allybay
09-04-2003, 06:36 PM
I am so frustrated! My husband is coming home Sept 17th after spending 180 days. It's kinda a long story, I will try to make it short. He was on probation, got a DWI. The probation was revoked before he was ever convicted on the DWI. He finally took a 180 day sentence on the revokation of probation. The probation was in one county in Texas, the DWI in another. So the release date on the 180 days is Sept 17th. Once that was all settled, he was moved to a state jail. Then the second county that had the DWI charge came and got him. He was supposed to go to court on it Aug 27th. He had been telling me he thought he could plead guilty and ask for time served and still be out on the 17th. Okay, so his lawyer got the court date postponed until Sept 3 for his (the lawyer's) convenience. He goes to court yesterday and they wanted to give him probation, he said no, he would rather serve more time than come out of this on probation. Sounds crazy, but that is the way he feels. Anyway. when they finally figured out that he had already served 164 days they agreed to drop the probation, give him 110 days which he has already served. Originally, they could not figure out how many days he had served because their records or computer or something was incorrect. So they finally figure it out and decide ok, he actually HAS served enough time. So this is good. Yes, it is what we had prayed for. Oh, but wait, just as an afterthought the judge decides to suspend his driver's license for 2 YEARS. Now, the one thing I have been holding onto is that his job had stood by him and he will be allowed to come back to work. So now my concern is that without a DL he cannot get to work. We live in the Dallas area, he drives about 30 miles one way to work. Now it is my understanding that you can get an occupational license, but you have to hire a lawyer. We are on our 3rd lawyer, the first 2 took the money and did not do a damn thing to help us. Oh, yeah, the news just gets better and better. Texas passed a new law that went into effect on Sept 1, if you are convicted of a DWI you must now pay 1000.00 to 2000.00 a year for a DL. Remember when I said his original court date was Aug 27th, the lawyer got it changed to Sept 3 because he had something else to do on Aug 27th? Well, if the original court date would have happened, the 1000.00 - 2000.00 "surcharge" would not apply because the conviction would have been before Sept 1. And to top it off, an article in the Houston Chronicle says the law was put in MITAKENLY, they meant for it to apply to people CHARGED after 9-1, but, oh, well, they made a mistake. Here is the paragraph out of the newspaper story:
"Already, courts have been burdened with a flood of DWI defendants rushing to plead their cases before the surcharge takes effect, Edmonds said. Sponsors of the bill concede they mistakenly applied its provisions to DWI convictions after Sept. 1 rather than DWI offenses committed after the law goes into effect. "
The issue is I have spent so much money on this thing, and my expenses while he has been gone that I don't see how we can spend another cent on legal fees for him to be able to drive to work. So I am so depressed. I know I should be happy that he is coming home and I am, but I am so afraid he will not be able to get to the job that he has and I have thought about him trying to get one close to home or where he can ride the bus or the train, but I am afraid nobody is going to want to hire him due to the criminal record.
I know this might not sound like a major problem to those out there that are waiting years for their loved one to come home and I want to say again that I am very happy and grateful that he will get out in less than 2 weeks. But it is just so frustrating, I have tried to be strong and get us through this and now I feel like the state of Texas just had to get one more jab in - to continue to effect our lives. It is not enough that you serve your time, pay your fines, now let's see how hard we can make it on you when you get back into the real world. But we (the state) expect you to have learned your lesson and become a respectible law-abiding citizen. And, yes, we (the state) are going to make that as difficult on you and your family as we can.
Any info or advice on the occupational driver's license would be greatly appreciated.
I know this is kind long and I apoligize for that....
"Already, courts have been burdened with a flood of DWI defendants rushing to plead their cases before the surcharge takes effect, Edmonds said. Sponsors of the bill concede they mistakenly applied its provisions to DWI convictions after Sept. 1 rather than DWI offenses committed after the law goes into effect. "
The issue is I have spent so much money on this thing, and my expenses while he has been gone that I don't see how we can spend another cent on legal fees for him to be able to drive to work. So I am so depressed. I know I should be happy that he is coming home and I am, but I am so afraid he will not be able to get to the job that he has and I have thought about him trying to get one close to home or where he can ride the bus or the train, but I am afraid nobody is going to want to hire him due to the criminal record.
I know this might not sound like a major problem to those out there that are waiting years for their loved one to come home and I want to say again that I am very happy and grateful that he will get out in less than 2 weeks. But it is just so frustrating, I have tried to be strong and get us through this and now I feel like the state of Texas just had to get one more jab in - to continue to effect our lives. It is not enough that you serve your time, pay your fines, now let's see how hard we can make it on you when you get back into the real world. But we (the state) expect you to have learned your lesson and become a respectible law-abiding citizen. And, yes, we (the state) are going to make that as difficult on you and your family as we can.
Any info or advice on the occupational driver's license would be greatly appreciated.
I know this is kind long and I apoligize for that....