July 24, 2025 • 30 mins
This episode of the "So You Got Arrested Podcast Show" is essential listening for anyone facing their initial appearance in the San Antonio criminal justice system. We break down the process step-by-step, from understanding the charges against you to navigating bail, setting future court dates, and the crucial role of legal representation. Gain valuable insights into what to expect, how to prepare, and the immediate decisions that can impact your case.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
The Texas justice system is messy.
So let's break it down.
You're listening to So You GotArrested, the podcast that tells
you what really happens after anarrest.
Hosted by Brick Criminal DefenseAttorneys, we talk to the people
who've lived it, worked in it,and been shaped by it.
Whether you're facing charges orjust want to understand your
rights, your options, and thesmart moves that could change
(00:22):
everything, we've got your back.
SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
So Scott, do you remember Spuds McKenzie?
I do remember Spuds McKenzie.
He was the original partyanimal.
He was this little...
Harrier dog who promotedBudweiser well when I was a kid
I was about 10 years old I was ahuge Spuds McKenzie fan and so I
would always wear the SpudsMcKenzie t-shirts to school and
then at some point the schoolsaid hey you can no longer wear
(00:45):
any t-shirts or clothing thatpromotes alcohol or tobacco so I
had to put away my SpudsMcKenzie t-shirts my Joe Camel
satin jacket so I had one ofthose as well I guess my parents
were doing a bang up job ofraising me I put all that stuff
away.
But I was thinking the otherday, you know, if I was to find
one of those vintage SpudsMcKenzie t-shirts, it may still
(01:08):
fit.
I don't know that I've grown awhole lot since I was 10 years
old.
And I was going to wear thatt-shirt to court.
Do you think that'd be a goodidea or a bad idea?
I
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
don't think that makes the right first
impression.
I try to tell my clients to, I'mnot saying wear a suit to court,
but at least wear a shirt with acollar and slacks.
We've had issues where ourclients have shown up in shorts.
That's a definite, they won'tThey don't let you in the
courtroom with shorts.
It's a problem.
SPEAKER_02 (01:32):
Absolutely.
And we kind of touched on someof these issues in our last
episode, but we did get someemails to our
justarrestedpodcast atgmail.com.
We had an email asking us formore information about what to
expect when you go to court inBexar County.
So that's what we're going toaddress.
You're listening to So You JustGot Arrested from Cuffs to
Courts, answering your questionsabout what to expect when you go
(01:55):
to court.
So I want to talk about BexarCounty specifically.
And you bring a lot ofexperience to the table with
that because you were a longtimeprosecutor there.
I want to talk about that firstday in Bexar County Court.
What do I wear?
Where do I go?
What can I expect?
How long will I be there?
So let's talk about BexarCounty.
Generally speaking, how do youknow when your first court date
(02:16):
is going to be?
SPEAKER_00 (02:17):
So usually when you get arrested and magistrated,
they give you your court datewhen you leave.
Now, when you have an attorney,your attorney We'll generally
let you know.
I know at Brick Defense, we letyou know the day before.
So you're going to get set forcourt every 30 to 60 days until
the case is resolved one way orthe other, whether we have to go
(02:39):
to trial, whether we have towork it out.
And so some courts, when you getyour reset date, they just tell
me and I tell you, but I make myclient take his phone out.
I make sure he puts it in hisphone.
Some courts make you sign areset form and give you a copy
of it.
But you're responsible.
I know when I was an attorney onmy own.
I would try to call my people,but you're all grownups.
(03:00):
You're responsible to get tocourt.
SPEAKER_02 (03:02):
Now, is there a database or somewhere that
people in Bexar County can lookto figure out what their court
date is?
SPEAKER_00 (03:07):
So if you Google Bexar County court records, the
district clerk has a criminalrecords portal, and you go in
there.
Now, the tricky thing is, ifyour name is Richard Rodriguez,
you're gonna pull up a wholebunch of stuff.
Whereas your name, if it'ssomething unusual, when you type
in your name, last name, firstname, it'll pull up all the
(03:28):
court cases you have.
So then you just click on thatcase.
Every case when it first startsout is going to say the year
that you were charged and thenPF.
What does PF stand for?
Pre-file.
Okay.
So it'll say 2025 PF and thensix numbers.
After you're charged, that PFgoes away and then it becomes in
(03:49):
county court, it'll have a CC inthe middle of it.
In district court, it'll have aDC in the middle of it.
So if
SPEAKER_02 (03:57):
you're a situation where maybe you're not the one
accused, but maybe it's your sonor your daughter and you just
want to help them out or youwant to make sure that they're
doing the right thing andthey're showing up on time, you
can get on this website to getthe information?
Correct.
You
SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
can look at the website, get the information.
It tells you some other thingslike it's going to have your
date of birth.
It tells you what court to goto.
It won't tell you what floorit's on, but we'll get to that
in a second.
But it'll tell you what yourcourt date is.
Now, one of the things I got totell you is if you have a
warrant for your arrest and Itdisappears from the public
(04:31):
website.
So if you had seen your courtbefore and then all of a sudden
you look and it's no longer inthere, you must have missed
something or messed something upbecause there's a warrant for
your arrest and it's disappearedfrom the website.
SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
Okay.
So if your name is notappearing, then that may mean
that you have a warrant out foryour arrest.
SPEAKER_00 (04:48):
Now, I would caution you.
So let's assume you've seen itbefore.
Okay.
Because there may be cases whereyou think you're charged, where
the charges haven't actuallybeen, like police tell you.
There's people who call us andthink they're charged, but they
haven't actually been arrestedyet.
Okay.
So they may not be in thesystem.
Exactly right.
SPEAKER_02 (05:05):
Okay.
So let's say that they do findout when that first court date
is through their bondsman,through the magistrate, through
their attorney, and they havethis first court date.
What should they be wearing thatday?
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Okay.
So...
Don't wear shorts.
Wear a nice shirt.
Don't wear a t-shirt that sayssomething like legalized
marijuana.
Or Spuds McKenzie.
Or Spuds McKenzie.
I would say don't wear anyt-shirt.
I mean, I know a lot of peoplein the courthouse wear t-shirts.
Maybe it's because I'm an oldman and it's going to get off my
lawn moment, but I just thinkyou should wear, it can be a
(05:40):
polo shirt with a collar on it,but t-shirts, because what it
was, so somebody had thist-shirt that had a big political
statement on it, you don't knowwhat the politics are of the
judge that you're in front of orthe prosecutors in that court.
So if you have something that'smaking a political statement and
the prosecutor is responsiblefor deciding whether to go
(06:01):
forward in your case or give youa good deal or not, sees that,
all of a sudden they thinkdifferently about you.
So don't be an idiot.
Wear just a nice colored shirtand a nice pair of slacks and
come to court early and walk inwhen the courtroom doors open
and sit down and wait for yourname to be called.
SPEAKER_02 (06:18):
Yeah, I think the advice advice that I usually
give to clients is don't wearanything that's going to bring
attention to yourself right Imean you don't want the
prosecutor saying is that yourclient back there that's wearing
that whatever the whatever itmay be right
SPEAKER_00 (06:31):
which is the so earlier you talked about so
sometimes when there's peoplecome in a full-blown suit right
and that does bring attention toyourself because you're the only
one sitting out there in a suitnot that I won't criticize you
for wearing a suit I'm justsaying you're going to be the
only one in there with a suitand look and it does make a good
impression though because theopposite of what we said before
the prosecutor the judge issitting there saying geez one of
(06:53):
those defendants they're in asuit they must be pretty
professional so all of a suddenyou have a different perception
and you think well geez what isit they were charged with maybe
that's a bullshit charge yeah
SPEAKER_02 (07:05):
you're bringing attention to yourself for the
right reason in thatcircumstance so okay now people
have decided okay this is whatI'm going to wear to court I'm
not going to wear the t-shirtI'm not going to wear the shorts
I'm going to look professionalwhere do they go so there's two
courthouses in Bear County.
