If you are on deferred adjudication in Harris County and a motion to adjudicate has been filed you possible face serious consequences. An experienced probation revocation defense attorney explains
If you are on deferred adjudication and your community supervision gets revoked you face the entire range of punishment for the offense.
If you have problems with your community supervision the probation officer will send notice of these problems to the court and the judge will decide how to proceed. The judge can change the conditions of your deferred adjudication or the judge can sign a motion to adjudicate. The motion to adjudicate is a motion to convict you of the offense. If you are convicted you can then be punished to a sentence within the range of punishment for the offense. You are entitled to a hearing before this occurs. Examples of what you can face are:
- If you are on deferred adjudication for assault with bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor you could be sentenced to a fine of up to $4,000 and one year in county jail.
- If you are on deferred adjudication for possession of under a gram of cocaine, a state jail felony, you could be sentenced to a fine of up to $10,000 and two years in state jail.
- If you are on deferred adjudication for deadly conduct with a firearm, a third degree felony, you could be sentenced to a fine of up to $10,000 and between two and ten years in prison.
- If you are on deferred adjudication for burglary of a habitation or aggravated assault, second degree felonies, you could be sentenced to a fine of up to $10,000 and between two and twenty years in prison.
The length of your deferred adjudication does not have an affect on the range of punishment you face. As you can see the can be severe. You should also know that just because a motion to adjudicate your deferred adjudication has been filed it does not mean that you will be adjudicated and sentenced to jail or prison. The violations must be proved to the court. Additionally, often a resolution other than jail or prison time can be reached. A great deal of this depends on the type of alleged violations and your history while on community supervision. Please call us for a free consultation regarding your deferred adjudication at 713-651-1444 or fill out an online contact form and an experienced deferred adjudication defense attorney will contact you shortly. Our offices are in Houston and we regularly practice in Harris County, Montgomery County, Galveston County, Fort Bend County and Brazoria County.