Short Jail vs Long Probation, City Council Member DWI, Why Is Your Case Taking So Long

Send us a text

If you're being charged with a crime in San Antonio, use the link below to schedule a free consultation where we'd be happy to discuss your case with you: https://seanhenricksen.com/schedule-consultation/

The criminal justice system often presents defendants with difficult choices that can profoundly impact their futures. In this episode, we dive into one of the most challenging dilemmas: whether to accept a short jail sentence or lengthy probation. After a viral TikTok video showed someone celebrating nine years of probation instead of 30 days in jail, we explore why this might not be the victory it appears to be. The extended probation period creates nearly a decade of vulnerability where any misstep could result in severe consequences—potentially much worse than the original jail sentence.

We also address a frustration many defendants experience: why criminal cases seem to move at a glacial pace. From waiting on crucial evidence like body camera footage and lab results to understanding how prosecutors prioritize cases, we break down the factors that contribute to delays and what you can realistically expect during the process. For those seeking dismissals or heading to trial, we provide perspective on timeline expectations and management.

The recent arrest of a city councilwoman for DWI—the third such incident involving council members in three years—provides a timely case study on what to do (and not do) when encountering law enforcement. We discuss practical strategies for protecting your rights during traffic stops, including when to remain silent and decline field sobriety tests. Plus, we share preventative measures like using personal breathalyzers that could help you avoid DWI situations altogether. Whether you're currently facing charges or simply want to be prepared, this episode delivers essential guidance from an experienced criminal defense perspective. 

Download our free guide "Five Things You Should Be Doing Right Now If You've Been Arrested" from the show notes and reach out if you need personalized assistance with your case.

Advertisement

Sean Henricksen Law Firm

[e-mail]

210-405-6410

106 S. St. Mary's St., Ste 445

San Antonio, Texas 78205

www.seanhenricksen.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Hi and welcome back to another episode of what to
expect when you're arrested.
This is your host, seanHendrickson, here from the Sean
Hendrickson Law Firm, where wehelp good people like you avoid
the devastating consequences ofcriminal charges.
Today, we're going to betalking about a few things.
First off, which is better?
Is it better to have 30 days injail or end up on probation for

(00:23):
nine years?
The next thing we're going totalk about is why your case may
take longer than you wouldexpect it to take.
And, lastly, we did have a citycouncilwoman who was arrested
last week for DWI, so we'regoing to talk about that a
little bit as well.
First off, before we do getstarted, I do have a free
download for you if you'reinterested.
It's five things you should bedoing right now if you've been

(00:46):
arrested.
You can click down in the notesbelow and there's a link there
and we can send that right outto you.
There was an interesting thingthat I noticed last week.
So I've got a TikTok accountand I kept getting notifications
from a video that I had posteda few years back.
And I went and I looked at thatand a bunch of the comments

(01:06):
talked about people coming therefrom a different video and I
looked into it a little bit moreand there was a video that had
gone kind of viral on TikTokwhere this guy was thanking his
attorney for getting him nineyears of probation instead of
him ending up on in jail for 30days, and a lot of people in the
comments thought that that was,you know, just a crazy thing,

(01:28):
that you know you should just doyour 30 days in jail instead of
being on probation for nineyears and honestly, you know, I
kind of feel the same way.
Also, if those are your onlytwo options, the problem with
being on probation for that longis that there's so many things
that could go wrong.
You've basically got to beperfect during that entire time,
do everything that they ask youto do, check in regularly and

(01:50):
not get in trouble for thatentire nine years.
If you do have any problemsduring that time you're on
probation, the state is going tofile a motion to revoke your
probation and if the judge findsyou did violate any of the
conditions of your bond, thenthe judge can.
You did violate any of theconditions of your bond, then
the judge can sentence you tojail, and probably for a lot
longer than 30 days, and sothere's a big risk for of being

