Have you been arrested for a crime in North Richland Hills, Texas? If so, you need to partner with a criminal defense attorney with the experience and track record to ensure your freedom is maintained and that you have a plan of action to get your criminal case dismissed and get your life back!

What Should You Do If A North Richland Hills Detective Has Called You?

If you are facing a crime in North Richland Hills, it is likely that you learned about this by either being arrested or receiving a phone call from a detective conducting a criminal investigation. What should you do if you received a phone call from a detective? What if you are innocent? Should you agree to meet the detective and answer all of his questions and tell your side of the story? BEWARE!!

If you choose to go down to the North Richland Hills Police Department and be interviewed by a detective, you need to know what to expect. First, this interview will not be what you expect it to be. All criminal detectives are trained to be kind to suspects to get them to be open to an in-person meeting. At the meeting, you will be interrogated. Specifically, you will be asked closed-ended questions demanding a yes or no answer and presented with information that makes it appear that you are guilty regardless of your response.

Unfortunately, you will not be given an opportunity to tell your side of the story in a fair manner. If you persist in meeting with a detective, never forget that you have a 5th Amendment Right to remain silent! Unless you invoke your 5th Amendment Right, you will not obtain the benefit of it. As a result, it is critical that if you ever begin to feel uncomfortable with a police encounter or interview, you can always say, “I take the 5th” and then be quiet afterward, refusing to answer any questions. Why? Otherwise, everything you say can and will be used against you in court. Words can easily be misinterpreted or twisted by the detective and manipulated to establish probable cause that could lead to an arrest warrant.

You do have an alternative – hire an experienced and aggressive North Richland Hills criminal defense attorney to do the talking for you! By hiring a criminal lawyer, you have invoked your 6th Amendment Right to Counsel, which prevents the detective from being able to approach you or talk to you about the criminal investigation. This prevents the detective from trying to claim your body language or failure to answer questions was a sign of guilt.

If your criminal defense lawyer does the talking for you with the detective, it can NOT be used against you. Under Texas criminal law, the communication between your criminal attorney and the detective is labeled hearsay and cannot be used against you in a court of law or be used against you to develop probable cause for an arrest.

The reality is this – the detective either has enough evidence to arrest you or he does not. The last thing you need to do is help the detective by trying to prove your innocence and your statements being manipulated to result in an arrest and criminal charge. Make the smart move in this situation – hire a criminal attorney!

What Should You Expect After An Arrest?

Did a police officer pull you or a loved one over for a traffic stop and the encounter led to an arrest? Maybe a North Richland Hills police officer came to your home and served an arrest warrant on you or a loved one and hauled you off to jail?

If you have been arrested for any offense other than a Class C Misdemeanor, you will be brought to the North Richland Hills jail, booked in, and held until you can be transferred to Tarrant County jail. All county offenses with a range of punishment of 180 days or more in jail must be processed through the Tarrant County jail.

Upon arrival at the jail, which can take 12 – 24 hours, you will be booked in and arraigned by a Tarrant County magistrate judge. The judge will inform you of the criminal charge against you and set a bond. You do not have a right to an attorney at this hearing because its primary purpose is to inform you of your charges, set bond and determine any necessary bond conditions.

Upon a bond being set, you can now have your family members post a bond. Unfortunately, even though you were arrested for a North Richland Hills crime, Tarrant County jail routinely takes 48 – 72 hours to process someone in and out of jail. The county jail is notoriously slow and the time frame to be released can take even longer if you don’t set up a time to turn yourself in to expedite the process.

Upon release from jail, it usually takes 1-2 weeks until you receive notice of your first court date. It is critical during this time that you hire the best North Richland Hills criminal attorney to begin defending your criminal case. Between the time you are released from jail and your first court date, there is a tremendous amount that can be accomplished by your criminal lawyer to defend you.

For example, if you were arrested for a felony crime, your criminal defense lawyer can obtain the evidence, reach out to the prosecutor, and begin to prepare an evidence packet to a grand jury. In Texas, every felony crime must be presented to a grand jury. A grand jury can hear evidence from both the prosecutor and the defense and has the option to keep the crime a felony, lower the crime to a misdemeanor offense or no bill the case. A no bill is the equivalent of being exonerated of all wrongdoing and makes you eligible to have the arrest and charge expunged from your criminal record in the future.

