Last month, the U.S. Attorney’s office began prosecution on the nation’s first international domestic violence case.

The case arose out of a domestic violence assault by 35-year old Eduardo Mendoza Hernandez, a Mexican customs officer working in Nuevo Laredo, in early 2009.  Hernandez and his wife were separated when he went to talk to her at her home in Laredo.  After fighting, Hernandez forced his wife and two kids to go to Mexico with him.  Later after more arguing, Hernandez allegedly shot his wife in the stomach.

Hernandez was found guilty and sentenced to 48 months of prison.

If you or someone you know has been charged with domestic abuse, contact the Houston domestic abuse defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

Yesterday, former LJA Engineering CFO 47-year old Christopher McCullough was sentenced to 51 months in jail and ordered to pay back $3,787,737 in restitution to his former employer.  After spending time in federal prison, McCullough is to serve three years of of supervised release.

McCullough was caught embezzling over $3.7 million from LJA to his own personal accounts.  The over 200 transactions included withdrawing money from LJA to spend on personal taxes owed to the IRS, the purchase of stock, and construction and real estate expenses for homes in Houston and Estes Park, Colorado.

The court’s decision stated that, “It was McCullough’s transportation of the embezzled cashier’s check from Houston to Colorado to pay for expenses related to his Estes Park home that was the basis for the federal charge of interstate transportation of stolen property”.

If you or someone you know has been charged with a federal crime, contact the Houston federal crimes defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

The Houston chronicle reported new statistics showing that violent crime has fallen 8 percent in Houston in the first half of the year, while property crimes such as theft and burglary continue to rise.  Furthermore, theft and burglary crimes are only cleared by arrest in 8 percent of burglary cases and 15 percent of theft cases.

If Houston’s violent crime rates continue to fall as they also are across the state and country, Houston could reach a low of 1,000 crimes per 100,000 residents.  This would be the lowest since 2000.

Houston Police Department authorities insist that they key to reducing Houston’s overall crime rate is to take greater efforts to reduce property crimes.

If you or someone you know has been charged with theft, contact the Houston theft attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

July 30th, 45-year old Michael Green of Houston was exonerated on charges of rape from 1983 after spending 27 years in prison.  DNA evidence that was not used when he was charged and convicted showed that he was not guilty of the crime.  Green, then 18-years old, was convicted after the rape victim identified him in a photo array and lineup.  Green was sentenced to 75 years in jail for the crime he did not commit.

The DNA evidence was also able to identify the four men who were involved in the rape, three of whom admitted their guilt.  The statute of limitations has ended on the case and none of them men can be prosecuted for the crime.  However, three of the four have been to prison for other crimes, and two of them remain behind bars.

Green’s 27 years in prison is the longest any exonerated Texan has spent in jail.

If you or someone you know has been wrongfully charged with a crime, contact the Houston criminal defense attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

Houston law enforcement officials argue that for years they have seen a correlation between the rise in the temperature and the rise in crime rates in the area.  For example, in August of 2009 there were 31 murders in Houston.  This past January, there were 19 murders in Houston.  There were also considerably less rapes and robberies in the winter months.

Dr. Luis Salinas, a professor of Sociology at the University of Houston, believes that when temperatures reach above 85 degrees fahrenheit crime rates begin to increase.  ”The theory basically says that the heat effects our hormones, our hormone levels and especially testosterone…It starts to make people more aggressive with the heat,” stated Salinas.

However, once temperatures get above a certain point, law enforcement officers believe that crime rates will begin to decrease again.  ”We started chasing a suspect and after two blocks he just dropped.  He was dehydrating and we basically saved his life,” said Officer Felipe Gallegos.

If you or someone you know has been charged with a crime, contact the Houston criminal defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

A Houston man was released from prison last Friday after investigators from the district attorney’s office determined that he was not involved in the robbery and rape that kept him locked up for 19 years.

39-year old Allen Wayne Porter was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for robbery and sexual assault.  Porter was accused of being one of three men who broke into a drug dealer’s home in southwest Houston in search of $30,000 and drugs.  The men abused the four occupants of the apartment and raped two women repeatedly.  Despite testimonies that he was not involved in the robbery and a lack of DNA evidence connecting him to the crime, the  court found Porter guilty.

Friday, Porter was released on a recognizance bond awaiting a final decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

If you or someone you know has been charged with sexual assault, contact the Houston sex crimes defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

Eloise and Daniel Mireles were recently convicted of stealing $255,000 from their local district attorney’s office in Harris County.  The couple was sentenced to ten years of probation, plus several conditions including spending at least one month in jail every year, ten years to pay back the $255,000, and wearing signs that say “I am a thief.  I stole $255,000 from a crime victim’s fund”.

Eloise Mireles was convicted of stealing money orders and cashiers checks while working as an administrative assistant at the Harris County office’s victims’ rights division.  The money and checks were restitution funds paid by convicted criminals.

In addition to wearing the signs for five hours every weekend on a street corner for ten years, the couple has to hang a sign on their front door stating, “The occupants of this residency are convicted thieves.  They stole $250,000 from the Harris County Crime Victims’ Fund”.

If you or someone you know has been charged with theft, contact the Houston theft defense attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

In 1993, Texas legislators created the state jail system in order to house non-violent criminals with charges like drug possession and theft, or first-time offenders.  They feature individual housing and rehabilitation treatment programs.

Recently, some lawmakers are questioning whether the system has been successful or not.  Recidivism rates are higher than regular prisons and some believe that the original model of the system needs to be reconsidered.

On the contrary, others like Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire disagree, stating, “We created this system to take all the low-level drug offenders and property criminals out of state prisons so we’d have enough room to keep the violent offenders behind bars longer.  The system has worked well”.

If your or someone you know has been charged with a criminal offense, contact the Houston criminal defense attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

A Houston pilot, 46-year old Todd Ewanko, was arrested on six charges of possession of child pornography earlier this month in a huge child porn bust in Houston.

Investigators found the largest collection of child porn they had ever seen including six encrypted hard drives with images of sexual abuse in Ewanko’s possession.

Harris County Sargent Gary Spurger stated, “This is the most we’ve seen in the Houston-metro area”.  Furthermore he said, “He was making things available for people to share right there on the Internet”.

The first folder investigators looked at on the computers and laptop confiscated from Ewanko’s apartment had over 1.2 million images.

If you or someone you know is facing pornography charges, contact the Houston pornography law defense attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

On Monday, a former Florida teacher was sentenced to ten years in prison for having sex with two underage students in 2008.  In addition, the Tampa Bay judge order a fifteen year sex offender probation after her release from jail.

31-year old Stephanie Ragusa plead guilty in April to three counts of lewd and lascivious battery involving a 14-year old boy, and two counts of having unlawful sex with a minor involving a 16-year old student.  Ragusa has been in prison since 2008 when she was arrested.

Prosecutors tried to illustrate Ragusa as a manipulator to the jury,  while the defense argued that Ragusa has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.

If you or someone you know has been accused of a sex crime, contact the Houston sex crimes defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.