New Non-Disclosure Limitation

By Fred Dahr Attorney At Law (Fred's blog click here)

Fred Wrote on his blog August 20, 2007:
"The Legislature recently enacted another eligibility requirement for non-disclosures.

After September 1, 2007, a person petitioning for non-disclosure cannot have been convicted or put on deferred adjudication for another offense while on deferred for the offense they wish to seal.

For example, you successfully complete deferred adjudication for theft. However, while on the theft deferred, you picked up a deferred adjudication for assault. You will now not be able to petition to seal the theft deferred.

If you are on deferred adjudication probation and pick up another offense, it is now more important than ever to fight the new charge."

Senator Craig's story, sounds like a deferred adjudication.

By Valente Gonzalez
August 31, 2007

When I first heard this story, I thought that Senator Craig may have done something wrong. But then I heard the audio of the police interview. You can listen and understand the manipulation by the police. Basically the Police man is providing counsel to the congressman telling the congressman that everything will be ok.

Just listen to the policeman, he sounds like he is the lawyer for the congressman, and that he has the congressman's best interests in mind. If some guy with a gun was telling you he was about to haul you away to jail unless you did what he told you to do, it would be called kidnapping or blackmail.

The reason I am focusing in on this story is because the police use this approach too often when they deal with people who they intend to plea in order to get deferred adjudication.

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=5047

Myspace and deferred adjudication.

By Valente Gonzalez
August 18, 2007

The Austin TAJLR has a Myspace page dealing with deferred adjudication issues.

Since 2001 when Rob Sandifer of TAJLR and I started working on correcting the inaccurate reporting of deferred adjudication by the State of Texas we have seen a coming together of different people to support the cause of reform in the State's laws.

Today while doing a search online for deferred adjudication I came across a myspace webpage for the Austin TAJLR group. I was pleased to see that individuals are finding outlets to express the truth about deferred adjudication.

Thank you to the author of this myspace webpage, and thank you to the Austin TAJLR group.

http://www.myspace.com/austintajlr

Jerry Madden wrote a bill kill your college dream HB1367 .

By Valente Gonzalez
May 31, 2007

Jerry Madden drafted a bill to destroy your chances at attaining a college degree. Can you believe it! Jerry Madden, How unfair is that? He wants to destroy the opportunity for those who have not been convicted, those with a deferred adjudication from ever getting ahead in life.

He could have written "If you have a deferred adjudication just drop dead". Interesting fellow with an terrible idea, good thing it is going nowhere.

Jerry Madden

Debbie Riddle and HB106 How to destroy your online buisness.

By Valente Gonzalez
May 31, 2007

I am worried that my State representative for district 150 wants to convict people with a deferred adjudication, even though they are not convicted. Debbie Riddle during the 80 th legislature authored a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for people with Deferred Adjudications to sell items or services online without telling the world that they were convicted, or that they had a deferred adjudication. (Imagine you are not convicted but Debbie wants you to go and tell the world that you have had a deferred adjudication).

Her HB 106 said that she wanted to make it a crime for someone to operate a webpage without notice that they had a deferred adjudication (Effectively crippling a business). If such reckless legislation had it gone forward, it could have spelled financial ruin for people who pose no continuing threat to society. Her Bill would have made people with deferred adjudication have to post on their business websites that they were arrested for a crime, but that they were not "convicted".

I tried to contact her office during the session to find out why such legislation was proposed, and I never heard back from her office. www.TAJLR.com has given her an F grade on issues regarding deferred adjudication, probably because they are "Unconstitutional, and Anti-Buisness".

I have spoken with Debbie in the past and I thought that she had the opinion that deferred adjudication was not a conviction and that people needed a second chance.

The fact that I have been unable to contact her, and that her office refuses to contact me, troubles me, so if anyone needs the scoop on Debbie please contact her to find out why such awful legislation was proposed.

Debbie Riddle

Employers and Illegal Immigrants.

By Valente Gonzalez
October 19, 2006

Why is it that a person who comes to the country illegally has as good a chance at getting a job as someone who has a deferred adjudication? There is a problem in our State these days with the way employers perform background checks. Because no system is perfect and because many immigrants use false documents employers will employ an undocumented workers as apposed to people with deferred adjudication.

In a way I think illegal immigrants have a better chance at a job than us? I have a unique perspective, I live in Texas and I am of Hispanic decent, I am an American citizen, and I love my country even though there are politicians that have tried to turn my country against me for the purpose of greed and cheap labor. I have heard how badly employers treat these people, and I feel sorry for them; however, I ask why they would be in this country if it was not for the false hope that they could have a better life here. How can someone have a better life when they have to worry everyday that they will be deported?