(02:13):
on probation for that long, andI, for me, if those were my only
two choices, I would probablydo the 30 days in jail instead
of being on probation for thatlong, and, you know, just
risking it.
I'd rather just get it donewith and not have this hanging
over my head for almost a decade.
In reality, though, I thinkthat there's a third option that

(02:33):
we should be looking at.
If they're willing to do just30 days in jail, then why are we
talking about nine years ofprobation?
I think that I'd work ongetting that nine years down to
a much lower number, and youknow, and you know getting a
reasonable offer.
Those numbers are just so farapart that that they don't

(02:53):
really make sense, and so,without really knowing anything
about the case that's probablyyou know I think a better option
is at least, you know, get abetter offer before making that
decision.
Another thing that I wanted totalk about and I get this
question from a lot of people,some people who I am
representing and some people whoare coming in for consultations
is they don't know why theircase is taking so long, and

(03:18):
ultimately, there can be a lotof reasons why a criminal case
can take a lot longer than youwould expect it to.
For me personally, I want yourcase over with, just like you
want your case over with, whilegetting a good result.
We don't want to end your casejust to end it and end up with
you taking a bad deal, but we dowant to get a good result for

(03:38):
you as quickly as possible.
But ultimately, you know,especially during those first
court settings, in a lot ofsituations we still are waiting
on some of the discovery.
We may not have the body cam.
If this is a case where there'slab results, like a DWI or a
drug case, we may still bewaiting on those lab results to
come back in, and so that'swhat's happening a lot of times

(04:00):
on those early settings, and theprosecutors haven't really had
a chance to review your case atall either.
They're usually more focused onthat case that is set for trial
next week that they are workingon preparing for.
So the offer that we may get atthat first setting is just
going to be based off of thepolice report, which is always
written in a way to support theofficer's decision to arrest you

(04:22):
in the first place.
Now, later on, it could takelonger, because most people want
their case dismissed, andthat's what I want for my
clients also is I want to gettheir case dismissed, if there's
some way to do that.
Ultimately, though, thedecision on whether to dismiss a
case and when to dismiss a caseis up to the prosecutor, and

(04:43):
again, we're kind of back atlooking at what they're worried
about, and they may not befocused that much on your case
until it's time for them toreview it and actually make that
decision about is this case acase that they're going to take
to trial, or is it a case thatthey are going to dismiss?
Case that they're going to taketo trial or is it a case that
they are going to dismiss?

(05:03):
And so a lot of dismissals thatwe do get come, you know, later
on, kind of on the eve of trial, and so if that's what you're
going for, then your case maylast longer than normal.
And then the third possibilityis, if your case is one that's
going to go to trial, then,basically, you're just kind of
in line for your case to end upat trial.
There are a lot of cases aheadof you, and, ultimately, the

(05:26):
judge is looking at those oldercases, or if somebody's in jail,
then that case may get priority, but your case may get set at
trial several times before itactually does go to trial.
I know that it's frustratinghaving to, you know, sit there
while your case, just you, justit feels like nothing is
happening on your case.
But ultimately your choice iseither take a deal or wait for

(05:51):
your case either to getdismissed or to go to trial.
And if you don't have a gooddeal, or if this is a case where
you do want a dismissal,unfortunately you may just have
to wait for a little bit on that.
The last thing that I wanted totalk about was there was another
city council person who wasarrested last week on a DWI and

(06:11):
it doesn't look like a body camis out or anything like that,
and it looked like she refusedthe breathalyzer.
So there's no blood results.
So we don't really know, youknow, I guess, if she even was
intoxicated or not, and if shewas, we don't know what that
that blood number is going tocome back at.
But ultimately you know what isgoing to happen on a case like

(06:31):
that.
So when she got out of jail,the press was there and she
already is apologizing to it,which generally.
I would just recommend notmaking any statements about your
case, because you know thatcould be used as an admission of
guilt if this case were onethat goes that ends up going to
trial.
So a couple of things that Iwant to mention about this case

