Alcohol Drug Dependence Lawyers Recovery Substance Abuse

That line, yeah! It was like dog ate my homework shit, a hundred one creative reasons she couldn’t pay her rent and she lied to all of them convincingly! We believed our over daughter was sick, it was that. Now I have a character witness who can testify against the state’s witness. They have an opinion based on personal experience with this person that they’re dishonest. Is it going to win the case for you? I as… better didn’t take a beating! Okay! So then we go over to Odessa and we look at that one prior they promise she’s got. Now the last thing you think you’re going to want to read when you’re looking through a closed file in the Act of County Court Ounces State’s Pleadings, what could possibly be in there right? We’re low and behold after the 3707 notice and the 404B notice and their request for discovery and bla bla bla! State’s Notice of enhancement, in addition to the other prior felony from Odessa, they have a 1996 importation of marijuana case from the western district of Texas in El Paso.

Holy Jesus! This lady’s been done

by the feds before and they feds are now telling me, the state court case in Odessa is the only one she’s got. Well I don’t think that prosecutor was lying to me, I just think maybe the clerk in El Paso was inundated with files, may be this one just didn’t make it in to the system but the only way we found out, she had another prior because we went and we turned the pages and I don’t have any NCIC check, I can’t get on the computer and get a criminal history much. But there in the State’s pleading was her prior conviction and all the way we got it was paper cuts, and stand there looking. You never know what you’ll find if you’ll just dig. You know class B misdemeanor domestic violence against a woman is a crime of more turpitude in Texas. You would be stunned how many peace officers have moved around from different jurisdictions resigned voluntarily because now that they’re in Mulch Texas and they moved from O’ Jasper. Go look and find out!

He might had little right hook foreplay with his wife before they went to the trailer one night and she called the police I mean you know that’s how some people are. And now he’s the higher sheriff you know getting all fog horn legal, “wow! Never touched a woman in such a manner, is this despicable creature? I’ll treat this later, here today,” ah really? That’s not what your 3rd wife said! or what we found in Lubbock, you know what would you think if… maybe ordinarily admissible or not but just the general character of your client if you learned that there’re 35 college educated in 4 times, not one not two, not three but four times, that person is voluntarily relinquished custody of their paternity of their child.

That’s a drug cop in Lubbock right now. What kind of sleaze just [sound] [spawns] out children yea straight walk from it. I mean damn! A go, and we get to trust you, not only on an affidavit but you saw the furtive gesture that you picked these drugs up off a him. You know when you class… no man I deal weed, I don’t sell crack, [west] guys says he bought an ounce of you, that’s Bullshit! I miss with that kind of waiting forever. You know with this guy, it might be worth looking at, the only way, it comes up in Facebook, if you go open the file, find out where they live, another when they can be fruitful. Find out where their hometown is! I live in little place called “Igloo”, there’s a section of the library in the high school that has every year book from Igloo high school. Find up where somebody grow up. You know he’s junior Joe cop now, who was this person in high school, have they changed? Leopard didn’t often change their spots. May be they have, may be they it unnerves the fire outta people though if you just learned it, they’ll shake up a little bit if they know, you been in their backyard.

Now we got two cops in Lubbock, I don’t knew them where they were in high school at Igloo when I tell, I [lube] principles in the ministrations Tim Spans is not motorcycle cop in Lubbock, they turned white ash and [speaker laughs] and their blood [speaker laughs] pressure changed “He was a hellion” you know Perry Mo, hell of this what passed forced, Oh my God! Not that they’re dishonest, just really rambunctious. You know [like] my cousin Vinnie, we got to see that clip from one of the best movies ever. What is that great cross come from, he went to the scene and Dia those little things on that the big thing out-front, what is that? The tree? Yeah! Yea! And then things sticking out of the tree, the big long was branches? Right! And those little green things all over what? Leaves! Because he went to the scene, he painted the picture one word at a time.

