serious. Now, I always get this question well, what if I get a speeding ticket? Yeah, no big yeah. That's not gonna be a big deal. Um, what I always tell people is look, you need to be concerned about something that you're getting arrested for. That's gonna be a problem for your probation. Um, in my experience, the second most serious type of violation is failure to report. Now, if you have a month where maybe you didn't report because you were sick or you didn't have a ride, usually that's not a huge issue. But once you fail to report and you become an absconder where you're you haven't reported in six months, usually the end result of that is prison, unless you have a very good reason why you haven't been reporting for six months. And then the other big one that I see is if you're consistently testing positive for drugs, um, usually they'll give you some kind of rehabilitation first. They'll, you know, that is kind of a progressive sanction. They start off with some rehab, but if you just keep testing positive, testing positive, despite rehabilitation, despite inpatient treatment, at some point they will revoke your probation and send you away. But then you have these other conditions that you have to follow where you shouldn't violate them. But if you do, it it's not as likely that you're gonna end up going to prison for it, you know.

Classes That Matter: BIP And Leverage

SPEAKER_01

Like associate, you're not supposed to associate with other felons. So, but we have a lot of like somebody I had just just now, uh, I just got her continued and she went home, but her boyfriend's also on probation. Okay. But there's an exact there, they're okay. The probation knows that these two are together, uh, but in theory, being living with another felon could be a violation. Right. But there's one other thing could I gotta say about conditions. So, for instance, if you're on for a domestic violence probation and you pick up a violation, the first thing, all the first thing all the judges in Bear County ask is, did you complete the batter's intervention course? Right. And if you completed it, you get a lot of leeway on that motion remote. And I've hired judges like, oh wow, they completed that. It's called the BIP. Yeah, call it the BIP. Uh, and and so you are in good shape on that motion revoke if you've done that. That's the first thing I ask my clients. So you do the BIP. And if they've done it, we are we are walking into court knowing at least my guy did what the judge cares so much about. And the reason they care so much about it is because we know from statistics that people are less likely to re-offend once they've completed the BIP.

SPEAKER_03

Well, so I want to talk about the process and the procedure of the actual motion to revoke the hearing, but we'll do that after the break.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. We're just running late, late, late today.

SPEAKER_02

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SPEAKER_03

So there's a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to the actual hearing for the motion to revoke. So this is a situation where they say you violated your probation, um, you can't get it resolved with the prosecution, and now we're just putting it in the hands of the judge, right? So you you're entitled to a hearing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And do you kind of want to talk through what's involved in the hearing? So so what I try to tell my clients is the judge is going to want some type of punishment for violating it. So if I'm going to be successful in getting you continued on probation, they're probably going to want like a 30-day sanction or a 60-day sanction. So sometimes it's better not to bond out on your motion to revoke. Build up that to build up some time. Uh, but but every judge is different and every judge cares uh about different things. Okay. So we have, but we I I tell you this, we have some very um empathetic judges in Bear County that if you have problems with your life and you're able to successfully say, here's why I stopped reporting, judge, because I I knew I wasn't able to pay. And the judge will tell give them the same lecture I do. Well, if you didn't pay, I wouldn't have revoked you. You shouldn't have stopped showing up. That's right. But but if if so, what I have to find out from my client is I'm not just gonna stand up there and say, Judge, please continue my client. I need to know why.

SPEAKER_03

What's going on? I when so back when I used to do uh a lot of court-appointed work, I would have clients who were homeless. Yeah. And they were on probation and they weren't reporting, but I mean they had no transportation, they had no place to live.

SPEAKER_01

And so, you know We are so blessed in this county in in your jurisdiction and my jurisdiction. We have judges who are pretty kind. I I like that they're not just like throw everybody away.

Burden Of Proof: 51 Percent

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. They'll take the individual circumstances into consideration. But when you're having one of these hearings and they're trying to take away your probation, you do have rights. I mean, you you don't have to go along with what the state's recommending. Right. You can have what we call a contested hearing. And that contested hearing is like a miniature trial, but it's not really a trial because your rights are different. Okay. So, first of all, um, the burden of proof is different on a motion to revoke. It's just by preponderance. Okay. So do you want to explain what that is?

SPEAKER_01

Or I don't even know if I can adequately explain preponderance. So it's just more likely than not that you violate it.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right. So if if you go to trial on a new case, that the burden of proof is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, meaning the prosecution has to put on so much evidence that that jury or that judge is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt you committed that offense. But in a motion to revote, preponderance of the evidence, we just kind of I call it the 51% test.

