A Texas Teen Manipulated by an Online Predator
In Texas, sexual relationships between an adult and a teenager are illegal; the only exceptions are “Romeo and Juliet” relationships, where the older partner is a very young adult and the younger partner is nearing the age of majority, such as a relationship between an 18-year-old college freshman and an 16-year-old college junior. The idea […]
Texas Embezzlement News Roundup
The financial crime that seems to get all the press these days is identity theft, in which the perpetrator steals from the victim by impersonating him or her, but it is certainly not the only illegal way to misappropriate money. Embezzlement, in which a person who is given access to money in an official context […]
Fort Bragg Soldier Arrested for Aggravated Sexual Assault for 2013 Ax Attack
The difference between simple sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault is that the latter causes serious bodily injury to the victim. The 2013 attack for which Pfc. Levi Austin Goss is accused is one of the more horrific sexual assaults to make headlines in recent memory. Goss is currently awaiting extradition to Texas from North […]
Governor Abbott Commutes Sentence of Death Row Inmate Bart Whitaker
Although 31 states currently allow capital punishment for the most serious crimes, only about a fifth of people sentenced to death since Gregg v. Georgia, the 1976 Supreme Court decision that reinstated the death penalty, have actually been executed. Many death row inmates have died of natural causes, effectively serving a life sentence after being […]
The Rise and Fall of Jody Nelson, the Texas Oil Executive Convicted of Embezzlement
Embezzlement is a type of fraud in which a person uses his or her position of employment to divert funds to himself or herself, through deception, from clients or from the company where he or she is employed. It is not simply a matter of stealing from one’s employer; the employee of a bulk candy […]
Sexual Violence in Texas
Lawyers who work with sexual assault cases know that there is a lot more variation in sexual assault cases than just the stereotypical view that you often see on TV. Thanks to awareness campaigns, most people now know that not all sexual assaults take place when a woman is walking outside alone at night and […]
Dallas Pulmonologist and Others Receive Prison Sentences for Medicare Fraud Scheme
Health care fraud is any act in which someone commits a deceptive act involving health care for his or her own financial gain. It most often involves doctors or patients providing false information to health insurance companies, but physicians accepting financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies in order to prescribe their drugs also counts as health […]
Texas Bank Robber Peggy Jo Tallas Inspires Hollywood Crime Thriller
Hollywood makes financial crimes look glamorous, but most felonies would not make very interesting movies at all. If any state can be the site of crimes interesting enough to inspire exciting popcorn flicks, though, it is Texas. In the early 1990s, Peggy Jo Tallas perpetrated a series of bank robberies that will form the plot […]
Lawrence v. Texas Reversed a Texas Law Forbidding Same-Sex Relationships
In some instances, it is clear that a sexual act was a sexual assault, for example, if the act was forced despite the fact that the victim attempted to fight off the attacker. In other cases, sex acts clearly count as sexual assaults because the victim was clearly unable to give consent because of his […]
The Alford Plea: A Guilty Plea Without the Guilt
If you have ever watched a TV show about crime, then you know that there comes a point in every criminal law case when a judge asks the defendant to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Of course, there is more to entering a plea than simply admitting guilt or maintaining innocence. Entering […]