Time, date, angle of sight, I saw him do what? Officer says “We’re under surveillance, we saw people coming in and out of the house!” Go to the house! Drive down the street! Get with that officer would have been parked! Are there fences? Are there cars in the yard? Do you have a clear line of sight? Sometimes it’s just that simple or they’re out there night and they say they’re look over here in between over here where they are, is a street light. Well that kind of obscures your vision, it affects it, it does everyone! It’s logical stuff. Look for security cameras, man if its anything they’re shopping mall or business, it is stunning how many businesses is not only have cameras inside but outside as well and if you’re quick enough Oh they’ll play like they don’t have it, don’t want it but sometimes you can subpoena and get it.

What time of year was it? When’d you get this case? You know, me and frank some other people and rick are standing at the window just staring at the rain because you know we didn’t have that in a year in Lubbock, we want to go play in it but from the looks of this, it’s like you know an 800 year old Jewish guy is going to build another big boat and start gathering animals two by two. We don’t have any [brush] in Lubbock, we have tumble weeds but we don’t have any trees but maybe you live somewhere around I-35 of East, we’re depending on the time of the year, they’re may have been brushing the way that obscures vision but in the winter, may be the leaves fall off and okay they could see it. Check it out! Your basic tool kit, go over to home depo or series get you an empty plastic box throwing a notebook, a legal pad pen paper, get a 100 foot tape like they used to use at the shot-put competition at high school at junior high.

Get you a pocket knife cause you wouldn’t believe how many things you need to open, you want to use little scale it’s like the little cheap, you’ll get a volley ball for $8 you can get like 5 soccer cones. They’re floras and orange, if the dog eats them, they blow away you haven’t lost anything, you can set him down, you can do distances, you can do measures a quarter. If you take a picture of a bullet hold and play board you know I grew up shoot and I’m a red neck from Waco, did sack a memo work, no more fire alarms and some small South American countries, I can approximate a 9 millimeter, 38 or 45, a 10 millimeter but most people can’t! Help them out, put a dime out there, put a nickel, the edge of a pencil, when you take a picture, put it in context, keep it in reference.

Video and still camera is extremely helpful, those little flip phones with a tripod, you can put it on the hood of a car and at first people are nervous to apprehensive if you’re interviewing a witness but within about 30 seconds to a minute, especially if its little and you said it to the side of, remember all those 60 minute interviews? Rarely are they looking right at the camera, put the camera off at about a 20 degree angle to the person, be very aware of your background, what’s there? You know out doors are good, trees are good, background make sure it’s not gang sign and stuff like that, you know the serious family portraits are always good, wood paneling, not the beer add or the snitches dye T-Shirt, those aren’t good. You want a memory stick and you want some sort of power code, I can’t tell you how many times you give your kingdom for a 30 foot extension code and you didn’t fit all that in a truck of a file.

Keep thinking even when you think you know and you know which next pick ready we’re going to have a good break, if it’s a goods chase, okay chase it down! I learned that from Helen Legit, assistant federal defender in Lubbock, she would get, Helen you’re letting these people running around, these clients would tell her wild [ass] stories and she go check them out and go check them out, go check them out, look! It showed the client she was working. Well you know I went down there and I asked so and so, he didn’t say what you said [darn] well eventually they started to figure out, this lady works odd and I can’t outwit her and she builds up a trust relationship when she says “You can do whatever you want to, we can try this case build it, hand shook out too good for you on the fact you might want to take this deal to US attorney’s [offering]”. Yea! You’re right, you don’t have this arm twisting, you don’t have to go through all that, but once in a while you’ll find the nugget and when you do it is [Tick sound] Oh Gee homerun good! What’s left out and why, anywhere you can get momentum and credibility do. That’s all go dig and dig hard, do you’ve any questions, items of discussions, anything you can think of for investigation

my name is Edward and I’m an alcoholic and you’re supposed to answer “Hi Edward, let’s start again”, My name’s Edward and I’m an alcoholic!
now most assuredly, I am not in recovery! I quit drinking about 10 o’ clock last night.

I really I would have drank longer, but I couldn’t find anybody at the place that I was at.