Where are they going?
SPEAKER_00 (07:20):
Okay, so you go to the Justice Center, not the
courthouse.
The old Bear County courthouseis for the civil court.
The Justice Center is 300 De LaRosa.
The parking garage is right atthe catty corner to it at Flores
and Nueva.
And so if you get there by like830, you can get spots in the
parking garage still.
And then when you walk in, youhave to clear security.
(07:41):
So you can't bring a little penknife with you.
You're not going to be allowedto put that in.
You can't bring mace and yourpocketbook with you.
You're not going to be allowedto bring that in.
You're going to have to removeyour belt when you go through
security.
Just think about it like you'regoing through airplane security.
It's not as tight as airplanesecurity, but imagine it like
that.
Okay, you're going to go throughsecurity, then you go through
(08:01):
into the Justice Center, and atthe bottom of the first steps,
there's two big boards that havewhere each court's located.
SPEAKER_02 (08:09):
Okay, and so when we talk about going through
security, things like that, Iwould imagine that it's
important for people who havecases pending, it's their first
time there, they don't know whatto expect, maybe arrive a little
early.
Yeah, so if
SPEAKER_00 (08:23):
your court starts, some courts open at nine, some
courts open at 9.30, Countycourt nine doesn't call their
docket till 10.
So if you're thinking that Igotta be in the courtroom at
nine, so let me roll up to theparking garage at 840 or 845,
you're gonna be kinda tight.
You gotta walk across thestreet, you gotta wait for the
(08:43):
light, you gotta clear security,and sometimes there's 10 people
in line in security, then youhave to walk through into where
it is and find out what courtyou're in, and then find the
court.
So it's a process.
SPEAKER_02 (08:55):
And sometimes, I always try to use use the old
adage when I explain to clientsabout appearing in court that
being in court 15 minutes earlyis on time and being on time is
late.
There are some
SPEAKER_00 (09:09):
judges who are more forgiving if you come in a
little late.
There are other judges that ifyou come in late, they're going
to take you into temporarycustody and put you in the box.
Now, pretty much always, they'regoing to let you eventually get
out of the box at the end of themorning, but you're going to be
sitting there in custody incuffs because you came late.
And plus, let's not even...
Remember, did you make a goodimpression now in your first
(09:31):
appearance in court that you'resitting there in the box?
Right.
As we just talked about.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (09:35):
And sometimes, I know in Bexar County, when
people arrive to court,sometimes the doors are locked.
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
What does that mean?
So all the courtroom doors arelocked until the bailiff opens
the courtroom doors for you tocome in.
They're not going to have youcome in until the judge is
getting ready to get on thebench and call the docket.
So when you first go to yourcourthouse, to your courtroom,
everybody's going to be sittingin benches outside waiting for
the doors to come.
So I generally have like fourcases set every morning.
(10:05):
So I'm running around likelooking at each door to see
which one opens first, whichgets me to my next point.
If you have an attorney, Don'tbe crying because he's not there
because he's got four or fivecourts.
You have to be in court on time.
Your attorney does not.
Your attorney has the wholemorning to get there, and
they're going to go to differentcourts.
And a lot of times, if they'regoing to your court last, it's
(10:26):
because they have the most to doin your court.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (10:29):
Now, when you go to court, if your loved ones go
with you, are your loved onesgoing to be allowed in court?
SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Generally not.
Usually it's too crowded becauseof how many people are sat on
that docket.
It's not just you sitting onthat docket that morning.
So Usually, only the people whohave cases pending can go into
the courtroom.
And then after around 1030, whenpeople start to filter out and
get their reset dates, then thedeputy will let...
family members come in.
(10:55):
Every once in a while, it's asmall docket and they'll let
everybody in.
But for the most part, thedeputy will stand up and say,
we're going to be crowded today.
Only the people with cases,family members wait outside.
SPEAKER_02 (11:04):
Yeah.
And that comes up a lot becausewe have a lot of circumstances
where loved ones want to bethere in support.
The wives, the moms, the dads,the brothers and the sisters.
And so they show up at thecourthouse with their loved one
in support of them.
SPEAKER_00 (11:18):
Yeah.
And it's fine to be supportive.
So one of the things...
They're your charges.
So we've talked about this manya time.
Sometimes family members arepressuring you to do something
that doesn't necessarily makesense.
Remember, you're the one who hasto pay the penalty if things
don't go well, if you decidethat you don't want to take what
(11:40):
we think is a reasonable pleaoffer and you want to fight it,
not because you think you wantto fight it, because a family
member is telling you you oughtto fight it.
Sure.
Unless they're going to go servethe time with you, you better
think twice about
SPEAKER_02 (11:52):
that kind of thing.
So it's good that they'resupportive, but at the same
time, they're not.
actually the one facing thecharges like you are.
SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
Right, right.
I mean, there are better advicethan the advice you got from the
guy who's been to prison twicein the jail cell when you were
first booked who thinks theyknow everything about the
criminal justice system, but notmuch
SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
better.
So you're in court now.
You've been able to get in.
Maybe your family is waitingoutside in the hallway.
As you get into the court, whereshould you sit?
SPEAKER_00 (12:19):
So it's open seating, but you can't be
standing up.
You can't have a hat on.
So if you have a hat, you bettertake it off before you walk into
the the courtroom and you justfind yourself a seat and sit
down.
If
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
you go in and you're wearing a hat or your cell phone
goes off, what's the consequenceof that?
SPEAKER_00 (12:34):
So if your cell phone goes off, sometimes the
deputy may take the cell phoneand hold on to it until you're
done for the court for the day.
I've had judges make them comeback at five o'clock to pick up
their cell phone.
That was back when cell phonesfirst started.
I don't think that people dothat anymore.
We were around when no such
SPEAKER_02 (12:51):
thing as cell phones existed.
I was around when they had payphones outside the court.
So that doesn't exist anymore.
So once you've found your placeto sit, at some point, the judge
will come in.
Yes.
Now, when the judge comes in,what's expected of you?
SPEAKER_00 (13:09):
So when the judge comes in, the deputy or bailiff,
the bailiff is a Bexar Countydeputy.
And they'll say, all rise.
Everybody stands up.
And then when the judge takestheir seat, the deputy will tell
you to be seated.
SPEAKER_02 (13:20):
And then the judge takes the bench.
And then now it's showtime.
SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
Right.
So she's going to call her.
He's going to call all the nameson the docket, and when your
name gets called, you have tostand up to answer here.
If you don't stand up and youdon't answer here, you may be
marked absent and a warrantcould go out for your arrest for
not showing up to court.
SPEAKER_02 (13:39):
Now, I know that there's times where people are
worried, like, hey, if I go tocourt, is the person on the
other side of the case, maybe?
Let's say this is a caseinvolving a fight between two
people.
Are they going to be there?
Domestic violence case.
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02 (13:53):
Are they going to be there?
SPEAKER_00 (13:55):
No, they're not going to be there.
Generally, that first setting,the...
The first setting, theprosecutors, that's probably the
first time they've ever touchedthat case.
We can go into that in a littlebit more depth after the break.
But most of the time, that firstsetting is just to make sure you
have an attorney.
And that's all that's going tohappen.
You're going to be out of therewithin an hour and a half.
SPEAKER_02 (14:14):
And then a lot of times people worry, hey, at that
first setting, am I going to getrearrested for this case?
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
No, you're not going to get rearrested unless you
didn't meet the conditions ofyour bondsman.
So if your bondsman told you tocall in every week, and you
didn't call in every week, andthen they got off your bond, now
there's going to be a warrantfor your arrest.
So do what your bondsman tellsyou to do.
SPEAKER_02 (14:34):
And generally speaking, as long as you have an
attorney who's experienced, theyknow what they're doing, they
kind of take away some of thatunknown and things that you
might be fearing for that firstcourt
SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
appearance.