Strategy: Plead True With Limits

SPEAKER_01

So so but the so that's the hard part about a contested hearing. A lot of times we plead true with an explanation because like if they didn't report from March of 2025 until they were arrested in November of 2025, I'm not sure what I'm not sure they're gonna have trouble proving that. All they do is they bring the probation officer and says, the last time I saw this guy in my office is in March of 2025. I'm like, and do you see that guy in the in the courtroom today? Yeah, he's that guy over there. Okay. And so, like, and I've had I've never had a client try to tell me why when, and they're I don't know why they're saying that they'll say, like, yeah, no, I I was afraid and I didn't go. So sometimes we plead true, but we don't want to go along with what the prosecutor wants. Sure. So we call it pleading true with an explanation. That's right. We're not gonna agree. To revocation, you prosecutor, ask for whatever you're going to ask for. Right. We're going to plead true to it. But there's also a lot of times you have multiple violations. So you might have didn't report, didn't do a class, did some of your community service. So we may plead true to certain violations and not true to others. We may plead true to all the technicals and not true to the new offense.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and and one of the things that clients are surprised to find out sometimes when we have these motion to revoke hearings is that you don't get a jury. No. It's solely in the hands of the judge. So it's it's you know, people go into these things thinking it's like a, you know, you get a jury trial and you get all of these, it's a complete, it's an by according to the Texas courts and according to Texas law, a motion to revoke hearing is more of an administrative process than it is just a brand new criminal proceeding.

SPEAKER_01

And we also get, and and we we don't get this on people that we've put on probation because we're good at explaining it, but you get that you have you've had that client who says, I shouldn't have taken the plea to begin with, and I want to argue about you shouldn't be on probation, and you're specifically not allowed to do that.

SPEAKER_03

Does the judge know that I didn't do it? And it's like, well, you're already on probation.

New Offenses And Lower Standards

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we're not gonna argue that. Okay, because the plea paperwork you signed says if you violate the probation, you're only entitled to a hearing on the sole issue of whether you violated the probation. You cannot go back and argue that you didn't commit the crime that you've been put on probation for. Right, right. And and there's a lot of people who don't get that.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right. And and so the the motion to revoke probation in that hearing, you know, like Scott was mentioning, can oftentimes be a much easier proceeding for the prosecutors than you know, them proving a whole new case in the middle of a jury trial, right? Right. And so uh I had a case recently where my client was alleged to have committed two new offenses. Um, and so they were trying to revoke his probation, and those were his only violations. And, you know, they were gonna try to prove that these offenses occurred, but it's a different standard than uh prosecutor trying to prove it at a jury trial. And so it makes it much more difficult to defend.

When Prosecutors Prepare: No Deals

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so so this is an interesting story when there is another judge who's no longer sitting on the bench in the 144th, not Susan Reed after after that, who uh he was on probation for some kind of second-degree drug case. We went to trial on a judge was on probation. No, no, that I had as a prosecutor, I was prosecuting this guy uh for a sex crime. Okay. But he was already on probation for a drug case. He was found not guilty of the of the sex of the sex case, but the judge still revoked his probation. Used the sex case to revoke his probation. Because it's a lower standard of proof. Oh, wow. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's a whole that probably would take us like 20 minutes to explain all that. But but because you could be found not guilty of a new crime, but the sinces are a lower burden of proof, right? The judge could still make a determination that he thinks you were guilty of it and revoke your probation based on the example that I give to kind of shed some light on this is think about the O.J.

SPEAKER_03

Simpson trial.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, the O.J. Simpson, you know, criminal trial, O.J. Simpson is ultimately acquitted of murder, right, of Ron Goldman. But then the Goldman family sues O.J. Simpson in civil court and he's found liable for the death of Ron Goldman in the civil suit. The difference being that in that criminal trial, the burden of proof on the state, on Marcia Clark, uh, was proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And in that civil suit, the burden of proof was preponderance of the evidence. Same burden for a motion to revoke. That's exactly right. So that's how OJ Simpson could be acquitted of the criminal act, but found, you know, legally responsible for the civil act of wrongful death. It's that it's the same kind of thing that applies in a motion to revoke hearing. And people get frustrated with it, but but but that's law.

SPEAKER_01

Right. So in the old days, some judges, if you had a new crime, they wouldn't let the prosecutor put it on in a motion to revoke, he'd say, No, you're entitled to I'm you we're gonna try the new number one, right? And then we'll see what happens with the motion to revoke afterwards. But those days have gone.

Protecting Other Cases When Pleading

SPEAKER_03

Well, there was a change in the law. So it it used to be the case that if a prosecutor tried to prove the new offense during a motion to revoke and you won, then that kept the state from trying that new number one. It was a defensive thing called collateral estoppel, but then they changed the law that said that no longer applies. So I think nowadays you're more likely to see a prosecutor to try to prove that new offense during a motion to revoke than you know, maybe you would be in the past.

