Friday, March 13, 2009

Texas Probation - Driving With Suspended License

Ok, here's where it turns sour, and the system starts to show its ugly side. Sometime in 2002 or 2003, I got a ticket in Gun Barrel City, TX for not having the minimum insurance requirements on my car. That was definitely my fault (although I don't believe in insurance - it's just a way for rich people to protect their precious assets - and ends up being a scam for taking all of the poor's money). So, I took my ticket and went on my way. This happened before the law was passed that you get your car towed if you didn't have insurance, so thankfully I skipped out on that misery. But there was another law that had just come into play that I had no idea about...

Right around this time ('02-'03), some genius thought it would be for the better of the people that there be enacted a "surcharge" program. This law would state that anyone convicted of certain offenses would, on top of paying the fine and doing whatever else the charge entailed, have to pay a surcharge to the State every year. Anyone not doing so would get their license suspended. A letter would come to the address that your license was registered at stating that you would have to pay the charge. I, at the time, was pretty much homeless, and living all over the place, so I never got the letter. I had already paid off the fine, and thought that I was in the clear altogether.

One night, driving with friends in Denton, TX, a cop whipped around when he saw us driving by. We had committed no offense, only that it was 4am and we were all craving Taco Bell. After following us for a mile or so, and seeing that we were pulling over at the restaurant, he hit his lights on us and proceeded to check everyone's IDs. I felt calm knowing that I had no warrants and I was doing nothing wrong. He told me I had a suspended license, and I had to go to jail. None of my friends were allowed to take my car.

After a year in court, I finally got 15 months probation. A year and a half sentence for driving with a suspended license. Not to mention that I had already paid the insurance ticket, I had to get my car out of vehicle-jail, I had to get myself out of jail, I had to pay court costs and a State-appointed lawyer fee, the 3 year surcharge, which was about $250 year, plus I got another surcharge of $150 for another 3 years for driving with a suspended license! The whole thing ended up costing me around $2000 dollars.

They were happy to put me on probation, even though there was no way I could have afforded it. If I hadn't had a solid support system, I could easily have gone to jail over and over for this one little thing. I think it's ridiculous to have to go to jail for something so trivial.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

About Me/Disclaimer

My name is Benny Banks, and I'm from the Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX metroplex, and experienced a few troubles. This blog is about my experiences with Texas probation, and how I fared through them. Of course, I feel that a lot of my experiences are unjust, so there will be some disparaging remarks. However, the blog itself is meant to be educational, and I hope that it helps anyone reading it by giving an insight about the inner workings of the Texas probation system.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Probation in Texas for Class A Misdemeanor Assault

First off - what a joke! A class A Misdemeanor assault. That basically means nobody got hurt lol. Well, it hurt me plenty - I got a year probation, my pockets drained, and free work for the "community".

Back in those days, I had a friend that I hadn't seen in a very long time, and I got a call from him out of nowhere after not seeing him in about a year or two. We caught up a little bit, and then we decided that we were going to meet up at his apartment, play a little catch-up, and get drunk. Sounded good.

I didn't know that he was bringing his uncle with him, and I didn't know his uncle at all. He was sometimes quiet, sometimes loud and boisterous. But they were family - there was no kind of tension whatsoever.

At the liquor store, my friend and I decided on getting a bottle of Southern Comfort to split between the two of us. His uncle got himself an entire bottle of tequila to himself, and the girl with us got herself a bottle that she knew she wouldn't finish, but she didn't want to drink what we were drinking. After arriving at the apartment, my friend's uncle proceeded to smoke many bowls of marijuana through a Coke can throughout the night.

Long story short, we all started getting rowdy and wrestling around the tiny apartment. My mind went blank, and everyone later on told me that they didn't remember anything either. I ended up in jail that night, though, and my friend went to the hospital. I had no idea why.

We still don't know what happened to this day, but the uncle pressed charges on me. Almost a year after I met him, I finally found out that he has some mental deficiencies, and his prescription drugs on top of large amounts of alcohol (his own plus the other girl's unfinished vodka) didn't help his disposition at all.

I tried to defend myself in court by showing that the uncle is notorious for trying to get people's money like this, and showing that his drug use impaired his memory. I honestly do not believe that everything went down the way he said that it did. The jury was almost set on hanging me, but there was one objectionable juror who wouldn't agree. I guess he/she decided to change their mind lest they have to hang out in the courtroom for another day or two.

Nobody has a clue about what happened that night, so there was already tons of reasonable doubt. But in the end, justice, and Texas probation prevailed.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Probation in Texas for Contributing to Delinquency of a Minor

Ok, so I'll start off the first of my circumstantial series of why I was on or am currently on Texas probation. I hope that maybe someone will find all of this information helpful in some way or another.

The first time I actually got sentenced to probation in Texas was for a charge called Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. Basically, it means that in some way, shape or fashion, I provided someone under the age of 18, or in this case 21 the means to drink alcohol. I guess it would be the same as buying a 15 year-old a pack of cigarettes.

I did buy alcohol for minors that day. I was 24, and my girlfriend at the time was 19, I think. So, right out of the gate, that's a class B misdemeanor. Aside from that, there were a bunch of younger people at our house. We were having a huge party, and about 50 or 60 people showed up, and lots of people brought friends that were underage, etc. Well, I suppose everything would have been fine, but someone got into a fight, and cops were called, so by the time they responded, most people had left except for me, my girlfriend, and a couple of other friends. Since my name was on the lease of the home, I got the Contributing charge.