There's all kinds of things thatwe can't go through everything
that can come up, but that'swhere our expertise comes in and
we help walk you through it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:52):
So we're coming up on the break, but after the
break, we're going to get tomore of these topics of what to
expect your first day in court.
and Barrett County.
SPEAKER_01 (15:01):
The attorneys of Brick Criminal Defense have
helped over 5,000 clients moveon with their lives.
When an arrest or accusationturns your life upside down, we
have the knowledge, experience,and integrity to get your life
back on track.
Traditional legal ethics, modernlegal tactics, the best defense
possible to get you through thecriminal justice system.
Search Brick Criminal Defense tosee our reviews and find out why
(15:22):
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Brick Criminal Defense, helpingour clients move on with their
lives.
SPEAKER_02 (15:33):
So we're back at So You Just Got Arrested.
From cuffs to courts, adiscussion about what to expect
when you get charged with acrime.
Today's episode, we're talkingabout what you can expect in
Bexar County.
Are there issues that you seethat apply to certain types of
cases, complications that wehave to deal with?
SPEAKER_00 (15:52):
Okay, so one of the frustrations that people have is
the first couple times you go tocourt, nothing's happening.
And then they get frustrated,like, what's going on?
What's happening with the case?
Let me tell you what's going on.
So if you have a DWI...
The case, that first courtsetting, the file is generally
not down there yet.
The DA hasn't done what's calledthe information, the charging
(16:13):
instrument.
And so there is no file.
So you're showing up and thecourt's just going to give you a
reset and you're going to leavewithout anything happening.
Now, a couple of things on that.
So they're waiting for theresults from your blood draw.
It can take up to six months forthem to get a blood draw.
And you may have to come tocourt like every couple of
months and then just tell youit's reset because we don't have
the results yet.
(16:34):
If you blew, it'll be...
They have that evidence rightthen and there, but it still has
to be processed through theintake section of the DA's
office, which is behind rightnow.
So it's still taking like threemonths to get the case filed.
So you're going to befrustrated, like, well, why is
nothing happening in my case?
Because the DA still has to lookat the case.
Do the charging instrument andget the case filed.
(16:54):
And until that happens, there'snot even a case down there for
the prosecutor in the courtroomto look at.
There's another group ofprosecutors who are handling it
at the intake level.
SPEAKER_02 (17:02):
So there could be situations where if you're
accused of a crime, you'reactually having to attend court
and the state is technically noteven ready to proceed
SPEAKER_00 (17:13):
on your case.
Exactly right.
So everyone, we could do thingslike file a motion for speedy
trial, but that's not going toget the case dismissed.
All that's going to get them to,particularly if I have a case
where I'm thinking they may wantto reject it, if I'm pushing
them to hurry up and dosomething with it, they're going
to say, okay, well, then we'regoing to file it.
And that's not necessarily thebest thing for us.
So you have to be patient.
(17:33):
There's going to be a three tosix month process about how this
case gets processed.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
Now, if you're in that situation where maybe the
state's not ready on your case,but you're having to go to court
for this initial courtappearance, are there things
that you're attorney can do atthat court appearance?
Like I think last episode youwere telling us about those
conditions of bond.
You know, maybe some of them arepretty strict.
They keep you from going home.
Can those things maybe beaddressed at some of those
(17:59):
settings?
SPEAKER_00 (18:00):
Correct.
We can file a motion to take youfrom some people are on full
house arrest because they have afamily violence misdemeanor case
or they have no contact withtheir spouse.
And then I can file a motion tochange the no contact to no
harmful injurious contact so youcan still raise your kids
together and things like that.
And so there's all kinds ofthings that we can do.
(18:23):
And also, what I'm also doing isI'm talking.
So it's one thing if you have aDWI that's not really, there's a
blood draw, you were all overthe road, we know it's going to
be filed.
But some of the family violencecases, they also, there's a
three to six month backlog interms of the intake there.
But some of those cases, I'mable to get them rejected
(18:46):
because before they're everfiled.
For a myriad of reasons about,say, just because the victim
doesn't want to pursue doesn'tmean they're going to dismiss
the case.
But I can communicate with, wehave a lot of cases that are
brother against brother.
That wasn't really the purposeof family violence.
And so if two brothers get intoa fight at the five-year-old's
graduation, a lot of times theDA will be like, yeah, as long
(19:09):
as everybody's okay with it,we'll dismiss it.
SPEAKER_02 (19:10):
Not that we're telling people you can go ahead
and beat up your brother, but
SPEAKER_00 (19:14):
yeah.
Yeah, well, I don't understandall the people getting drunk at
five-year-olds parties, butthat's a separate topic for
another day.
Anyway, but- You haven't been toparties in my
SPEAKER_02 (19:23):
family.
Every birthday
SPEAKER_00 (19:26):
party has a keg.
So at any rate, yeah, there'sthings I'm doing to try to see
if I can just get them to decideto walk away from the case.
But that's why it's important tohave an attorney.
If you can't afford an attorney,one will be appointed for you.
But sometimes you just have tobe patient with the system
(19:47):
because we've had good successat BRIC getting some cases that
they've rejected.
And the other thing is, so ifyou have interlock on your
car...
And so we keep going to court.
And then eventually, if we takea plea, and you're required to
have interlock for half the termof your probation, you don't get
(20:07):
credit for that time that youhad at a
SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
pre-trial.
SPEAKER_00 (20:10):
So there's some reasons we want to go quickly,
and there's some times we don't.
And that's something,conversation you have to have
with your attorney to make surethe goals that you have are
communicated to the attorney sowe're all on the same page with,
do we want to push it?
Are we happy to just let it takeits time?
SPEAKER_02 (20:27):
Now, I know, especially in Bexar County,
there are times that I've beenwhere in court clients ask
questions, like, for example, ifthey see me go to the back,
right?
And they see me walk to theback, and then I'm gone for a
little bit, and they'rewondering what's going on.
Can you kind of tell clientswhat's happening if your
attorney disappears to the backor your attorney stays up to the
(20:50):
front talking to the guys at thetable?
Well, I can't talk about that.
That's the secret things
SPEAKER_00 (20:54):
we do behind closed doors.
No.
So- It's the bat case.
Yeah, yeah.
The secret knowledge we have,the secret handshake.
Right.
No, we're just confirmed aboutthe case.
We all know each other.
Sometimes I'm just talkingabout, hey, how was your
weekend?
But so it doesn't—this is myopinion.
(21:14):
Others may disagree.
It doesn't pay to have thatattorney who comes in pissing
everybody off.
Okay.
Attorneys coming in and knoweverybody and have good
relationships with everybody getgood results.
So sometimes it's like, I'mgoing to just say hello to
people because I went to lawschool with them.
Some of them, I used tosupervise when I was with the
DA's office, you know, and sowe're talking.
(21:35):
But then other times we'retalking about, you know, judge,
this client, he's got no contactat all.
I need to get it changed to noharmful injurious contact.
And in the old days, I used tobe able to just get that done.
Now you always have to file amotion and get it set.
It used to be, we were able todo some of these things without
having a formal motion and wecould kind of just get these
(21:55):
things done quickly and easily.
That doesn't happen
SPEAKER_02 (21:58):
anymore.
Well, that raises a good pointbecause I've been to court
plenty of times where maybethere's something that a client
there in court is bringing up tome for the first time.
Like, hey, do you think you canmaybe get this done today?
Or do you think maybe you couldchange this bond condition?
Or do you think maybe I canstart having contact with my
girlfriend who's accused me ofthis crime?
(22:19):
Are there Are those all thingsthat we can always address that
day?
SPEAKER_00 (22:23):
We can't really address them that day because I
haven't filed a motion.
But we'll get it filed and we'llget it heard.
Sometimes I'm not going to beable to get it heard until the
next setting, depending on whichcourt it is.
Every court's a little bitdifferent.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
And just so the people watching are aware, what
is a setting?
What
SPEAKER_00 (22:40):
is that?
Okay, so the first time, whenyou're arrested, your first
court date, it's called asetting.
Everything's called a setting.