When I was working at a company called RMH which is a call center for MCI the phones were manned by people who volunteered information to me that they were indeed illegal immigrants. Lucky for me I was able to get a job at the call center because they only asked for convictions. However the other people were not legal residents and they also had jobs there. I was not surprised because the job was a low paying job, and dealt with selling MCI service to the Hispanic market, trust me the Hispanic market is a great market to work for, very kind and very generous, and they have a hard time hanging up the phone. The typical call involved an introduction followed by excuses by the customer of why they could not buy the service, and apologies of why they needed to hang up the phone, and then by them begging me to hang up first. It was very humbling to talk to these people because they seemed so nice. It was also amazing to see illegal immigrants were getting jobs in this country and no one was saying anything. Not even I said anything about the illegal immigrants who were working there because I was happy to have a job. I was surprised but I had a lot in common with the illegal immigrants at the job. We both would have been fired if they company background checks came back negative. Also we had another thing in common we both wanted the same job.

I ask myself why I did not call the immigration service on the company that gave me a job. The fact is that I feared for my job should I report to the immigration problem to the INS then I would probably face the same scrutiny as they would face should I report them.

So this brings me to the question I have had, are we in competition with illegal immigrants over jobs? Unfortunately these people were my competition for the job I had at RMH and I would have had an easier time working there if they were not here to compete with me. How much better would the chances be for someone with a criminal record to get a job if employers could not choose to hire illegal immigrants? This question can also be asked this way too. If I was an employer who would I hire, an illegal immigrant or a person with a deferred adjudication?

In light of the problems that we have seen brought to our attention with regard to illegal immigration it may be prudent to push our legislators to enact laws that will prevent employers preferring to employ illegal immigrants. Since our country does not have a fence it does not seem like we will prevent the illegal immigrants from coming over here, but at least we can make employers feel more uncomfortable when employing an illegal immigrant instead of one of us. The fear I have is that many more companies are seeing the employment of illegal immigrants as a cheap way to keep labor cost down. That is bad for everyone though not just us on deferred adjudication. The cheap labor affects us all by driving down the wage, by depriving a citizen from performing a job, by taking opportunity away from people on deferred adjudication.

TAJLR is meeting in Houston On Saturday, June 10th @ 12 PM !!!

The meeting time is Saturday, June 10 starting at 12 PM noon at the M.D. Andersen Library.

The M.D Anderson library is located on the University of Houston campus in Houston, TX.
See the following link for directions
http://www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/L.html

TAJLR members will be discussing the following items:
• Advertising the movement and its purpose in Houston
• A flier campaign
• How to make letter writing campaigns more effective
• How to raise money/donations for the cause
• How to contact pro bono legal resources
• Other important topics
The TAJLR organization will begin asking for donations to help pay for advertising costs in Houston newspapers. They will be seeking to boost membership numbers to more effective clout with elected state representatives. Generous donations will help reform the criminal records expunction laws in Texas.

TAJLR asks everyone to come and participate in this very important meeting.

TRDA Forums have been Hacked!

Hackers recently hacked our forums. In the mean time I will link up to the TAJLR forums.
I am going to do some research on how to better secure the website. .

I am looking into other forum board solutions that are more secure than phpbb.

I did make a backup so I will try to get our messages back up when I figure out a good way to protect our files.

Clearing Criminal Records in Texas

By Fred Dahr
May 7, 2006

Fred Dahr published an article in the March 2006 of the Texas Bar Journal click here to read. Fred points out some of the difficulties and issues surrounding nondisclosure and expungement.

Click here to see the article.

See our video from the meeting held March 11th.

By Valente G.
March 20, 2006

The Austin Meeting held on the 11th has given us the fuel we need to start our efforts for the next legislative session. It is my pleasure to report as the webmaster of www.deferredadjudciation.org that we have successfully addressed our goals, which are now public thanks to these videos.

As an invited guest to the TAJLR organizations meeting. It is my pleasure to give support to my friend Rob Sandifer, and TAJLR because I see and heard goals that are accomplishable and relevant to our situation.

It is the intention of this webmaster to support TAJLR in the effort to put an end to the state keeping records on people who were never convicted in a court of law.

I am impressed with the efforts being put forward.

Please see the videos.

• http://www.deferredadjudication.com/video/tajlr1.wmv
• http://www.deferredadjudication.com/video/tajlr2.wmv
• http://www.deferredadjudication.com/video/tajlr3.wmv
  

Public DA Meeting To Be Held In Austin On Saturday, March 11 !!!