I got probation for a year, but I asked the DA if he would please lower it, because I was trying to go back to Japan, which I was. He knocked it down to 9 months for me, and I completed it just fine. I can't remember how much the fine was, but I had around 50 hours of community service to do, which I procrastinated on and finally knocked out.

Basically what I got from this fiasco was that, if you want to have a party, you had better be checking IDs at the door, because if someone comes in that's underage and there's alcohol all over the place, you could catch a case. In Texas, if you try and have yourself a party in a neighborhood, you're probably going to get the cops called on you anyway for being loud. This basically means that if you don't have the money to go and rent a spot away from everything, or you don't have any land (no neighbors), then you probably shouldn't have a big party, or else you're probably going to end up on probation.


Sunday, March 1, 2009

Texas Probation Stipulations

Ok, I lied. I said this Texas probation post was going to expand what I already posted about my charges and kind of delve into what the circumstances were surrounding the charges. But I had something else on my mind, so I'm going to postpone that series of posts for a second and just kind of go over all of the restrictions that the state of Texas can impose upon you when you're put on probation.

A lot of this is through my own experience, so I'm sure I'll leave a lot of things out. I'm no lawyer by any stretch of the imagination - not even a jailhouse lawyer.

So, a lot of the stipulations that you are given depend largely on the crime in question. The state government wants to make it seem like it's doing its part in rehabilitating its probationers, so it will impose some classes and meetings that are mandatory depending on the crime. For example: if you were arrested and put on probation for Driving While Intoxicated, please expect to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for the duration of your probationary period - most likely a year or a year and a half. If you have anxiety and you don't like to get out of the house much (probably why you're an alcoholic in the first place), then you better find a way to get around this, quick. Forging signatures is a little risky, because while AA is "anonymous", and your probation officer won't usually check, they do have ways to find out if you've been going. This is probably the most tedious and painstaking part of probation, but accepting it will get you through it.

On top of AA (or NA for you narcotic-types), a DWI will probably get you a victim impact class (even if there is no "victim" - guess what? The victim is YOU!), a drug offender program and after an assessment of your drug use, you could get Supportive Outpatient Treatment or Intensive Outpatient Treatment - which basically is a bunch of meetings and drug tests. All at your expense! You can get free SOP and IOP at certain places, but the drug offender program, victim impact, and most other classes will require you to pay around 100 to 200 dollars. You can also be required to take Anger Management, if your crime had to do with violence.

Another stipulation of probation - one I could probably write an entire post on, and probably will (and a song) - is community service. This is, in my opinion, the worst part about being on probation in Texas. Not only is it working for free, it is often humiliating work, and shady rules surround who you can work for. Going to work at a place where people talk down to you all day after getting off your normal job, or school, is a punishment that is excessive. Especially after all the classes and fines.

Expect to get most of this tacked onto your monthly supervision fee, if not all of it. Also expect to stay in the county you were convicted in (they'll usually let you transfer, but then you must stay in the county you transfer to), expect to maintain a full-time job or go to school full-time, and if you drive, be prepared to keep your license up-to-date and all tags current on your vehicle. Failing to do any of these things can result in violation (even though usually they don't - try and stay cool with your PO - don't kiss ass, just be cool).

Texas Probation - 8 Out of 10

I guess I've been on Texas probation for over half of the 10 years I've been back in the state. I was overseas for quite some time, and the lifestyle I led there was a very liberal one - although I did get in a bit of trouble there too - lol.

So, maybe it will help someone if I just went through all of my bs charges and whatnots. Maybe you'll understand your own case better, or maybe it'll make you feel better that you can mess up so many times and still be "free". I don't know, but I'm hoping that someone can get something positive out of it all. What I'll do is go ahead and outline what's happened to me in the last 8 to 10 years and I'll expand upon each case in individual posts - that way I can shorten this article a little.

Came back from Japan in February of 2000.

Contributing to Delinquency of Minors - late 2000 (probation for 9 mos)
- Henderson County, TX
Assault - Class A misdemeanor - 2001 (probation for 1 year)
- Dallas County, TX
Driving with Suspended License - 2004 (probation for 15 mos)
- Denton County, TX
Possession of Controlled Substance - 2006 (deferred probation for 5 years)
- Henderson County, TX
Possession of Controlled Substance - 2007 (deferred probation for 4 years [concurrent])
- Dallas County, TX

I had a violation for the first controlled substance charge, so the deferral was revoked, and normal probation instated. I also violated on the suspended license charge, and sat the rest out in jail - which is also a noteworthy post for the future: "Why You Should Never Take Texas probation - Just Sit it Out."

I guess a good next post will be explaining the circumstances surrounding the first probation. These charges are only the charges that I ended up getting probation on.

Welcome to my Texas Probation Blog

I can't believe I didn't do this a long time ago. I hereby start my Texas Probation blog, and I'll just be documenting all the stuff that goes on while I'm under the Man's thumb. lol. Basically, I'll just be examining all the red tape and restrictions that a person goes through while on probation in Texas.

I'll also dig up some statistics so that you can "see" (what they want you to see) some of the numbers and facts that make up our great rehabilitation programs here in the great backwards state of Texas.

So sit back, get a calculator, and tally up those community service hours, and I'll be back with some goodies for you here at the Texas Probation thingy I got going on here.