(06:52):
and about the fact that we'vegot another city council person
that's been arrested.
One is that this is the thirdcity council person who's been
arrested in three years for DWI,which is much higher than the
city average.
So why are city councilmengetting arrested so often?
And the only thing that I couldthink of is that, as a city

(07:14):
council person, they have to goto a lot of events while they're
campaigning and everything, andat a lot of these events
alcohol is served, so they'rejust have more of an opportunity
than most people do to consumealcohol and then drive.
It's definitely not an excuseor anything, and we'll get to
that in a second.
But the other thing that Inoticed that's interesting about

(07:35):
this is that all three of thosecity council people have hired
the same defense firm torepresent them, which just is an
interesting fact.
Doesn't mean anything one wayor the other, from what I
understand, they are very goodattorneys and everything so, but
it's interesting that they'reall hiring the same law firm to
represent them.

(07:55):
The second thing that I want totalk about is what could she
have done differently in thissituation?
So, apparently, she was at anevent, she said she was coming
from a club or something and shehad some drinks there.
So what she should have donedifferently?
So, first off, it's completelylegal to drive after you've had

(08:18):
some drinks, so long as you'renot intoxicated.
So one thing that I alwaysrecommend people do is that they
check themselves before driving.
If they are going to driveafter having something to drink,
obviously the best thing to dowould be to call an Uber or have
somebody else drive home, butthat's not a requirement under
the law.
The problem, though, is thatpeople don't know when they're

(08:41):
above 0.08.
It's not something that peopleregularly test themselves on,
and so most people really aren'tgoing to know if they're
legally intoxicated or not.
That's why I, you know, just alittle handheld breathalyzer
from Amazon to test themselvesbefore they drive, and that way

(09:02):
they've got something more to gooff of than just you know.
I feel pretty good, you know,or something like that they can
actually you know test theirblood alcohol.
It's not, you know, superaccurate.
It's not going to be allowedinto court or anything else, but
it's a way that you can testyourself to make sure that
you're below the legal limitbefore you start driving.

(09:22):
Looking over the news reports ofwhat did happen when she was
pulled over, apparently she didadmit to coming from a club.
She denied having had anyalcohol to drink, which
apparently she did have the odorof intoxication, an odor of
alcohol coming from her, and shedid do the field sobriety tests

(09:42):
.
What I always recommend topeople anybody who's pulled over
, whether they've been drinkingor not is, if an officer starts
asking you questions aboutdrinking or anything like that,
if they're investigating you foranything more than that initial
traffic stop, then at thatpoint you need to exercise your
right to remain silent.

(10:02):
Tell the officer that you wantto speak with an attorney and do
not do any field sobriety tests, because what it all comes down
to is the police are trying toget more information on you Once
they start smelling alcohol orhear that you're coming from a
bar.
They're just trying to get moreinformation, because either of
those two facts is not enoughinformation to arrest somebody.

(10:25):
They need more information toget probable cause to arrest
somebody, and so they're goingto ask you how much you've had
to drink?
When was the last thing thatyou had to drink?
They're going to ask you whereyou're going to if you know
where you are, if you know whattime.
It is a lot of other questionsto get more information, and if
they get enough information,including those field sobriety

(10:45):
tests, to believe that they haveprobable cause to arrest you,
then they're going to arrest you.
If they don't get to a pointwhere they have probable cause,
then you get to go home.
You've got no obligation at allto prove that you're okay to
drive, and that's why I alwaysrecommend not talking to
officers in that situation,because you don't want to get it
to a point where they do haveprobable cause to arrest you if

(11:07):
they don't have that already.
I hope all this information hasbeen helpful for you.
If you have any questions aboutany of this, you can always
feel free to email me my emailaddress is in the notes or you
can always give me a call at210-405-6401 or schedule a free
consultation.
If you're being charged with acrime here in San Antonio, we'd

(11:28):
be happy to discuss your casewith you and let you know how we
can help you out.
If you have any questions, letme know, and I hope you have a
great day.