The question: How do police prove a drug-based DWI without a blood test? The short answer: They do it through observation, blood testing, and a (theoretically) specially trained officer called a Drug Recognition Evaluator. The Intoxilyzer 9000 (the standard breath instrument used in Texas DWI cases) measures alcohol only. It does not detect cannabis, prescription […]
By Deandra Grant, J.D., M.S., ACS-CHAL NATIONAL EDITION — AND A WORD ON THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE The Gavel of Shame usually reads the public discipline files of the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Now and then a case from another state is instructive enough to be worth opening here. This is one […]
A sixteen-year domestic relations judge from the Cleveland Celebrezze political dynasty bypassed Ohio’s random case assignment rules to hand-pick lucrative divorce work for the family friend she told colleagues she was in love with. The Ohio Supreme Court suspended her from the practice of law. The county prosecutor put her in jail. THE QUICK […]
By Douglas E. Huff | Partner, Deandra Grant Law | Dallas, Texas In March 2026, Apple released iOS 26.4. Buried in the release was a change that has (quietly) reshaped the landscape of mobile-device forensics. A feature called Stolen Device Protection, or SDP, which Apple introduced in iOS 17.3 in early 2024 as an opt-in […]
Most people who are not lawyers do not think much about criminal discovery. It sounds like procedure which is the dry, technical part of how a case moves through the system. But discovery is the work of getting the truth into the courtroom, and the rules that govern what each side is required to turn […]
SCRAM, Ignition Interlock, Soberlink, and the New Wave of Wearables — What They Are, Who Makes Them, and Where the Science Breaks Down By Deandra Grant, J.D., M.S. (Pharmaceutical Science), ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist If you have a DWI case in Texas, there is a good chance a monitoring device will become part of it […]
How Harris County district judge Lori Gray earned a Public Warning from the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct THE QUICK ANSWER In October 2025, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a Public Warning to Lori Gray, a Harris County criminal district judge. The Commission found that she failed to rule on […]
A study published earlier this year in the peer-reviewed journal Comprehensive Psychiatry took a careful look at a question that often goes muddled in the courtroom: does using cannabis make you cognitively impaired in some lasting, measurable way or does that depend entirely on how a person uses it? The answer the researchers reached, simplified: […]
By Deandra Grant | Deandra Grant Law | Dallas, Texas On May 28, 2026, the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction and death sentence of Terry Pitchford, a Black man on Mississippi’s death row, ruling 5-4 that the state trial court never properly evaluated his claim that prosecutors had unconstitutionally struck black jurors at […]
How Wilson County Justice of the Peace Jared Shaw earned a Public Reprimand from the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct THE QUICK ANSWER In March 2026, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a Public Reprimand and an Order of Additional Education to Jared Shaw, a Justice of the Peace in Wilson […]