But never the less, in a work as lawyers, we are so much involved with people who are in the aftermath of something involving obsessive behavior, whether its alcohol or control substances or obsessive check writing or kleptomania or family violence in some former fashion that we are constantly hearing talk about treatment and things related to treatment so when they invited me to come and said of course you have to do an afternoon breakout, I thought well we’ll talk about 12 step programs, just kind of few introductory stories. When in my work when we have a client and we’re just finished signing up the case. We hopefully got a written contract and got a retainer and we’re saying good bye at the end of the first meeting. I generally like to say to the client that there’s three things I want to tell you as you go out the door.

the first is “Don’t commit any crimes while I’m representing you” if you do, you’re wasting my time and your money! The seconds is “Don’t talk about your case, don’t put your business on the [streak]” whoever… you know maybe with your wife in a certain context depending on the situation. Generally, don’t talk about our work, let me do all the talking, you’ve got some complaints about me? Come talk to me!
And the third thing is “Pay your lawyer!” cause that’s your job is to get the lawyer paid, so the part that’s relevant here is the part about while I’m representing you, don’t commit any new offenses. At the end of the case, if the client’s not in prison, we often say “Our relationship will change, it’s going to be different now” but keep this in mind.

In the future of course innocent people get accused and if you get accused you something we want you to call us. But basically we want you to think well of the work that we did and that the outcome was right whether its dismissal or some other result. We want you to think well of us, because we rely on all clients and other lawyers for referrals and so, we rather have you refer us business than be our business in the future! And that kind of ties in with that first rule of don’t commit any offenses while I’m representing you. But you know throughout our careers in every day in our lives as lawyers, we hear about treatment, Treatment for sex offenders, Anger management treatment, substance abused treatment, that word treatment constantly offers to suggest some choice in [incarceration] or treatment.

Harris County of you wanted to get substance of abused felony program; you have to be first be in county jail for 3 or 4 months until there’s an opening, because they admit people through the county jail. But that word treatment is always floating out there and I don’t think that we on our work as lawyers spend as much time as we might thinking about what treatment means, how treatment is available and how treatment may succeed and may fail depending on the whole , the whole big picture of what we do as lawyers. I told [Rick Walter] this story two earlier day. Long time ago I was with the group of the attorneys who had the opportunity to meet the attorney general of United States of America, then [Jennet Reno] and before [Waco].

We’re down in Washington DC, [Gold Stan] was probably there, some other attorneys, we have an appointment to meet the attorney general, we are loaded with our questions for Jennet Reno. She comes in with in with her age [wonder] big conference table and she starts talking, and she carries on about how important criminal defense lawyers are to the criminal justice community now. She’s always supportive criminal defense lawyers and yes she knows Jeffrey Weiner in and we carry on and she goes on a bit and she says she know before I leave, there’s one thing I want to leave you with and we started thinking, “Oh you mean we don’t get to ask questions, we don’t get to tell you what we think of justice department policies here and there and everywhere?” and she goes on and she says what concerns we search about defense lawyers is that as professionals, they often fail in a major part of their obligation to the client, because when the case is over, they walk away from the client and walk away from the case and they are done, they feel like they have no more responsibility!

We as professionals and members of a caring community ought to be concerned about what happens next, what happens when the case is over and I’m informed that Jennet Reno is one of the first pioneers in the development of specialized course to provide service opportunities for people with very special problems. Now feel real bad about happened in Waco and therefore damaged her legacy as attorney general of the United States. Now! I’ve been reading lately a book that George Glass gave me, George Glass is a clinical physiatrist in Houston, some of you George who, he’ll testify, he’ll treat, he’ll… he’s a good guy and he gives me this book “Triumphs of experience” the men of the Harvard grant study in 1938, 200 men were set aside, a pro… men, approximately half college freshmen and approximately half people obviously in a blue color trajectory. Today those men as old as 91 years old, the study has gone on a longitudinal study since 1938 and this book was published in 2012 about the results of the Harvard study. Now I haven’t read the whole book but I did turned to the chapters that I cared about, sex behavior to back on alcohol to see what the learned in the longitudinal study.

