Reagen E. Thomas · Attorney at Law
The Journal
Criminal defense, the law, and what the headlines don’t tell you.
Currently
Three things worth knowing aboutAn essay on cash bail, in The Texas Observer
The ODonnell decree survived a motion to vacate on October 5 and is now on appeal. What that order does, and what happens in the counties it never reached, published October 20 in The Texas Observer.
SurveillanceTexas paused new plate readers, but not the ones already up
In August the state stopped issuing permits for new readers on state-owned roads. It does not touch the cameras already installed, and the Legislature does not return until January 12.
Mental healthThe Clancy case returns to court on November 2
After September’s mistrial the judge refused to enter a not-guilty finding. Prosecutors still have not said whether they will retry it, and a double jeopardy motion is pending.
In a Cash Bail System, Justice Depends on Your Bank Account
A nonverbal man sat in a Texas jail on a $10,000 bond. One hundred miles away, in Harris County, a federal court order would have sent him home.
Published in The Texas Observer02Journal Point · SurveillanceYour license plate is not just a license plate anymore
A camera reading your plate is old news. One sheriff’s office in Texas running a single search across 83,345 of them is not.
03Journal Point · Mental healthMental illness is not the insanity defense
Texas asks a jury one question about a defendant’s mind at the moment of the offense, and it is not whether he was sick.
04Journal Point · Burden of proofWho has the burden? The question at the center of the Lindsay Clancy case
Massachusetts makes the prosecution prove a defendant was criminally responsible. Texas makes the defendant prove he was not. Same facts, opposite question.
05Journal Point · Criminal procedureThe arrest affidavit is not the case
The document the news prints the morning after an arrest is one officer’s sworn summary, written before anyone has investigated anything.
06Journal Point · Burden of proofProbable cause is not proof
A stop, an arrest, an indictment and a conviction are decided on four different standards, and only the last one is demanding.
07Texas lawThe 15-day deadline to save your Texas driver’s license
Your deadline runs from the day you were served, not from your arrest. If the police took blood, your clock may not have started.
08FederalHow a federal sentence actually gets calculated
Everyone asks the same question, and the honest answer takes about ten minutes. Here it is in writing.
09FederalWhy there is no bond in federal court
The first thing families ask after a federal arrest is how much the bond is. Federal court does not work that way, and the reason matters.
10FederalHow you actually get released in a federal case
The detention hearing is a real contested hearing, and it is won with preparation rather than argument. What that preparation looks like.
11Texas lawYour first 48 hours: magistration in Harris County
What the hearing is, what the magistrate has to tell you, and the one thing that changed in November 2025.
12Texas lawWhat changed with THC in Texas, and what did not
Marijuana possession law did not move. Almost everything around it did.
13Texas lawExpunction or nondisclosure: clearing a Texas record
One erases the record. The other seals it. They are not the same thing, and the expunction statute was rewritten in 2025.
14Texas lawWhat the ODonnell consent decree is, and why it matters
A federal court order decides whether most people arrested on a Harris County misdemeanor go home the same day.
None of this is a substitute for advice about your case.
Every case turns on its own facts. If something here sounds like your situation, the next step is a conversation, not more reading.