The first one's generally calledan arraignment, and then
everything you have after thatis called a pretrial or a
pre-hearing setting.
Once we've said we're not goingto take the plea offer, I need
it set for trial, then you havetrial settings.
And don't think just becauseit's set for trial that it's
(23:01):
really going to go.
Your trial settings generally ina misdemeanor court have about
20 cases set, and we come in andthe oldest case is going to be
first.
first on the list, and then wemay be number 12.
So you're just waiting in line.
We're in line.
And so some of those cases pleadout.
Maybe one gets dismissed, andone goes to trial, and the rest
of that 20 cases get set for thenext trial docket a month down
(23:24):
the road.
But the one thing I wanted tosay, so when I mentioned before
about a lot of times the courtwill just give you a new setting
when you first walk in, I've hadclients repeatedly just walk out
and leave.
Sure.
When I've told them, like...
They're gonna give you a settingdate, because they tell them,
here's your new set date, youcan go.
And they think that, okay, well,I guess I have to go.
(23:46):
But I still want to talk to you.
There's things I'm still tryingto do.
I'm trying to find out, how'syour bond going?
Is there anything we need to getdone?
And then they leave and I'mlike, where are you?
And like, oh, the court told meto leave.
I said, I told you to stay.
I need to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
The general advice that I always give to clients is
when you have court, don't leaveuntil your attorney has told
you, hey, we're done for theday.
You're okay to leave.
But that That raises anotherquestion that people always ask
is, when I'm going to court forthe first time, let's say I've
never been, I have no experiencewith the court system, how it
works, I know I have to be incourt that day, how long should
(24:24):
I expect to be there?
SPEAKER_00 (24:26):
I generally get people out within
SPEAKER_02 (24:28):
two hours.
Okay.
So should I only take two hoursoff of work?
If I'm taking off work, whatshould I take off?
SPEAKER_00 (24:34):
I think it's safe to go in after lunch.
SPEAKER_02 (24:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (24:38):
I think you have to plan on being there all morning,
but I think it's pretty darnsafe that I'm going to be done
by lunchtime and you can plan oncoming in after lunch break.
SPEAKER_02 (24:45):
Okay.
And in terms of getting that newcourt date, so you're in court,
you're now wearing your niceclothes, your attorney showed
up, he's talked to theprosecutor.
Smoothing with the prosecutor.
Talk to the prosecutor, talk tothe judge.
He's gotten you your new courtdate.
Do you get something telling youwhen your new court date is?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Depends on the court.
A lot of courts will just tellme and I'll go tell my client,
okay, we're coming back.
Like today, it was August 23rd,okay?
So I tell them August 23rd and Imake my, bring out your, put out
your phone, put it in thecalendar, make sure you have it.
And then we put it on ourcalendar And then because you
have representation, our officedoes notify you the day before.
(25:32):
But it's your responsibility toget to court, not us, our
responsibility to get you.
But I did want to talk about thefelonies because they're
different than misdemeanors.
Sure, absolutely.
Whenever we're ready for that.
Yes, absolutely.
Okay, so everything we weretalking about before about
misdemeanors, DWIs, familyviolence cases, and there's 13
different...
(25:53):
misdemeanor courts that handlecriminal cases, two that handle
just civil.
So you could go to any one ofthose courts.
If you're in family violence,it's going to be either seven or
13.
Everything else goes to all thedifferent courts.
The difference is on a felony,once you first get arrested,
they have six months to get youindicted if you're on bond,
(26:14):
which is Obviously, we'retalking about you going to
court.
If you're in jail, they bringyou to court.
You don't have to worry aboutgoing to court.
So if you're on bond, they havea long time, and you get one
pre-indictment setting, but allthe pre-indictment settings are
in one court.
It's Magistrate Najera's court,and he's on the second floor of
the Justice Center.
SPEAKER_02 (26:32):
And so just to clarify, a pre-indictment
setting is just where you'regoing to court before your case
has officially been indicted orformally charged.
Correct.
So it's not technically pendingin any specific district court.
at the time.
SPEAKER_00 (26:45):
Exactly right.
And so say, I've worked out likea pre-indictment plea once in a
while, and you don't know whatcourt it's going to, so once we
do, we do the plea in front ofJudge Nahara, and then we get
assigned out to be on probationwith whatever the next court up
is.
SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
So if somebody has one of these court appearances
to make before, on a felony,before their case has been
officially indicted, are theyalways going to Judge Nahara's
court?
Yes.
Okay.
Always.
And that is, you said where,
SPEAKER_00 (27:13):
on the second floor?
Second floor.
So If you walk up the steps,turn to the right, there's the
first courthouse on the right,first courtroom on the right.
He's very pleasant.
They have really goodprosecutors in there.
But the prosecutors, there's twoprosecutors who go into that
pre-hearing court every day.
They are not, once again, theintake prosecutors.
But they do have the ability totry to work stuff out, agree to
(27:33):
lower bonds.
A lot of times I'll go in there,my guy may still be in custody,
and I can go in there and getthem to agree to a bond.
Or like I was doing with anotherof our clients the other day, I
got them to agree to waive thefees on the GPS monitoring
because, you know, GPS is globalpositioning.
A lot of people on bond forviolent crimes, they have a GPS
monitor on their ankle.
(27:54):
Right.
Okay.
And they can get pricey.
And so there's all kinds of,some of them are full house
arrest so that we can get the DAto agree to partial where you
can go work because we need youto go work so you can pay for
your attorney.
SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Sure.
Absolutely.
Or you can be a productivemember of society.
SPEAKER_00 (28:07):
Exactly right.
And show you're a greatcandidate for probation because
you've been doing well andpaying your taxes and productive
member of society.
So
SPEAKER_02 (28:15):
I know that when it comes to these first court
appearances, people getintimidated by them, you know,
and people get scared becausethey don't have experience going
through these things.
And so it sounds to me as if ifthey follow your general advice
of, hey, dress respectfully forthe court.
(28:36):
Don't wear something toooutlandish or something that's
going to draw attention toyourself.
Get there, giving yourselfplenty of time to find parking,
plenty of time to get throughsecurity.
You know, show up to court.
When you get into that court,listen for the judge.
And when the judge calls yourname, stand up, say that you're
there, and then follow theadvice of your attorney
(28:58):
afterwards.
It sounds like maybe it's a mucheasier process or, you know, not
as intimidating as a lot ofpeople have in their heads.
SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
Right.
And I'm not saying you shouldn'tbe nervous when you picked up a
criminal case.
It's nerve wracking.
Sure.
I can tell you that if you havea misdemeanor, you're not going
to go to jail unless you getprobation and mess it up.
Okay.
Okay.
Felony is a different matter.
You could be looking at serioustime.
But the attorney can explain allthis to you.
And when you know how it works,it's better than it being a
(29:28):
mystery.
Now, what I always tell myclients is, I guarantee you I'm
going to get the best resultpossible.
You may not like that bestresult, but we're going to get
you the best result.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
Absolutely.
And best result means differentthings for different cases,
right?
Right.
And so I For example, I knowrecently you've had success in
trial and court where peoplehave gotten acquitted, but then
there's cases where you'redealing with the facts that
you're given, and maybe somebodyhas to end up taking a plea
bargain of some kind.
SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
Right, right.
There's cases where we can't goto trial on this.
We have nothing to argue.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
When people are going to court for the first
time, is there any additionalbit of advice that you would
have for them?
SPEAKER_00 (30:12):
So I'm just going to reiterate, be patient.
Don't get into more trouble.
Anything we're trying to do tomake this the best result
possible can be helped by youdoing things like, hey, I
enrolled in college.
Hey, I have a good job now.
We can communicate that to theprosecutor and the judge to get
you the best result possible.
SPEAKER_02 (30:30):
And that's it for us today on So You Got Arrested.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_03 (30:36):
Thanks for listening to So You Got Arrested.
If you found this podcasthelpful, share it with someone
who needs to hear it.