First as a substance choice that will and human life caused death by disease as between tobacco and alcohol, the worst offender is tobacco! Now most of these men since started 1938 were above the age of opportunity. When we invented marijuana and subsequently other drugs starting in 60’s and 70’s so, that doesn’t factor in a real big way in the study. So tobacco will tear up your body more than alcohol according to the Harvard study. However if you factor in, death in car crashes and death from shootings and death [walk] committing robberies and death committed in a substance abusing culture or situation, alcohol becomes a greater killer.

Because of all the other terrible things that people do when they are fucked up! [Audience laughs]. A third interesting to me principle, that they have determined from studying men from ages 18 to 91 is that the people who use substances in moderation and find that its having an adverse effect on their lives are likely to be able to get it under control and become [abstinent] or effectively [abstinent]. You know the guy that has Margarita in his anniversary is not really having serious problems with the abuse and the people that have a terrible terrible time, that have three day black outs that lose are in danger of losing everything, the worst offenders.

They too have some chance of cure over time without major relapse because they at least have options, they have friends and family people that want to intervene, want to take them somewhere, want to do something. The people who are most likely to relapse and not have a successful cure are the people in the middle, who think they can control it and take care of all of their problems on their own. Harvard study concludes that of all the treatment modalities out there, the one that seems to be most likely successful with the largest percentage of people over time are what you and I would refer to as the 12 step model used by alcoholics anonymous, better than other therapies.

Now! You can go and pay money to have somebody hear about your problems or your client can pay money to have somebody hear about your client’s problems. A physiatrist can give them drugs to deal with the problem, a physiologist can listen and use motivational interviewing or cognitive behavioral therapy, aversion therapy at I think when you take a drug like apotex to make you throw up if you drink alcohol or for men depo-Provera to terminate your sexual desire by swelling up those things that are, by reducing in size those things that are most important to you so there are these things that you can pay for to try to change behavior but Harvard says AA’s got it right that the 12 step program in the community that is implicit or ineffectively involved in all of that seems to be the most successful thing over time. So when we think of 12 step therapies, we often just… that rings a bell that’s alcoholic anonymous but that’s not exactly right. There’s a group called “Check writers anonymous” that needs Saint Luke’s methods charged in city of Houston on Monday nights that took in my client who came from an upper middle class family and for reasons that I can’t fully understand the way that she would get charged up was by over writing her check book and ignoring the results and then worth of check charges would be filed and then her father would go write a check and pay off the merchant. Well eventually you know that stops worth of check section the DA’s office starts running a probation or they start running some jail therapies.

They don’t just drop the charges, there’s no automatic way to resolve the problem so as part of her solution, she’s in 12 step program for check writers anonymous in Saint Luke’s method of charge. In a source of learned knowledge, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, I found a two page list of the organized 12 steps program that are available to our clients to suggest as a condition of release as a condition of you representing them as a condition of probation as a condition of whatever happens next, some way to keep their attention on the situation, the obsessive disorder or the substances order or the genetic disorder. Whatever the cause of the disorder was the behavior was, they wound up in your office charge of the criminal offense and danger of going to jail or prison and you know we always say “Everybody gets one DWI because we’ve all done it” what is it? 200 drunk driving’s will get you arrested one time, you know I’m long overdue. When I was in high school, I thought intoxication meant that I could see two white lines in the road instead of one and that would mean I need to speed up and get home more quickly [Audience laughs] we’re safe! Today I think they have programs for people like me and they probably began with a criminal record.

So Wikipedia says that you can talk about two pages of stuff including but not limited to cocaine anonymous, crystal meth anonymous, co-dependence anonymous. Oh somebody’s starts getting a recovery not only as their life going to change but they’re either going to remove themselves to a new place and family or the environment that their family members and loved ones where friends live in, that’s about to change too. So co-dependence anonymous, deters anonymous, gambler’s anonymous, [hear one] anonymous, marijuana anonymous, nicotine anonymous. So I’m taking to a guy and I’m saying “You know I’m so proud of you, clean for year and a half, the Judge is very proud of you, you’re keeping that dairy, everything is going great” I am kind of disappointed that you’re still smoking! The guy says “Kill the alligator closest to the boat!” so as long as we’re not prosecuting people for smoking cigarettes, that’s going to be his sort of exception to trying to overcome his addictive behavior.

