A DWI anywhere in Galveston County ends up on the island. It doesn’t matter whether you were stopped on the Seawall, on I-45 in League City, on FM 646 in Dickinson or on FM 1764 in Texas City. The case goes to the Galveston County Justice Center at 600 59th Street in Galveston. Most people who are booked end up a few blocks away at the county jail, 5700 Avenue H, though some city departments hold their arrests in a city jail first. A lot of the people arrested here don’t live here. They came down for a weekend, and now they have a court date an hour from home.
Call (713) 664-4000. Everything you tell us is confidential.
The first day: magistrate court in the jail
Galveston County holds magistrate court twice a day inside the county jail, and the county says you’ll see a magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest. That’s where bond gets set, along with the conditions that come with it. On a first DWI, bond is usually the easy part. On a second, the law requires an ignition interlock as a bond condition unless the magistrate finds it wouldn’t be in the best interest of justice (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 17.441), and the interlock can go on before you’ve been convicted of anything.
If you’re from out of town, don’t let the drive home be the end of it. Court settings on the island keep coming whether you show up or not, and missing one gets a warrant issued. Hiring a lawyer early means someone is tracking every setting and dealing with the court for you.
What you’re charged with
A first DWI is a Class B misdemeanor, with up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. An open container in the car raises the minimum jail time to six days, and a breath or blood result of 0.15 or higher makes it a Class A (Penal Code § 49.04). A second DWI is a Class A, and a third is a felony (§ 49.09). A child under 15 in the car makes even a first DWI a state jail felony (§ 49.045). So does driving drunk through a school crossing zone while the reduced school speed limit is in effect (§ 49.04(e)).
Boating while intoxicated starts where a first DWI does, as a Class B with a 72-hour minimum (§ 49.06), though the open container and 0.15 bumps don’t apply on the water. A child under 15 on the boat makes it a state jail felony (§ 49.061). On Galveston Bay it’s a real charge, with Texas game wardens enforcing it on the water, and a BWI conviction counts as a prior if you’re ever charged with DWI later.
Misdemeanors are heard in the County Courts at Law and felonies in the district courts, all in the Justice Center.
Your license: fifteen days
Your license is attacked separately, through an Administrative License Revocation run by DPS. You have 15 days from the notice to request a hearing (Transportation Code §§ 524.031, 724.041), and if you don’t, the suspension starts on the 40th day. A refusal means a suspension of at least 180 days. A failed test means at least 90 for an adult, or 60 for a driver under 21. Request the hearing and the suspension waits until the judge rules, and we can subpoena the arresting officer and question him under oath about the stop and the tests, months before a jury sees anything.
How we take a Galveston DWI apart
Every DWI is a chain of decisions the officer had to get right. Was there a legal reason to stop you, or a hunch written up later? Were the field sobriety tests run the way the manual requires, on flat ground and in decent light, or on a windy stretch of the Seawall at 2 a.m. in sandals? Was the Intoxilyzer 9000 in compliance, and did the operator stay with you for the full 15-minute waiting period before the test? If blood was drawn, was the warrant supported, and can the lab account for the sample from the draw to the result?
Jay Blass Cohen is a certified Drug Recognition Expert and a Standardized Field Sobriety Testing instructor, trained to give the same tests the officer gave you. He holds the American Chemical Society’s Forensic Lawyer-Scientist certification, so he can take apart the breath and blood science in front of a jury. When the stop falls, the evidence goes with it.
If the case can’t be beaten outright, a first DWI with a result under 0.15 can end in deferred adjudication, as long as you don’t hold a commercial license (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 42A.102). Finish it and there’s no conviction, though it still counts as a prior if you’re charged with DWI again (Penal Code § 49.09(g)). Deferred on a DWI comes with an ignition interlock unless the judge waives it after an evaluation (art. 42A.408). Probation after a conviction means a DWI education program within 180 days unless the judge waives it (art. 42A.403), and an interlock is mandatory if the result was 0.15 or higher or it’s a repeat offense (art. 42A.408). We treat those as the floor. The goal is a dismissal or a not guilty verdict.
Results
A Harris County jury acquitted one of our clients of DWI after a .242 breath test. A felony third DWI was dismissed after the judge granted the motion to suppress, with Jay as co-counsel. See more of our criminal case results. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Arrested in Galveston County? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen has defended DWI cases since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. We handle DWI arrests from the island, League City, Texas City, Dickinson and the rest of Galveston County. For more on the law, see our DWI defense and felony DWI pages. If someone else’s drunk driving hurt you, see our Galveston personal injury page.
Call (713) 664-4000. If the arrest was in the last 15 days, call today, before the license deadline runs.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.