For more legal insights and realtalk from the front lines of the
Texas justice system, follow usand subscribe.
And remember, brick criminaldefense has your back.
For more information, visit usat brckdefense.com.
The Texas justice system is messy.
So let's break it down.
You're listening to So You GotArrested, the podcast that tells
you what really happens after anarrest.
Hosted by Brick Criminal DefenseAttorneys, we talk to the people
who've lived it, worked in it,and been shaped by it.
Whether you're facing charges orjust want to understand your
rights, your options, and thesmart moves that could change
(00:22):
everything, we've got your back.
SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
So Scott, do you remember Spuds McKenzie?
I do remember Spuds McKenzie.
He was the original partyanimal.
He was this little...
Harrier dog who promotedBudweiser well when I was a kid
I was about 10 years old I was ahuge Spuds McKenzie fan and so I
would always wear the SpudsMcKenzie t-shirts to school and
then at some point the schoolsaid hey you can no longer wear
(00:45):
any t-shirts or clothing thatpromotes alcohol or tobacco so I
had to put away my SpudsMcKenzie t-shirts my Joe Camel
satin jacket so I had one ofthose as well I guess my parents
were doing a bang up job ofraising me I put all that stuff
away.
But I was thinking the otherday, you know, if I was to find
one of those vintage SpudsMcKenzie t-shirts, it may still
(01:08):
fit.
I don't know that I've grown awhole lot since I was 10 years
old.
And I was going to wear thatt-shirt to court.
Do you think that'd be a goodidea or a bad idea?
I
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
don't think that makes the right first
impression.
I try to tell my clients to, I'mnot saying wear a suit to court,
but at least wear a shirt with acollar and slacks.
We've had issues where ourclients have shown up in shorts.
That's a definite, they won'tThey don't let you in the
courtroom with shorts.
It's a problem.
SPEAKER_02 (01:32):
Absolutely.
And we kind of touched on someof these issues in our last
episode, but we did get someemails to our
justarrestedpodcast atgmail.com.
We had an email asking us formore information about what to
expect when you go to court inBexar County.
So that's what we're going toaddress.
You're listening to So You JustGot Arrested from Cuffs to
Courts, answering your questionsabout what to expect when you go
(01:55):
to court.
So I want to talk about BexarCounty specifically.
And you bring a lot ofexperience to the table with
that because you were a longtimeprosecutor there.
I want to talk about that firstday in Bexar County Court.
What do I wear?
Where do I go?
What can I expect?
How long will I be there?
So let's talk about BexarCounty.
Generally speaking, how do youknow when your first court date
(02:16):
is going to be?
SPEAKER_00 (02:17):
So usually when you get arrested and magistrated,
they give you your court datewhen you leave.
Now, when you have an attorney,your attorney We'll generally
let you know.
I know at Brick Defense, we letyou know the day before.
So you're going to get set forcourt every 30 to 60 days until
the case is resolved one way orthe other, whether we have to go
(02:39):
to trial, whether we have towork it out.
And so some courts, when you getyour reset date, they just tell
me and I tell you, but I make myclient take his phone out.
I make sure he puts it in hisphone.
Some courts make you sign areset form and give you a copy
of it.
But you're responsible.
I know when I was an attorney onmy own.
I would try to call my people,but you're all grownups.
(03:00):
You're responsible to get tocourt.
SPEAKER_02 (03:02):
Now, is there a database or somewhere that
people in Bexar County can lookto figure out what their court
date is?
SPEAKER_00 (03:07):
So if you Google Bexar County court records, the
district clerk has a criminalrecords portal, and you go in
there.
Now, the tricky thing is, ifyour name is Richard Rodriguez,
you're gonna pull up a wholebunch of stuff.
Whereas your name, if it'ssomething unusual, when you type
in your name, last name, firstname, it'll pull up all the
(03:28):
court cases you have.
So then you just click on thatcase.
Every case when it first startsout is going to say the year
that you were charged and thenPF.
What does PF stand for?
Pre-file.
Okay.
So it'll say 2025 PF and thensix numbers.
After you're charged, that PFgoes away and then it becomes in
(03:49):
county court, it'll have a CC inthe middle of it.
In district court, it'll have aDC in the middle of it.
So if
SPEAKER_02 (03:57):
you're a situation where maybe you're not the one
accused, but maybe it's your sonor your daughter and you just
want to help them out or youwant to make sure that they're
doing the right thing andthey're showing up on time, you
can get on this website to getthe information?
Correct.
You
SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
can look at the website, get the information.
It tells you some other thingslike it's going to have your
date of birth.
It tells you what court to goto.
It won't tell you what floorit's on, but we'll get to that
in a second.
But it'll tell you what yourcourt date is.
Now, one of the things I got totell you is if you have a
warrant for your arrest and Itdisappears from the public
(04:31):
website.
So if you had seen your courtbefore and then all of a sudden
you look and it's no longer inthere, you must have missed
something or messed something upbecause there's a warrant for
your arrest and it's disappearedfrom the website.
SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
Okay.
So if your name is notappearing, then that may mean
that you have a warrant out foryour arrest.
SPEAKER_00 (04:48):
Now, I would caution you.
So let's assume you've seen itbefore.
Okay.
Because there may be cases whereyou think you're charged, where
the charges haven't actuallybeen, like police tell you.
There's people who call us andthink they're charged, but they
haven't actually been arrestedyet.
Okay.
So they may not be in thesystem.
Exactly right.
SPEAKER_02 (05:05):
Okay.
So let's say that they do findout when that first court date
is through their bondsman,through the magistrate, through
their attorney, and they havethis first court date.
What should they be wearing thatday?
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Okay.
So...
Don't wear shorts.
Wear a nice shirt.
Don't wear a t-shirt that sayssomething like legalized
marijuana.
Or Spuds McKenzie.
Or Spuds McKenzie.
I would say don't wear anyt-shirt.
I mean, I know a lot of peoplein the courthouse wear t-shirts.
Maybe it's because I'm an oldman and it's going to get off my
lawn moment, but I just thinkyou should wear, it can be a
(05:40):
polo shirt with a collar on it,but t-shirts, because what it
was, so somebody had thist-shirt that had a big political
statement on it, you don't knowwhat the politics are of the
judge that you're in front of orthe prosecutors in that court.
So if you have something that'smaking a political statement and
the prosecutor is responsiblefor deciding whether to go
(06:01):
forward in your case or give youa good deal or not, sees that,
all of a sudden they thinkdifferently about you.
So don't be an idiot.
Wear just a nice colored shirtand a nice pair of slacks and
come to court early and walk inwhen the courtroom doors open
and sit down and wait for yourname to be called.
SPEAKER_02 (06:18):
Yeah, I think the advice advice that I usually
give to clients is don't wearanything that's going to bring
attention to yourself right Imean you don't want the
prosecutor saying is that yourclient back there that's wearing
that whatever the whatever itmay be right
SPEAKER_00 (06:31):
which is the so earlier you talked about so
sometimes when there's peoplecome in a full-blown suit right
and that does bring attention toyourself because you're the only
one sitting out there in a suitnot that I won't criticize you
for wearing a suit I'm justsaying you're going to be the
only one in there with a suitand look and it does make a good
impression though because theopposite of what we said before
the prosecutor the judge issitting there saying geez one of
(06:53):
those defendants they're in asuit they must be pretty
professional so all of a suddenyou have a different perception
and you think well geez what isit they were charged with maybe
that's a bullshit charge yeah
SPEAKER_02 (07:05):
you're bringing attention to yourself for the
right reason in thatcircumstance so okay now people
have decided okay this is whatI'm going to wear to court I'm
not going to wear the t-shirtI'm not going to wear the shorts
I'm going to look professionalwhere do they go so there's two
courthouses in Bear County.
Where are they going?
SPEAKER_00 (07:20):
Okay, so you go to the Justice Center, not the
courthouse.
The old Bear County courthouseis for the civil court.
The Justice Center is 300 De LaRosa.