Why People in North Richland Hills Should Choose Jeff Hampton to Fight Their Criminal Charges

North Richland Hills criminal defense attorney Jeff Hampton uses his familiarity with police procedure and prosecutor strategies acquired during his time as a prosecutor in Tarrant and Collin counties to build the most compelling and persuasive defense to criminal charges. These efforts may include exposing improper procedure by the police, such as Miranda violations, unlawful searches, suggestive lineups, reliance on dishonest informants, contamination of evidence, and much more.

Mr. Hampton aggressively challenges the admissibility, reliability, and sufficiency of the evidence against his clients. When your future hangs in the balance because you have been charged with a misdemeanor or felony in North Richland Hills, Mr. Hampton provides the expertise of a proven former prosecutor to minimize the impact of a criminal case on his clients’ lives.

Not only have his strategies proven to be quite effective, garnering incredibly positive results for many of his clients, many in the legal profession have taken notice as well. He has been recognized by a number of well-respected institutions, including:

Avvo. Not only has he earned their top rating – a 10/10 – Mr. Hampton has also been named a Top Attorney in both Criminal Defense and DUI & DWI for 2022.

Lead Counsel. Jeff Hampton became Lead Counsel Rated in 2017.

National Trial Lawyers. From 2014 through 2022, Mr. Hampton has been named to both their Top 40 Under 40 list and their list of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers.

Fort Worth City Magazine. Jeff Hampton has been honored as a Top Attorney in Fort Worth from 2016-2022.

Of course, Texas criminal law is complicated. Awards and results mean much more when the lawyer in question is able to successfully take on your particular type of charge.

North Richland Hills Criminal Charges

Because of Mr. Hampton’s experience handling hundreds of criminal cases as a prosecutor in two separate Texas counties and as a Richland Hills criminal defense lawyer, Mr. Hampton is qualified to deliver zealous defense in a wide range of misdemeanor and felony criminal cases which include:

Do not panic if the crime of which you are accused is not listed here. We may still be able to help. To find out, simply reach out to our office and explain your situation, and we can tell you what options you have available to you.

Simply put, North Richland Hills is not a place that sees a whole lot of crime.

According to Area Vibes, violent crime here is 56% lower than the Texas mean, and 51% lower than the country overall. Property crimes are 18% and 7% lower, respectively.

The area is far more well-known for being one of the top suburbs of Dallas and having a great local waterpark. For having a parks and rec program that is nationally recognized.

Because of this, when someone gets arrested in North Richland Hills, it is a big deal. A criminal arrest for a felony or misdemeanor puts more at stake than incarceration, it also threatens your reputation, job, family, and career/occupational license.

People take notice, and local law enforcement agencies are not afraid to crack down hard to send a message in the hopes of keeping others from engaging in similar acts.

While this might be good for the area as a whole, it is less than ideal if you happen to find yourself on the wrong side of the law. Getting arrested in North Richland Hills for a serious criminal offense can be a scary and anxiety-riddled experience.

Even when a person is wrongfully accused, the knowledge that the full resources of law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor’s office have focused their sights on forcing you to defend your freedom, reputation, and future is an extremely daunting prospect.

Whether you are the victim of mistaken identity, false allegations, overzealous police, shoddy forensic testing, or an unfortunate error in judgment, you need the skill and experience of a proven North Richland Hills criminal defense attorney to defend your interest. Jeff Hampton has been helping people in and around NRH deal with their charges for years, and he can help you, too.

North Richland Hills DWI Attorney

Were you arrested for a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) charge in North Richland Hills, Texas? Being charged with a DWI is a serious matter than carries with it both civil and criminal consequences. It is critical to retain the services of an experienced and aggressive North Richland Hills DWI lawyer that can explain the law and work to defend your freedom and your future.

The first issue you must be aware of if you are facing a DWI arrest is possible suspension of your Texas Driver’s License. Under Texas DWI law, you have 15 days from the date of your DWI arrest to request an administrative license revocation hearing (ALR hearing). Failure to make the request in writing to the Texas Department of Public Safety within 15 days of your arrest will result in an automatic suspension of your license 40 days after the date of your arrest.

After requesting your Administrative License Revocation Hearing, your DWI attorney can file a motion for discovery and obtain evidence regarding the facts of the traffic stop, DWI investigation and arrest. This information can be used by legal counsel to prepare a defense before an administrative judge to save your driver’s license.

If your license is suspended by the judge, the length of the suspension will be determined by whether you consented to a breath or blood sample. If you consent to a breath or blood test, the suspension for a first offense DWI will be a 90-day driver’s license suspension. However, if you refuse to provide a sample of your breath or blood, the court is permitted to suspend your driver’s license for 180 days. This is not to say that you are prohibited from driving. You have the opportunity to have your DWI attorney file for an occupational driver’s license to allow you to drive your vehicle while you fight your DWI case.