People From All Over Texas Will Be Meeting Inside The Capital Building in Austin To Discuss Passing New Criminal Records Expunction Laws!

The TAJLR (TEXAS ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE AND LEGAL REFORM) organization will be hosting a public event in the capital building in Austin to take place on Saturday, March 11, 2006. The meeting will start promptly at 11 AM and will conclude when we have finished having our group discussions about deferred adjudication and how passing new expunction laws will finally and fairly address this problem once and for all. We will be required to be out of the room by no later than 6:00 PM.

We are in the process of inviting several of our elected state representatives and Senators to be present so that they can hear from all of us how the deferred adjudication problem is negatively impacting the lives of 2 million Texas citizens and their families. We have already invited Dallas state representative Tony Goolsby (Republican-Dallas), and his Austin legislative assistant Fritz Reinig to attend. In addition, we will be inviting Senator John Whitmire of Houston and Senator Bob Deuell of Dallas to attend. We encourage each of you to also invite the local state representatives in your district to attend also.

We are asking that, if the DA issue has negatively impacted your life, and you have suffered and/or continue to suffer employment discrimination or any other kind of discrimination resulting from deferred adjudication, we are asking that you attend this meeting. This is your opportunity to stand up and be heard. This is your opportunity to finally meet others and begin working towards the ultimate solution to our problems - which is to modify Section 55.01 of the Texas Criminal Code so that anyone who has EVER taken deferred adjudication in the state of Texas can get their arrest record completely and totally expunged. For some time now, the more informed and caring members of our organization have realized that simply getting your record sealed with an order of non-disclosure is NOT going to protect your privacy and restore your lost civil rights. Having your privacy and lost civil rights restored will only happen when the law is changed so that your records can be expunged. Currently, Section 55.01 of the Texas Criminal Code prevents ANYONE who ever took deferred adjudication from getting their records expunged. We expect this problem to be remedied by having our state congress modify the law.

Meeting Details:

When: Saturday, March 11, 2006 Start Time: 11:00 AM

Where: Austin, TX, the state capital building in Room: E2.036

Room Location: The state capital is a VERY large, cavernous place and can be a bit intimidating if you have never been there before. Here is how to find the meeting room, E2.036 from the ground floor of the capital. The room is located on the E2 level of the Capital Extension, in the Northeast corner of the E2 Level. So, enter the capital on the main floor, take the elevator down to E2, turn north (the only way you can turn) and walk 125 yards, around the rotunda and all the way to the north end of the extension and there, on your left, in the Northeast corner, is our room.

Please note that we are planning on having an orderly, informative, and above all, PEACEFUL meeting. This is not a protest meeting!The committee services department was very accommodating and gracious in their willingness to allow us to use this public facility and their willingness to invite us back is completely dependent upon our good and orderly conduct. Let's show the people of Texas that we are, indeed, a classy organization dedicated to advancing the peaceful and orderly change in our state government through good citizenship and active participation.

Please note that committee services has certain rules that we must go by, including the disallowance of having any food or drink inside the meeting room.

As to be expected, we are all personally very excited about this meeting! For the very first time ever, we will be having a meeting at the capital building in Austin so that we can air out our grievances and plan further political and legislative strategy. In addition, we will be discussing our plans to advance our goal of making TAJLR a non-profit organization. This effort is already underway and will soon be completed.

We look forward to seeing you all there and the chance to hear from you all! Please remember to bring your notepads and ink pens, as we will be passing out a lot of very good and useful information and will be doing a lot of group "brainstorming" as well. If any of you have any questions, please direct them to me, Rob Sandifer at: robs@dallas.net

Thank you all again and we look forward to seeing you all there! Please remember to bring a friend, relative, co-worker, or anyone else who is sympathetic to our cause.

Warm Regards To You All,

Rob Sandifer
Co-founder, TAJLR
www.tajlr.com

The Order

by Valente G.
November 18, 2005

The culmination of 4 years of work paid off on Thursday. Fred Dahr was my attorney during this very important event. For anyone needing an order of nondisclosure I stress that it is very important to seek the services of a highly qualified attorney to help them though this issue.

Because this was the second time that I have appeared in federal court, I felt I needed the services of an attorney. Couple this with the statement the judge told me the last time I saw him, “I do not ever want to see you before me again.” After that I really did not want to speak with the judge concerning the matter.

