Denton Criminal Defense Lawyer

Misdemeanors are heard in the County Criminal Courts and felonies in the district courts, all at the Denton County Courts Building at 1450 E. McKinney Street. Your court assignment appears on your bond paperwork, and your first setting usually comes within a few weeks of release.

Booking at the county jail, a magistrate setting bond, then release on bond conditions. The criminal case follows with a first appearance in your assigned court at the Denton County Courts Building. The earliest days are when video can still be preserved and, on a felony, when the grand jury can still be addressed, so the defense should start immediately.

Denton County arrests book at the Denton County Jail in Denton, run by the Sheriff's Office, and a city arrest may sit at a municipal jail first.

A magistrate sets bond within 48 hours of booking, and the amount and conditions can be argued before that hearing. A bondsman posts a surety bond for a fee; a cash bond is refunded when the case ends.

Some are. Felonies can be no-billed by the grand jury, charges can be rejected or reduced at intake, and suppression of illegally obtained evidence can leave the State unable to proceed. Whether any of those paths is open depends on the evidence, which is why we pull the full discovery file first.

Yes. Every Texas felony goes to a grand jury before indictment, and the grand jury can return a no-bill. We prepare a packet with the evidence the police report leaves out and present it before the case is voted on. It is the earliest point at which a Denton County felony can end.

It varies with the charge level and whether the case is headed to trial, and we are direct about numbers at the first call. The consultation is free, we offer payment plans, and we quote a flat fee so the investment is known before you commit.

Not usually. The first appearance and any plea or trial setting require you in person. Many of the settings in between are announcements your attorney can handle, and we tell you before each one whether you need to be there. Cases are set at the Denton County Courts Building on East McKinney Street, and missing a required setting forfeits the bond, so the calendar matters.

A misdemeanor often resolves in a few months. A felony that goes through the grand jury and the district courts usually takes longer, and a case set for trial longer still. The pace depends on the court's docket, the lab, and how quickly the discovery arrives. We tell you at the first setting what the realistic timeline is for your Denton County court.

Often not, but nobody can promise that from the charge alone. On a first misdemeanor the realistic range usually runs from dismissal through deferred adjudication or probation, and jail is the outcome at the far end rather than the default. What moves a case toward the good end of that range is the evidence, the mitigation put in front of the prosecutor early, and whether anyone has actually tested the State's proof.

Yes. The Denton County District Attorney's Office runs a pretrial diversion program, and the county also operates specialty court programs. Admission is discretionary rather than automatic, it generally favors first offenders, and it is applied for rather than offered. Completing diversion ends the case without a conviction, which is why it is worth raising at the first setting and not after a plea has been discussed.

The same courts as any other Denton case. UNT and TWU have their own police departments, but the charges they file go to the Denton County District Attorney and are heard at the courts building at 1450 E. McKinney Street. What is different is that the university opens a separate student conduct case, which moves on its own schedule and can suspend or expel you on a lower standard of proof than a court uses. Both need answering, and what you say in one can be used in the other.