SPEAKER_01

And so a lot of times what we see here is somebody's on probation in Bear County or Wilson County, but they picked up a new crime in Uvaldi County. Right. So then the question becomes is the prosecutor going to go to the effort of getting the police officers here from Uvaldi County? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Right. But these are things that the difficult things that we're trying to navigate as as your your defense attorneys trying to see it's put up or shut up kind of thing. That's exactly right. But you could but but if you're if you're calling their bluff and saying, we want you to prove it, then it's too late once you're showing up on the motion to revoke and they got all the officers sitting in the courtroom. That's right. Now they're not going to negotiate with you.

Smart Allegations And Lesser Violations

SPEAKER_03

That well, that's the thing, is when you're trying to you have this process of a plea bargain where the idea behind a plea bargain is you're getting something less than you otherwise might in exchange for you accepting responsibility and the state not having to prepare their case. But a lot of times once the state has prepared their case, that plea bargain's out the window. Right. Because they they've already prepared, they're ready to go, their witnesses are there.

SPEAKER_01

Um so when you walk in with your client hoping that they weren't going to be ready for that contested MTR and you see three police officers, that's the oh shit moment you have with you and your client. Right.

Judge Options After A Violation

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And in my 20 years, I I've I've been there a couple of times. Yeah. So um another interesting thing about or that people need to know about the the process for a motion to revoke is you'll have what's called a violation report. And that's a list of all of your violations. Okay. Um, one of the things that people need to be aware of and look out for is if you plead true to all the violations, let's say that one of the violations is a brand new offense that's still pending. Your pleading true to that violation can then be used against you later on in another proceeding. So what's important is that people need to get their attorneys, and this is something that we're always cognizant of, that if our client wants to plead true on a motion to revoke, you plead them true to something that's not going to affect that case. Right. You plead them true to maybe one of those technical violations or maybe a dirty UA.

SPEAKER_01

And and you also can so say I had this this week. Uh the new number, the new violation was an aggravated assault and he's on for deadly conduct. Okay. Uh, but they all so you can ask, we'll plead true to the new violation to the new crime, but not aggravated assault. We'll plead true to the lesser of assault. Oh, okay. Okay. And that's another that's an unusual way to go about it. Right. Okay, it's thinking outside the box.

SPEAKER_03

But that saves your client, right?

SPEAKER_01

Because my client's not going to deny that he got into it with this person, but the whole like baseball bat part of it, sure. We don't, we don't want to, we're not gonna admit to the aggravated assault part. Right. Right. And so then whatever happens there, we'll plead through that to that lesser. And sometimes the smart prosecutors won't even be, they don't have to prove. So if somebody's arrested for DWI when they're on a second-degree drug case, they don't actually have to allege the DWI, they can just allege they used alcohol. The drinking.

Final Advice And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_03

I've had that happen. Yes. So uh I I I've had cases in the past where the new violation is a DWI, and uh, so I'm geared up, ready to defend that. But the state has a breath test or a blood draw showing alcohol on my client's system. The alcohol on their system is in and of itself a violation. Uh they don't have to show that he was operating a motor vehicle on a public roadway while you know intoxicated, or even argue about extrapolation facts or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01

That's it. Right, right. So smart prosecutors will allege less than what what they really have, knowing that they're they're gonna have you one way or the other.

SPEAKER_03

Right. So at the conclusion, so let's say they have this motion to revoke hearing, and a client is maybe on that deferred adjudication or they're not convicted yet, and the judge says, Okay, I find that you violated your deferred adjudication. What options does the judge have?

SPEAKER_01

So let's assume it's not one of those types of crimes that you can't get regular probation. Right. Okay. And if that's the case, then the judge can decide you violated your probation, revoke your deferred adjudication, but then put you on regular probation. Right. Okay. Uh, or as we've said before, they can give you anything in the whole range of punishment. Right. Or they can say, I'm gonna find you violated the probation, but I'm not gonna revoke your probation, but I'm gonna give you 90 days. The judge can give you up to 180 days jail sanction as a condition of probation. So they may give you, I'm gonna have you, you've been in jail 30 days, you're gonna sit another 60, and I'm gonna put you back on probation. But let me tell you, if you're back here in front of me again, you're gonna get the max. That's right. Right. So they they now they're really not supposed to say that because then then I might argue later on down the line they've already prejudged or prejudged. Uh, and most of them are clever enough not to do that. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03

So the judge does have a variety of options. Um, if you're on probation, uh follow the rules of probation. But if you find that you've picked up a violation, don't hesitate to give us a call at Brit Criminal Defense 210-874-5080. Uh Scott Simpson, Steve Barrera from Brit Criminal Defense. Thank you for listening.

unknown

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for listening to Don't You Got Arrested. If you found this podcast helpful, share it with someone who needs to hear it. For more legal insights and real talk from the front lines of the Texas justice system. Follow us and subscribe. And remember, Brit Criminal Defense has your back. For more information, this is brcdefense.com.