The parking garage is right atthe catty corner to it at Flores
and Nueva.
And so if you get there by like830, you can get spots in the
parking garage still.
And then when you walk in, youhave to clear security.
(07:41):
So you can't bring a little penknife with you.
You're not going to be allowedto put that in.
You can't bring mace and yourpocketbook with you.
You're not going to be allowedto bring that in.
You're going to have to removeyour belt when you go through
security.
Just think about it like you'regoing through airplane security.
It's not as tight as airplanesecurity, but imagine it like
that.
Okay, you're going to go throughsecurity, then you go through
(08:01):
into the Justice Center, and atthe bottom of the first steps,
there's two big boards that havewhere each court's located.
SPEAKER_02 (08:09):
Okay, and so when we talk about going through
security, things like that, Iwould imagine that it's
important for people who havecases pending, it's their first
time there, they don't know whatto expect, maybe arrive a little
early.
Yeah, so if
SPEAKER_00 (08:23):
your court starts, some courts open at nine, some
courts open at 9.30, Countycourt nine doesn't call their
docket till 10.
So if you're thinking that Igotta be in the courtroom at
nine, so let me roll up to theparking garage at 840 or 845,
you're gonna be kinda tight.
You gotta walk across thestreet, you gotta wait for the
(08:43):
light, you gotta clear security,and sometimes there's 10 people
in line in security, then youhave to walk through into where
it is and find out what courtyou're in, and then find the
court.
So it's a process.
SPEAKER_02 (08:55):
And sometimes, I always try to use use the old
adage when I explain to clientsabout appearing in court that
being in court 15 minutes earlyis on time and being on time is
late.
There are some
SPEAKER_00 (09:09):
judges who are more forgiving if you come in a
little late.
There are other judges that ifyou come in late, they're going
to take you into temporarycustody and put you in the box.
Now, pretty much always, they'regoing to let you eventually get
out of the box at the end of themorning, but you're going to be
sitting there in custody incuffs because you came late.
And plus, let's not even...
Remember, did you make a goodimpression now in your first
(09:31):
appearance in court that you'resitting there in the box?
Right.
As we just talked about.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (09:35):
And sometimes, I know in Bexar County, when
people arrive to court,sometimes the doors are locked.
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
What does that mean?
So all the courtroom doors arelocked until the bailiff opens
the courtroom doors for you tocome in.
They're not going to have youcome in until the judge is
getting ready to get on thebench and call the docket.
So when you first go to yourcourthouse, to your courtroom,
everybody's going to be sittingin benches outside waiting for
the doors to come.
So I generally have like fourcases set every morning.
(10:05):
So I'm running around likelooking at each door to see
which one opens first, whichgets me to my next point.
If you have an attorney, Don'tbe crying because he's not there
because he's got four or fivecourts.
You have to be in court on time.
Your attorney does not.
Your attorney has the wholemorning to get there, and
they're going to go to differentcourts.
And a lot of times, if they'regoing to your court last, it's
(10:26):
because they have the most to doin your court.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (10:29):
Now, when you go to court, if your loved ones go
with you, are your loved onesgoing to be allowed in court?
SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Generally not.
Usually it's too crowded becauseof how many people are sat on
that docket.
It's not just you sitting onthat docket that morning.
So Usually, only the people whohave cases pending can go into
the courtroom.
And then after around 1030, whenpeople start to filter out and
get their reset dates, then thedeputy will let...
family members come in.
(10:55):
Every once in a while, it's asmall docket and they'll let
everybody in.
But for the most part, thedeputy will stand up and say,
we're going to be crowded today.
Only the people with cases,family members wait outside.
SPEAKER_02 (11:04):
Yeah.
And that comes up a lot becausewe have a lot of circumstances
where loved ones want to bethere in support.
The wives, the moms, the dads,the brothers and the sisters.
And so they show up at thecourthouse with their loved one
in support of them.
SPEAKER_00 (11:18):
Yeah.
And it's fine to be supportive.
So one of the things...
They're your charges.
So we've talked about this manya time.
Sometimes family members arepressuring you to do something
that doesn't necessarily makesense.
Remember, you're the one who hasto pay the penalty if things
don't go well, if you decidethat you don't want to take what
(11:40):
we think is a reasonable pleaoffer and you want to fight it,
not because you think you wantto fight it, because a family
member is telling you you oughtto fight it.
Sure.
Unless they're going to go servethe time with you, you better
think twice about
SPEAKER_02 (11:52):
that kind of thing.
So it's good that they'resupportive, but at the same
time, they're not.
actually the one facing thecharges like you are.
SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
Right, right.
I mean, there are better advicethan the advice you got from the
guy who's been to prison twicein the jail cell when you were
first booked who thinks theyknow everything about the
criminal justice system, but notmuch
SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
better.
So you're in court now.
You've been able to get in.
Maybe your family is waitingoutside in the hallway.
As you get into the court, whereshould you sit?
SPEAKER_00 (12:19):
So it's open seating, but you can't be
standing up.
You can't have a hat on.
So if you have a hat, you bettertake it off before you walk into
the the courtroom and you justfind yourself a seat and sit
down.
If
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
you go in and you're wearing a hat or your cell phone
goes off, what's the consequenceof that?
SPEAKER_00 (12:34):
So if your cell phone goes off, sometimes the
deputy may take the cell phoneand hold on to it until you're
done for the court for the day.
I've had judges make them comeback at five o'clock to pick up
their cell phone.
That was back when cell phonesfirst started.
I don't think that people dothat anymore.
We were around when no such
SPEAKER_02 (12:51):
thing as cell phones existed.
I was around when they had payphones outside the court.
So that doesn't exist anymore.
So once you've found your placeto sit, at some point, the judge
will come in.
Yes.
Now, when the judge comes in,what's expected of you?
SPEAKER_00 (13:09):
So when the judge comes in, the deputy or bailiff,
the bailiff is a Bexar Countydeputy.
And they'll say, all rise.
Everybody stands up.
And then when the judge takestheir seat, the deputy will tell
you to be seated.
SPEAKER_02 (13:20):
And then the judge takes the bench.
And then now it's showtime.
SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
Right.
So she's going to call her.
He's going to call all the nameson the docket, and when your
name gets called, you have tostand up to answer here.
If you don't stand up and youdon't answer here, you may be
marked absent and a warrantcould go out for your arrest for
not showing up to court.
SPEAKER_02 (13:39):
Now, I know that there's times where people are
worried, like, hey, if I go tocourt, is the person on the
other side of the case, maybe?
Let's say this is a caseinvolving a fight between two
people.
Are they going to be there?
Domestic violence case.
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02 (13:53):
Are they going to be there?
SPEAKER_00 (13:55):
No, they're not going to be there.
Generally, that first setting,the...
The first setting, theprosecutors, that's probably the
first time they've ever touchedthat case.
We can go into that in a littlebit more depth after the break.
But most of the time, that firstsetting is just to make sure you
have an attorney.
And that's all that's going tohappen.
You're going to be out of therewithin an hour and a half.
SPEAKER_02 (14:14):
And then a lot of times people worry, hey, at that
first setting, am I going to getrearrested for this case?
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
No, you're not going to get rearrested unless you
didn't meet the conditions ofyour bondsman.
So if your bondsman told you tocall in every week, and you
didn't call in every week, andthen they got off your bond, now
there's going to be a warrantfor your arrest.
So do what your bondsman tellsyou to do.
SPEAKER_02 (14:34):
And generally speaking, as long as you have an
attorney who's experienced, theyknow what they're doing, they
kind of take away some of thatunknown and things that you
might be fearing for that firstcourt
SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
appearance.
There's all kinds of things thatwe can't go through everything
that can come up, but that'swhere our expertise comes in and
we help walk you through it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:52):
So we're coming up on the break, but after the
break, we're going to get tomore of these topics of what to
expect your first day in court.
and Barrett County.
SPEAKER_01 (15:01):
The attorneys of Brick Criminal Defense have
helped over 5,000 clients moveon with their lives.
