Category: News
Texas, with its multi-million dollar oil and gas industry, sees a number of high profile white collar crime investigations every year. According to the U.S Department of Justice, four executives from Provident Royalties, Inc. have been sentenced in connection with a massive oil and gas investment fraud scheme in the Eastern District of Texas. The…
This was the question recently put to members of the Dallas criminal defense bar. When his peers were asked, Clint Broden was selected in four categories as the lawyer other criminal defense lawyers would go to if their son or daughter needed criminal representation. The categories were: If my son/daughter were charged with a FELONY…
Medicaid and Medicare fraud has made headlines recently after Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a series of bills to step up state enforcement and investigations into bad practices in the healthcare field. The legislation is also intended to set up procedural safeguards for health providers accused of wrongdoing. The new laws broaden the definition of…
Based on the recent revelations published in the Guardian concerning the U.S. Government’s massive data collection efforts as part of its “war on terror,” many Americans are beginning to wonder if the government is not in fact engaging in a “war on privacy.” On the one hand some people are decrying the current state of…
This month Texas Governor Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 1611, more commonly known as the Michael Morton Act, which aims to reduce the number of wrongful convictions in the state. Few cases highlight more graphically the deficit in Texas’ criminal justice system than that of Michael Morton. Morton wrongly spent 25 years in jail for…
A bill to study the causes of the numerous wrongful convictions we see in Texas passed through the House floor this month – but not without opposition. House Bill 166, has been put forward by Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio. It would create the Timothy Cole Exoneration Review Commission, named after a defendant who…
The important role played by a Texas forensic lab has been highlighted in relation to a high profile murder investigation in Massachusetts. Fox News reported the authorities in Massachusetts are sending evidence from the Molly Bish homicide investigation to the Orchid Cellmark lab in Dallas. Bish was just 16 in 2000 when she disappeared at…
Texas executed convicted killer Rickey Lynn Lewis on April 9, 2013, notwithstanding concerns about his mental state. Lewis was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman from Tyler and killing her fiancé in the course of a home burglary in 1990. A previous execution date was stayed due to arguments that Lewis had extremely poor intellectual…
The case of a female Texas trooper who faces a sexual assault trial reveals the thin line law enforcement officers can tread between performing their job and breaking the law. CBS 11 News reported Dallas County Grand Jury recently indicted trooper Kelley Helleson on two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression….
White collar crimes aren’t always associated with long prison sentences which are traditionally reserved for violent crimes such as rape or murder. But increasingly prosecutors are using federal sentencing guidelines to put more non-violent offenders behind bars for long periods, Forbes magazine reported in a recent feature. The article looked at the conviction of Christian…