While Mr. Dahr and I sat on the courthouse bench, a defendant was escorted into the court room in his orange county jail jump suit. He was taken before the judge; I believe to have the judge read his sentence. The judge gave him 20 years in TDC and a one dollar fine; I thought it strange to receive such a small fine, but then realized that he probably would not have a way to pay off anything substantial if he would be in prison for the next 20 years. My heart sank for him, before I realized that he may be responsible for a very serious crime to receive 20 years in TDC. Then another defendant was escorted in; he was entering a plea for his probation violation. He failed to report to his probation officer, failed to pay his fines, and he was accused of a sexual assault while on probation. He said he was taking responsibility for each of the accusations that the judge read to him. The judge sentenced him to 2 years in TDC, and a 500 dollar fine, thus revoking his probation. Then there was a recess, and my lawyer and I discussed a few details about the nondisclosure bill that we would use for the order. We talked about the section of the bill, which allows people with multiple deferred adjudications to use the order of nondisclosure.

The judge came back, and the court was called to order. Mr. Dahr approached the bench and stood 3rd in line. When it was his turn, he presented my petition to the judge and explained the order of nondisclosure to him. The judge turned to the prosecutor and asked if my criminal record was checked and if she had any objections. She replied she had none. The judge signed the order in the best interest of justice, and then handed it back to Mr. Dahr, and it was over. Mr. Dahr walked over to the court assistant and gave me the thumbs up sign; I replied with my thumb up showing my approval.

So how can you get your record sealed using the order of nondisclosure? This is the process I took.

Step One.
Gathering the Facts:
I gathered all information to present to a prospective attorney:
I prepared by finding my SPN number, cause number, social security number, and drivers license number. Then I found the name of the agency that was involved in the arrest, and the date that I thought the offence took place.

Step Two.
Interviewing the attorneys:
With the information gathered I started my quest to find a lawyer. I was trying to find an attorney who would represent me, someone who would be genuinely interested in deferred adjudication. I chose Fred Dahr after visiting with 3 other attorneys, Mr. Dahr was the most understanding of the issue, and he was very reasonable, I liked him right away.

Step Three.
Dressing the Part:
I read up on how to make a good impression. I made sure to show the proper courtesy to the court by appearing in a suit and tie. By dressing well I showed respect for everyone around me and made a good impression on those I came in contact with.

Step Four.
Getting Ready:
Acting on Mr. Dahr’s counsel I prepared a resume and a speech about the reasons why I need the order. My speech would talk about job loss, housing, insurance, being denied opportunities, and the fact that deferred adjudication was not to be considered a conviction under Texas law. Thankfully, I was not asked to present or speak to the judge.

Step Four.
Keeping Quiet:
I let my attorney speak for me. I felt it would be better to let someone who knows courtroom etiquette to handle the dealings with the prosecutors and court assistants. My attorney spoke for me, and if I needed to say anything or if I had a question on anything, I asked him.

In Addition.
Finding your faith, and participating in your government:
Yes I had faith, and that faith prepared me to receive both rejection and hopefully victory. Even if I was unsuccessful I felt prepared enough not to lose my faith in God.
I again was able to see the importance of citizens’ participation in shaping government. I was able to see how important is it for everyone to vote and to work thought their elected representatives, to seek change.

These steps cover what I did to prepare for my order of nondisclosure.
I offer thanks to the following individuals who helped me:
Every one of you, my readers, my friends, Senator Royce West, the 79th Legislature, and Fred Dahr, my attorney.

Thank you,
Valente Gonzalez

Nov. 8 Get out there and vote!

by Valente G.
October 30, 2005

October 30, 2005 Nov. 8 Get out there and vote! (Listen here!)

Dear readers please vote this November. The 80th session may turn out to be the most important session to date. I have found 10 good reasons to get you to vote.

Top 10 Reasons to Vote:

10. To have a right to complain.
To have a right to complain, and to say that you care about the deferred adjudication issue. They will only listen when you vote.

9. Representation.
Does it seem that legislators do not understand why you are unhappy? That's because they think you cannot hurt their chances for getting elected. Here is a clue for you; you can vote, you are not convicted.

8. To challenge the stereotype!
People with a stain on their records are not expected to participate or vote in elections. Here's news for you; you are not convicted, you can vote.

7. Every vote counts.
The state government of Texas is very volatile, it is hard for politicians to get elected unless they properly represent their constituents. They want to help you but you have to help them get elected; that's the way it works.

6. If you don't vote, someone else will.
If you don't vote - other people are going to make the decisions for you.

5. To Show your maturity.
You can complain all that you want, but unless the politicians know you vote, you are not going to be listened to. Yes even your single vote is important.

