Winters, TX Criminal Defense Law Firms & Lawyers

I'm sorry to hear about your pregnant wife. I hope you were able to bond her out of jail immediately. Simply driving a stolen car is not a crime in and of itself. The State must prove either that she stole the car, or that she knew she did not have the owner's permission to drive teh car. The two most common charges I see from what you described are Theft of Property and Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle. In order to prove theft, the State has to show that your wife took the car without permission, not simply that she was found after the theft driving the car. You will have to look at when the car was stolen compared to when she was found driving the car. Was there any evidence she took the car? Also, the degree misdemeanor or felony it will be depends on the value of the car. If the car has a fair market value of $2,500 to $30,000, then it will be a state jail felony. If it cost more than that, then it will be increased to a third degree felony. If the car is cheap and doesn't cost more than $2,500, then it would only be a misdemeanor theft. More likely than not, the State would charge her with Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle. This is a state jail felony where the State has to prove that your wife KNEW she did not have the owner's consent to drive the car. These cases are very case specific. What she said to the police will be very important. Who owns the car? When was the car stolen? How did she obtain the keys to the car? Is there any evidence the ignition was tampered with? These and similar questions must be answered to see if the State can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew she did not have permission to drive the car. If the State cannot prove she did not know she did not have permission, it is possible to get the case No Billed by the grand jury. Best of luck!

It is both a legal and a customary law enforcment practice for undercover police to instigate and conduct drug deals, and then charge the person from whom they obtained the drugs with a drug offense. However, "entrapment" is a possible defense in certain cases where overzealous law enforcement induce a person to commit a crime. There are two elements to the defense of entrapment: governmental inducement of the crime and a lack of predisposition on the part of the defendant to engage in the criminal conduct. The defendant bears the initial burden at trial of presenting some evidence that the government induced (caused) him to commit the offense. Once the defendant has presented some evidence of inducement, the burden rests on the government to overcome an entrapment defense by proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was "predisposed" to commit the crime. Predisposition focuses on whether the defendant was an "unwary innocent" -- meaning that but for the inducement of the government, he would not have committed the crime. The fact the law enforcement agents merely afford opportunities or facilities for the commission of an offense does not constitute entrapment -- the agents "deception" brings the defense of entrapment into play only when the deception actually implants the criminal design in the defendant's mind.

Your boyfriend should be the one to talk with the judge about lifting the no contact order. He can hire a lawyer to help him or he can call the judge's office, get an appointment, and meet with the judge to discuss his desires to have the no-contact order lifted - if that is what he wants to do. Be aware that the no contact order does not prevent him from having contact with his child. It only keeps you from having contact with him as a condition of your probation. If you do have contact with him, your probation could be revoked.