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Your Baytown Criminal Defense Attorney
Baytown’s criminal cases move through Harris County’s court system based on offense severity: felonies in District Court, Class A and B misdemeanors in County Court at Law, not a single, one-size-fits-all courtroom. The real bail-setting factors a magistrate has to weigh, and the counsel-appointment deadline that applies in Harris County specifically, are covered further down this page. A case’s outcome often turns as much on procedural details like this as on the underlying facts, which is part of why understanding the structure early can matter.
Bail and Pretrial Release in Harris County
Bail reform in Texas didn’t eliminate bail; it changed how it’s set: a magistrate now has to weigh the Damon Allen Act’s specific factors, and Texas Constitution Article I, Section 11(a) still allows bail to be denied outright for certain repeat or violent offenders. Short of that narrow denial power, every other case still proceeds through an individualized bail-setting process rather than a flat schedule tied only to the charge. That bail decision doesn’t happen in a vacuum: Code of Criminal Procedure Article 15.17 requires every arrested person to be brought before a magistrate within 48 hours, where the specific charges are read, the right to an attorney is explained, and bail conditions are actually set. Harris County’s population puts it over the Fair Defense Act’s 250,000 threshold, which means an indigent defendant who requests appointed counsel is entitled to have an attorney appointed within 1 working day of that request.
How Texas Classifies and Punishes a Criminal Charge
Not every criminal charge in Texas carries the same weight: Penal Code Chapter 12 separates misdemeanors (Class C, fine-only up to $500; Class B, up to 180 days and $2,000; Class A, up to a year and $4,000) from felonies (state jail felony at 180 days to 2 years; third-degree at 2 to 10 years; second-degree at 2 to 20 years; first-degree at 5 to 99 years or life), each with its own punishment range and up to a $10,000 fine at the felony level. Texas’s implied-consent law means a DWI arrest can affect a driver’s license before the criminal case is even resolved: the 15-day ALR hearing-request window under Transportation Code §724.041 runs on its own clock, independent of the criminal court process. On the criminal side, the offense itself escalates from a Class B misdemeanor on a first offense up through a third-degree felony on a third, under Penal Code §49.09.
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Assault, Theft, and Drug Charges Under Texas Law
Assault under Penal Code §22.01 covers a wide range of conduct: a threat or offensive contact alone can be a Class C misdemeanor, while causing actual bodily injury is typically a Class A misdemeanor, but the charge escalates to a felony when the alleged victim is a public servant, a family member, or someone in another protected category. Texas doesn’t charge every theft the same way: §31.03 scales the classification directly to the value taken, from a Class C misdemeanor under $100 through a state jail felony at $2,500, and on up to a first-degree felony once the value reaches $300,000. Drug possession charges depend on both the substance and the weight involved: under Health & Safety Code §481.115, possessing a Penalty Group 1 substance like cocaine or methamphetamine is a state jail felony under 1 gram, a third-degree felony from 1 to under 4 grams, and a second-degree felony from 4 to under 200 grams. Marijuana is classified separately under §481.121: under 2 ounces is a Class B misdemeanor, 2 to 4 ounces is a Class A misdemeanor, and 4 ounces to 5 pounds is a state jail felony.
Two Different Paths to Clearing a Record in Texas
An order of nondisclosure isn’t the same as expunction: under Government Code Chapter 411, Subchapter E-1, it seals a record from public and private access after successfully completing deferred adjudication, but law enforcement retains access; it doesn’t destroy the record the way expunction does. Government Code §411.072 makes the order automatic for certain qualifying offenses after a 180-day wait, while §411.0725 requires filing a petition for felonies and other misdemeanors §411.072 doesn’t cover.
Harris County's Courts and Jail
Harris County’s Criminal Justice Center at 1201 Franklin Street in downtown Houston houses both tiers of criminal court: 16 numbered County Criminal Courts at Law hearing Class A and B misdemeanors, and a felony District Court system that has grown to roughly 27 numbered courts as of late 2024. The county added 3 new felony courts in 2023 and 3 more in October 2024 specifically to work down a felony case backlog that had climbed past 53,000 pending cases in the years after Hurricane Harvey flooded the criminal courthouse and the pandemic backed up the docket further, a real, county-specific reason the court count keeps changing rather than a fixed historical number.
Booking itself changed in a real way in recent years: Harris County and the City of Houston now run a single Joint Processing Center at 700 North San Jacinto Street, replacing the older practice of a separate city booking stop before the county jail. It’s a 246,000-square-foot facility with its own medical clinic, mental health screening, and a 24/7 diversion desk for a behavioral-health crisis instead of straight incarceration. The county’s caseload also supports specialty dockets a smaller county’s court system typically can’t sustain, including felony and misdemeanor Veterans Courts, a Felony Mental Health Court, the STAR and SOAR drug courts, and a SOBER Court for high-risk DWI offenders, and its District Attorney’s Office is one of the largest prosecutors’ offices in the country, taking in cases from 86 separate law enforcement agencies across the county rather than a single police department.
You may also be near: our coverage in Port Arthur.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can bail be denied entirely in Texas?
Yes, in narrow circumstances: Texas Constitution Article I, Section 11(a) allows bail to be denied for certain repeat felony offenders, a felony committed while already on bail, or a violent or sexual offense committed while on bail or parole.
Does county population really affect the appointment deadline?
Yes, the Fair Defense Act (CCP Art. 1.051) sets a 1-working-day deadline in counties of 250,000 or more, which includes Harris County, versus 3 working days in a smaller county.
Does a prior conviction affect how a new charge is sentenced in Texas?
Yes, Penal Code Chapter 12’s habitual/repeat-offender enhancements can raise a charge’s punishment range by a full degree or more for a second or subsequent felony, on top of whatever the current charge alone would carry.
When does a theft charge become a felony in Texas?
At $2,500 or more in alleged value; below that, theft under Penal Code §31.03 is a misdemeanor (Class C under $100, Class B under $750, Class A under $2,500), and at $2,500 it becomes a state jail felony, escalating from there by value.
What happens if I don’t request an ALR hearing in time?
The 15-day window under Transportation Code §724.041 isn’t extendable; missing it results in an automatic license suspension taking effect on day 40 after the arrest, regardless of how the underlying criminal DWI case turns out.
Is there a waiting period before petitioning for a nondisclosure order?
Yes, and it varies by offense: some misdemeanors qualify immediately after successfully completing deferred adjudication, while others (and most felonies) require a 2 or 5-year waiting period under Government Code Chapter 411 before the petition can be filed.
Don't Face This Alone
A criminal charge in Baytown runs on real deadlines from day one, not a flexible timeline that waits for anyone to catch up.