4. Make a difference.
In some counties, politicians who want to win a seat in the house need only to have as few as 3 people in their districts vote.

3. Get better Laws passed.
Do you want the government of Texas off your back? Do you want to just live your life; well you have to change the laws in Texas, so you have to vote.

2. Even the legislators vote.
Yes the people running for office are allowed to vote for themselves. If you wan to cancel their vote you have to vote against them.

1. Freedom.
Without voting we will never achieve our goal: to make Texas live up to its end of the agreement on deferred adjudication. Texas is constantly making, and breaking contracts of deferred adjudication. Vote, so that we may have the representation to fix this problem.

Rob Sandifier discusses the problem of DA with representative Harold Dutton.

To All Website Visitors And Volunteers,

Here is an update regarding a recent telephone conversation that I had with Houston state representative Harold Dutton. I recently spoke with Mr. Dutton on Thursday, October 28 from his law office in Houston.

I introduced myself and told him about our efforts through our organizations, TRDA and TAJLR. He was very attentive to every word I had to say, and did indicate his willingness to work with us in future legislative sessions regarding making new progress in our non-disclosure laws and expunction laws. I warmly thanked him for his creation of HB 697 and expressed my disappointment that his bill was not even given a public hearing in Terry Keel's House Jurisprudence Committee. He indicated to me that Terry Keel does in fact, support further reforms in the non-disclosure law, but that he did not have the votes to get our bill (HB 697) out of his committee and onto the House Floor for a full vote by the House body. This tells us two very important things:

(1) Mr. Keel DOES support in doing what's right as far as making important new changes to the non-disclosure law during future legislative sessions
(2) We need to make our voices and intentions more visible and more felt with Mr. Keel and especially with future committee members

Finally, I asked Mr. Dutton if he thinks that we have a strong enough of a meritable cause to get this issue in Federal Court. While he was somewhat non-committal on giving me a straight answer, he did suggest that it is something that he would be willing to "take a look at" and suggested that we could do our cause a tremendous amount of good if we could recruit larger numbers of people to help "get the word out" and be willing to testify in congressional committee and keep steady pressure on ALL of our elected representatives. People - we have to read between the lines here. I honestly believe what Mr. Dutton was telling me...is that if we want this issue to get into Federal Court...he would be willing to help us IF we are willing to help ourselves. This is only going to happen...if all of you get serious about this issue...starting now. By that, I mean calling him at his law firm....and talking with either him or his staff...letting them know that this issue has affected all of you so horribly and that the only way that the issue will ever truly get fixed is if we can get a Federal ruling on it in our favor. Guys...I have done all I can do for you on this issue. I can't do anymore. The rest is up to you.

Regards,

Rob Sandifer
Co-founder, TAJLR
www.tajlr.com

The future of sealing your record in Texas.

By Valente G.
October 17, 2005

Winning an expungement offers privacy to clients of the legal profession in any state. Some of my readers believe that deferred adjudication is expungeable; however, it is not always the case, and this is why expungement does not apply to most people given deferred adjudication.

Today I spoke with attorney Fred Dahr of Houston, Texas. He explained to me that most of the deferred adjudication cases that related to class “C” misdemeanors were expungeable. Many attorneys I have spoken with have told me the same thing: “Be careful of an attorney who offers expungements for anything other than a class-C misdemeanor.

TRDA would like to welcome you to the 80th Texas session. My readers, in the past 2 sessions TRDA has successfully worked with legislators to resolve the deferred adjudication problems. We have focused on the law of deferred adjudication to make it honor its original intent – to turn people away from a life of crime by showing them that crime does not pay. Our issue has been addressed by the Texas legislators on two occasions, and the number of independent volunteers in our ranks grows. In order to persuade our legislators to help our stricken citizenry that suffers from the shame of a criminal record, we now start the TRDA 80th legislative session with this article.

To those of you who are new, remember: deferred adjudication in Texas is not a conviction, and therefore many people across the state have rallied to our support. Now in the 80th legislative session we are ready to do it again.

The path to prosperity in Texas is to put our citizenry back to work, by protecting employer’s liability and employee’s privacy through an Order of Non-disclosure. These people who successfully complete deferred adjudication are not habitual offenders; many made a mistake once and never again.

We have accomplished a great deal for many of you in the state of Texas. I congratulate my readers who are now able to take advantage of the Order of Non-disclosure. Our future efforts will seek to expand the benefits to more people and to strengthen the Order.

Welcome to www.deferredadjudication.org
and www.deferredadjudciation.com. Please join us in the
Forum Discussion boards.

Click on the Button to enter the forum discussion boards.

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