When an arrest or accusationturns your life upside down, we
have the knowledge, experience,and integrity to get your life
back on track.
Traditional legal ethics, modernlegal tactics, the best defense
possible to get you through thecriminal justice system.
Search Brick Criminal Defense tosee our reviews and find out why
(15:22):
so many of our clients havetrusted us to fight for them.
Brick Criminal Defense, helpingour clients move on with their
lives.
SPEAKER_02 (15:33):
So we're back at So You Just Got Arrested.
From cuffs to courts, adiscussion about what to expect
when you get charged with acrime.
Today's episode, we're talkingabout what you can expect in
Bexar County.
Are there issues that you seethat apply to certain types of
cases, complications that wehave to deal with?
SPEAKER_00 (15:52):
Okay, so one of the frustrations that people have is
the first couple times you go tocourt, nothing's happening.
And then they get frustrated,like, what's going on?
What's happening with the case?
Let me tell you what's going on.
So if you have a DWI...
The case, that first courtsetting, the file is generally
not down there yet.
The DA hasn't done what's calledthe information, the charging
(16:13):
instrument.
And so there is no file.
So you're showing up and thecourt's just going to give you a
reset and you're going to leavewithout anything happening.
Now, a couple of things on that.
So they're waiting for theresults from your blood draw.
It can take up to six months forthem to get a blood draw.
And you may have to come tocourt like every couple of
months and then just tell youit's reset because we don't have
the results yet.
(16:34):
If you blew, it'll be...
They have that evidence rightthen and there, but it still has
to be processed through theintake section of the DA's
office, which is behind rightnow.
So it's still taking like threemonths to get the case filed.
So you're going to befrustrated, like, well, why is
nothing happening in my case?
Because the DA still has to lookat the case.
Do the charging instrument andget the case filed.
(16:54):
And until that happens, there'snot even a case down there for
the prosecutor in the courtroomto look at.
There's another group ofprosecutors who are handling it
at the intake level.
SPEAKER_02 (17:02):
So there could be situations where if you're
accused of a crime, you'reactually having to attend court
and the state is technically noteven ready to proceed
SPEAKER_00 (17:13):
on your case.
Exactly right.
So everyone, we could do thingslike file a motion for speedy
trial, but that's not going toget the case dismissed.
All that's going to get them to,particularly if I have a case
where I'm thinking they may wantto reject it, if I'm pushing
them to hurry up and dosomething with it, they're going
to say, okay, well, then we'regoing to file it.
And that's not necessarily thebest thing for us.
So you have to be patient.
(17:33):
There's going to be a three tosix month process about how this
case gets processed.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
Now, if you're in that situation where maybe the
state's not ready on your case,but you're having to go to court
for this initial courtappearance, are there things
that you're attorney can do atthat court appearance?
Like I think last episode youwere telling us about those
conditions of bond.
You know, maybe some of them arepretty strict.
They keep you from going home.
Can those things maybe beaddressed at some of those
(17:59):
settings?
SPEAKER_00 (18:00):
Correct.
We can file a motion to take youfrom some people are on full
house arrest because they have afamily violence misdemeanor case
or they have no contact withtheir spouse.
And then I can file a motion tochange the no contact to no
harmful injurious contact so youcan still raise your kids
together and things like that.
And so there's all kinds ofthings that we can do.
(18:23):
And also, what I'm also doing isI'm talking.
So it's one thing if you have aDWI that's not really, there's a
blood draw, you were all overthe road, we know it's going to
be filed.
But some of the family violencecases, they also, there's a
three to six month backlog interms of the intake there.
But some of those cases, I'mable to get them rejected
(18:46):
because before they're everfiled.
For a myriad of reasons about,say, just because the victim
doesn't want to pursue doesn'tmean they're going to dismiss
the case.
But I can communicate with, wehave a lot of cases that are
brother against brother.
That wasn't really the purposeof family violence.
And so if two brothers get intoa fight at the five-year-old's
graduation, a lot of times theDA will be like, yeah, as long
(19:09):
as everybody's okay with it,we'll dismiss it.
SPEAKER_02 (19:10):
Not that we're telling people you can go ahead
and beat up your brother, but
SPEAKER_00 (19:14):
yeah.
Yeah, well, I don't understandall the people getting drunk at
five-year-olds parties, butthat's a separate topic for
another day.
Anyway, but- You haven't been toparties in my
SPEAKER_02 (19:23):
family.
Every birthday
SPEAKER_00 (19:26):
party has a keg.
So at any rate, yeah, there'sthings I'm doing to try to see
if I can just get them to decideto walk away from the case.
But that's why it's important tohave an attorney.
If you can't afford an attorney,one will be appointed for you.
But sometimes you just have tobe patient with the system
(19:47):
because we've had good successat BRIC getting some cases that
they've rejected.
And the other thing is, so ifyou have interlock on your
car...
And so we keep going to court.
And then eventually, if we takea plea, and you're required to
have interlock for half the termof your probation, you don't get
(20:07):
credit for that time that youhad at a
SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
pre-trial.
SPEAKER_00 (20:10):
So there's some reasons we want to go quickly,
and there's some times we don't.
And that's something,conversation you have to have
with your attorney to make surethe goals that you have are
communicated to the attorney sowe're all on the same page with,
do we want to push it?
Are we happy to just let it takeits time?
SPEAKER_02 (20:27):
Now, I know, especially in Bexar County,
there are times that I've beenwhere in court clients ask
questions, like, for example, ifthey see me go to the back,
right?
And they see me walk to theback, and then I'm gone for a
little bit, and they'rewondering what's going on.
Can you kind of tell clientswhat's happening if your
attorney disappears to the backor your attorney stays up to the
(20:50):
front talking to the guys at thetable?
Well, I can't talk about that.
That's the secret things
SPEAKER_00 (20:54):
we do behind closed doors.
No.
So- It's the bat case.
Yeah, yeah.
The secret knowledge we have,the secret handshake.
Right.
No, we're just confirmed aboutthe case.
We all know each other.
Sometimes I'm just talkingabout, hey, how was your
weekend?
But so it doesn't—this is myopinion.
(21:14):
Others may disagree.
It doesn't pay to have thatattorney who comes in pissing
everybody off.
Okay.
Attorneys coming in and knoweverybody and have good
relationships with everybody getgood results.
So sometimes it's like, I'mgoing to just say hello to
people because I went to lawschool with them.
Some of them, I used tosupervise when I was with the
DA's office, you know, and sowe're talking.
(21:35):
But then other times we'retalking about, you know, judge,
this client, he's got no contactat all.
I need to get it changed to noharmful injurious contact.
And in the old days, I used tobe able to just get that done.
Now you always have to file amotion and get it set.
It used to be, we were able todo some of these things without
having a formal motion and wecould kind of just get these
(21:55):
things done quickly and easily.
That doesn't happen
SPEAKER_02 (21:58):
anymore.
Well, that raises a good pointbecause I've been to court
plenty of times where maybethere's something that a client
there in court is bringing up tome for the first time.
Like, hey, do you think you canmaybe get this done today?
Or do you think maybe you couldchange this bond condition?
Or do you think maybe I canstart having contact with my
girlfriend who's accused me ofthis crime?
(22:19):
Are there Are those all thingsthat we can always address that
day?
SPEAKER_00 (22:23):
We can't really address them that day because I
haven't filed a motion.
But we'll get it filed and we'llget it heard.
Sometimes I'm not going to beable to get it heard until the
next setting, depending on whichcourt it is.
Every court's a little bitdifferent.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
And just so the people watching are aware, what
is a setting?
What
SPEAKER_00 (22:40):
is that?
Okay, so the first time, whenyou're arrested, your first
court date, it's called asetting.
Everything's called a setting.
The first one's generally calledan arraignment, and then
everything you have after thatis called a pretrial or a
pre-hearing setting.
Once we've said we're not goingto take the plea offer, I need
it set for trial, then you havetrial settings.