What Is Required To Prove A DWI In North Richland Hills, Texas?

Under Texas DWI law, the State of Texas, through the district attorney’s office, must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following elements of the crime of DWI: you must have been operating a motor vehicle, in a public place, while intoxicated.

What does it mean to be intoxicated under Texas DWI Law? Intoxication is defined as either: a loss of the normal use of your mental faculties because of alcohol or drugs, OR the loss of the normal use of your physical faculties because of alcohol or drugs OR an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher at the time of driving.

Traditionally, the way that a North Richland Hills DWI officer determines the loss of mental or physical faculties is by administering standardized field sobriety tests. Field sobriety tests were developed by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration as a means to determine someone’s sobriety at the roadside. There are three primary tests found to be reliable by courts: Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, Walk and Turn Test and the One Leg Stand Test.

The problem with DWI sobriety tests is that they are only useful as evidence for the State of Texas if they are administered and interpreted properly.

For example, if the DWI officer fails to administer the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test properly, it has been ruled by courts to be unreliable as a sign of intoxication. As a result, the best DWI lawyers thoroughly analyze whether the North Richland Hills DWI officer held the stimulus 12-15 inches away from the subject, did they make the passes with the stimulus as provided by the training manual and did they interpret the results properly. If your DWI lawyer is able to identify errors or failures to follow protocol by the DWI officer, this evidence can be used to establish reasonable doubt sufficient to show there was a lack of probable cause for your DWI arrest.

Finally, if you are arrested for DWI and taken to the North Richland Hills jail and asked to provide a sample of your breath or blood, it is important to understand that you have a right to refuse these tests and require the police to obtain a search warrant from a judge establishing probable cause sufficient to compel a blood sample from you. By consenting to a breath or blood sample, you will have removed the requirement by the police to establish probable cause to a judge to obtain a warrant. It is critical to know your rights when being questioned by the North Richland Hills police department.

If you do provide a sample of your breath or blood, your DWI lawyer must thoroughly analyze the breath test machine or blood draw to determine if procedures were followed and testing protocols were followed.

For example: if a DWI blood draw is performed by the North Richland Hills police department, it is critical to determine a few of the following facts:

  • Was the person drawing the blood a “qualified technician?”
  • Was the blood vial sealed properly? If not, a byproduct of spoilage from a vial that was not sealed is the presence of alcohol.
  • Was the chain of custody properly established by the police?
  • Did the lab properly evaluate the blood?
  • How long after the operation of the vehicle was the blood taken? The longer it takes to obtain a blood sample, the less reliable the blood is in proving intoxication.

Another example: if a DWI breath test was administered by the North Richland Hills police department, it is important that your North Richland Hills DWI attorney analyze these issues:

  • Was the Intoxilyzer machine properly maintained?
  • Was their .02 agreement between the samples?
  • Did the Intoxilyzer operator administer the test properly? Was the waiting period followed? Did the operator make sure there was nothing in the mouth that would have affected the quality of the breath sample?

These are a few of the issues that an experienced and aggressive DWI lawyer should look into when defending a DWI case in Texas.

The Sooner You Get in Touch with Jeff Hampton about Your North Richland Hills Charge, the Better!

The stress of dealing with the criminal justice system and the prospect of jail or state prison can be overwhelming. Despite the intense apprehension that is commonly experienced when a person is arrested, you have more control over your situation than you may realize.

If you refuse to answer questions and immediately invoke your right to have counsel present during any questioning, the exercise of these basic Constitutional rights can have a significant impact on the outcome of your criminal case.

When you retain a North Richland Hills criminal defense lawyer at this early stage of a criminal case, there are many benefits that accrue to a person facing criminal charges. Mr. Hampton can represent your interests during police interrogations, observe police lineups for improprieties, influence the prosecutor regarding charging decisions, conduct independent tests of forensic evidence, and interview witnesses.

North Richland Hills criminal defense lawyer Jeff Hampton relies on careful investigation of the facts, extensive analysis of police reports, and thorough current knowledge of the law to provide zealous advocacy for the future of their clients charged with crimes in North Richland Hills.

Bottom line: Jeff Hampton tenaciously defends his clients’ Constitutional rights and freedom with the full force of his experience, knowledge, and skill. Mr. Hampton understands the critical importance of safeguarding his clients from meritless accusation or an error in judgment.

Reach out to us today to see how we can help. Call us at 817-826-9885 or contact us via email at jeffhampton@thehamptonlawfirm.com today to start protecting your tomorrow.