It may will be something that is done for the same genetic or behavioral or social reasons as the alcohol that at least it’s not per say of violation of the law. Sexaholic anonymous, I had a friend is an AA person, who wondered in to a little group at [Saint John the Devine] church in Houston in about January or February. The 12 people sitting around and he thinks it’s a small either [alanine] meeting or alcoholic anonymous meeting and one guy looks at another and says yea! And they were out in the parking lot waiting for the cheer leaders and one came out and I was going to get my smart phone and try to take a picture under her dress and I stopped myself and they said alright, my friend said “What is going on here?” [Audience laughs] he had wondered into the [passible] sexaholics anonymous meeting. Oh under achievers anonymous, under [earners] anonymous and workaholics anonymous, food addicts anonymous. In a big city you can just go to Google and type in the name of your city and alcoholics anonymous and you’ll get a map of places in town where there are meetings. And there are places in all these towns, I know where there is a meeting like Saint Luke’s or Saint John’s but there will be hold facilities, whole facilities such as the outpost on [Fargo] Street in the [Montro’s] neighborhood [a] Houston. There’re places like that in most cities, places under lease or purchase to provide meeting houses, club houses as you will for the mutual support of people that are trying to deal with life’s burdens and troubles.

I was in court in Houston with a client who was trying to get on bond and the judge gave him bail, PR bond, condition, attend AA, keep a dairy every day, bring the dairy when you come back to court, here’s the judge one day in jail or more for any day he misses a meeting. And that’s how we’re going to start out going down this road, so that he does not get caught with DWI and cocaine again while his case is pending. He made it! It worked! We modified the conditions, it didn’t have to be everyday once we went back to court with a clean history, clean UA and a clean diary. Judge wants to work with this in fact the Judge said “You might see me at one of those meetings” the Judge speaking of himself. So you know it’s out there and there’s people out there who will be available to provide help in ways that you might not expect and then for lawyers, I want to mention, I think we’re generally aware of the Texas lawyers association’s program. They’ve got a booth down in our area where there’s a lady from the State Bar and you can slip her a card, she’ll give you a call and it’s for lawyers only, only lawyers kind of take care of themselves pretty well but also in this month’s Bar journal that you just got in your mail this week is a long article about the [Grivin] referral program with the State Bar of Texas, it’s a [fairly] new program about a year or two old. It’s got, according to this article, now since 2010, they now have 230 attorneys they’re participating, two of those attorneys are clients of mine!

There are clients who got into a little problem with the criminal law that might reflect somehow on their fitness to practice law as members of the State Bar of Texas. And we’re able to have an arrangement worked out so that if, when they satisfy the conditions of [Grivin’s] referral program. The [Grivins] filed by their client arising from behavior that was probably the result or associated with their impairment. That Grivin’s is going to be dismissed, it won’t even be a private rep remand. It’s you know the State Bar takes care of its own if you will allow it to. It is there for you. So if you’re client happens to be an attorney, it’s there! And of course if the shoe fits well there we are! So how does all this start, I want to talk about 12 steps of [entry] there’s a reason that’s up there, I didn’t have the PowerPoint and so I got Rick to help me make one up but well, we’ll get to the 12 steps in a few minutes. I want to go back to Wikipedia because those of you who haven’t spent a probably y’all know everything I’m about to tell you but I am going to tell you anyway. There was a group called the “Oxford” group, a Christian organization filled started by an American Christian missionary who was a “Lutheran” and he decided that the way Christianity should work that the good news of Christ coming should be spread around was by one on one and they started to have a little group like little group and one day they were from Oxford Ohio I think it was and they were in South Africa of evangelizing and ponder on this train, [roadway] train in South Africa wrote down Oxford on the window of their cabin and that’s how they started calling themselves “The Oxford Group”.