And don't think just becauseit's set for trial that it's
(23:01):
really going to go.
Your trial settings generally ina misdemeanor court have about
20 cases set, and we come in andthe oldest case is going to be
first.
first on the list, and then wemay be number 12.
So you're just waiting in line.
We're in line.
And so some of those cases pleadout.
Maybe one gets dismissed, andone goes to trial, and the rest
of that 20 cases get set for thenext trial docket a month down
(23:24):
the road.
But the one thing I wanted tosay, so when I mentioned before
about a lot of times the courtwill just give you a new setting
when you first walk in, I've hadclients repeatedly just walk out
and leave.
Sure.
When I've told them, like...
They're gonna give you a settingdate, because they tell them,
here's your new set date, youcan go.
And they think that, okay, well,I guess I have to go.
(23:46):
But I still want to talk to you.
There's things I'm still tryingto do.
I'm trying to find out, how'syour bond going?
Is there anything we need to getdone?
And then they leave and I'mlike, where are you?
And like, oh, the court told meto leave.
I said, I told you to stay.
I need to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
The general advice that I always give to clients is
when you have court, don't leaveuntil your attorney has told
you, hey, we're done for theday.
You're okay to leave.
But that That raises anotherquestion that people always ask
is, when I'm going to court forthe first time, let's say I've
never been, I have no experiencewith the court system, how it
works, I know I have to be incourt that day, how long should
(24:24):
I expect to be there?
SPEAKER_00 (24:26):
I generally get people out within
SPEAKER_02 (24:28):
two hours.
Okay.
So should I only take two hoursoff of work?
If I'm taking off work, whatshould I take off?
SPEAKER_00 (24:34):
I think it's safe to go in after lunch.
SPEAKER_02 (24:37):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (24:38):
I think you have to plan on being there all morning,
but I think it's pretty darnsafe that I'm going to be done
by lunchtime and you can plan oncoming in after lunch break.
SPEAKER_02 (24:45):
Okay.
And in terms of getting that newcourt date, so you're in court,
you're now wearing your niceclothes, your attorney showed
up, he's talked to theprosecutor.
Smoothing with the prosecutor.
Talk to the prosecutor, talk tothe judge.
He's gotten you your new courtdate.
Do you get something telling youwhen your new court date is?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Depends on the court.
A lot of courts will just tellme and I'll go tell my client,
okay, we're coming back.
Like today, it was August 23rd,okay?
So I tell them August 23rd and Imake my, bring out your, put out
your phone, put it in thecalendar, make sure you have it.
And then we put it on ourcalendar And then because you
have representation, our officedoes notify you the day before.
(25:32):
But it's your responsibility toget to court, not us, our
responsibility to get you.
But I did want to talk about thefelonies because they're
different than misdemeanors.
Sure, absolutely.
Whenever we're ready for that.
Yes, absolutely.
Okay, so everything we weretalking about before about
misdemeanors, DWIs, familyviolence cases, and there's 13
different...
(25:53):
misdemeanor courts that handlecriminal cases, two that handle
just civil.
So you could go to any one ofthose courts.
If you're in family violence,it's going to be either seven or
13.
Everything else goes to all thedifferent courts.
The difference is on a felony,once you first get arrested,
they have six months to get youindicted if you're on bond,
(26:14):
which is Obviously, we'retalking about you going to
court.
If you're in jail, they bringyou to court.
You don't have to worry aboutgoing to court.
So if you're on bond, they havea long time, and you get one
pre-indictment setting, but allthe pre-indictment settings are
in one court.
It's Magistrate Najera's court,and he's on the second floor of
the Justice Center.
SPEAKER_02 (26:32):
And so just to clarify, a pre-indictment
setting is just where you'regoing to court before your case
has officially been indicted orformally charged.
Correct.
So it's not technically pendingin any specific district court.
at the time.
SPEAKER_00 (26:45):
Exactly right.
And so say, I've worked out likea pre-indictment plea once in a
while, and you don't know whatcourt it's going to, so once we
do, we do the plea in front ofJudge Nahara, and then we get
assigned out to be on probationwith whatever the next court up
is.
SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
So if somebody has one of these court appearances
to make before, on a felony,before their case has been
officially indicted, are theyalways going to Judge Nahara's
court?
Yes.
Okay.
Always.
And that is, you said where,
SPEAKER_00 (27:13):
on the second floor?
Second floor.
So If you walk up the steps,turn to the right, there's the
first courthouse on the right,first courtroom on the right.
He's very pleasant.
They have really goodprosecutors in there.
But the prosecutors, there's twoprosecutors who go into that
pre-hearing court every day.
They are not, once again, theintake prosecutors.
But they do have the ability totry to work stuff out, agree to
(27:33):
lower bonds.
A lot of times I'll go in there,my guy may still be in custody,
and I can go in there and getthem to agree to a bond.
Or like I was doing with anotherof our clients the other day, I
got them to agree to waive thefees on the GPS monitoring
because, you know, GPS is globalpositioning.
A lot of people on bond forviolent crimes, they have a GPS
monitor on their ankle.
(27:54):
Right.
Okay.
And they can get pricey.
And so there's all kinds of,some of them are full house
arrest so that we can get the DAto agree to partial where you
can go work because we need youto go work so you can pay for
your attorney.
SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Sure.
Absolutely.
Or you can be a productivemember of society.
SPEAKER_00 (28:07):
Exactly right.
And show you're a greatcandidate for probation because
you've been doing well andpaying your taxes and productive
member of society.
So
SPEAKER_02 (28:15):
I know that when it comes to these first court
appearances, people getintimidated by them, you know,
and people get scared becausethey don't have experience going
through these things.
And so it sounds to me as if ifthey follow your general advice
of, hey, dress respectfully forthe court.
(28:36):
Don't wear something toooutlandish or something that's
going to draw attention toyourself.
Get there, giving yourselfplenty of time to find parking,
plenty of time to get throughsecurity.
You know, show up to court.
When you get into that court,listen for the judge.
And when the judge calls yourname, stand up, say that you're
there, and then follow theadvice of your attorney
(28:58):
afterwards.
It sounds like maybe it's a mucheasier process or, you know, not
as intimidating as a lot ofpeople have in their heads.
SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
Right.
And I'm not saying you shouldn'tbe nervous when you picked up a
criminal case.
It's nerve wracking.
Sure.
I can tell you that if you havea misdemeanor, you're not going
to go to jail unless you getprobation and mess it up.
Okay.
Okay.
Felony is a different matter.
You could be looking at serioustime.
But the attorney can explain allthis to you.
And when you know how it works,it's better than it being a
(29:28):
mystery.
Now, what I always tell myclients is, I guarantee you I'm
going to get the best resultpossible.
You may not like that bestresult, but we're going to get
you the best result.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
Absolutely.
And best result means differentthings for different cases,
right?
Right.
And so I For example, I knowrecently you've had success in
trial and court where peoplehave gotten acquitted, but then
there's cases where you'redealing with the facts that
you're given, and maybe somebodyhas to end up taking a plea
bargain of some kind.
SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
Right, right.
There's cases where we can't goto trial on this.
We have nothing to argue.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
When people are going to court for the first
time, is there any additionalbit of advice that you would
have for them?
SPEAKER_00 (30:12):
So I'm just going to reiterate, be patient.
Don't get into more trouble.
Anything we're trying to do tomake this the best result
possible can be helped by youdoing things like, hey, I
enrolled in college.
Hey, I have a good job now.
We can communicate that to theprosecutor and the judge to get
you the best result possible.
SPEAKER_02 (30:30):
And that's it for us today on So You Got Arrested.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_03 (30:36):
Thanks for listening to So You Got Arrested.
If you found this podcasthelpful, share it with someone
who needs to hear it.
For more legal insights and realtalk from the front lines of the
Texas justice system, follow usand subscribe.
And remember, brick criminaldefense has your back.
For more information, visit usat brckdefense.com.
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