Principal attorney
I am a local criminal defense and civil rights attorney and I have done nothing but represent people throughout my career.
In my pre-law school life, I was a musician. I traveled all over playing guitar in several metal bands. The life was not as glamourous as you would think, but I got to travel to and play in nearly every state in the country. I also played a number of shows in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica, meeting a lot of great people along the way.
I continued playing in a few bands while I was in college at Trinity University in San Antonio. In law school, at Texas Tech I tutored several subjects, was a research assistant for my Constitutional Law professor, and earned grades high enough to be admitted to Phi Delta Phi legal honor society.
It was while I was at law school that my path changed. I took the Innocence Project Clinic my third year. I excelled in the class, earning a CALI award my first semester, and a Jurisprudence award my second semester for being the top student in the clinic. While in law school, I co-authored a report to debunk Fort Bend County Sherriff Deputy Keith Pikett’s extensive history of perjured court testimony. The report proved that Pikett lied about his education, training, background, and just about any other topic that came out of his mouth. This report resulted in Texas courts declaring his testimony unreliable, resulting in many reversed cases, and eventually his “early retirement.” I also was part of the team that got Timothy Cole successfully pardoned, the first posthumous pardon in Texas history, by then governor Rick Perry.
After Law School, I moved to Houston to become a staff lawyer with the Innocence Project of Texas. While a staff lawyer at the Innocence Project of Texas, I organized groups of students at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, South Texas College of Law, and Texas Southern University to investigate and litigate wrongful convictions throughout the state. During this time, I also worked at a firm specializing in disability hearings and appeals in Houston.
While with the Innocence Project of Texas, I headed up a statewide arson review in 2011 and 2012. This project involved an investigation of every person serving time for any arson-related offense in TDCJ, and those on parole, eventually resulting in several exonerations and the passage of the Junk Science Writ law, Code of Criminal Procedure 11.073. This new law allows for people convicted based on junk science to get a new trial. This is still the only law of its kind in the nation.
At the end of 2012, I moved to Amarillo to fight for the rights of citizens of Amarillo. While making partner at Blackburn & Brown in 2015 and after, I handled hundreds of state and federal criminal cases ranging from Class C misdemeanors to DWIs, to murder cases, to multi-defendant federal drug conspiracies, and complex white collar fraud cases. I am always fighting and always getting good results.
While partner at Blackburn & Brown, I represented Robert Johnson, a mentally challenged young man who was charged with possession of marijuana and resisting arrest in 2015. All charges were dropped after I was able to prove that Amarillo Police Officers dog piled Mr. Johnson, beat him severely, and planted marijuana on him. This case led to a series of community meetings speaking out on the abuses of Amarillo police officers and the resignation of the Amarillo Chief of Police.
I handled the first civil commitment case early in 2016. These cases are tough to win, but I was able to secure a non-suit, saving our client from a life of involuntary civil commitment.
Earlier in 2016, I also represented a man accused of theft of materials out of the Cargill plant in Friona, Texas. I agreed to help represent our client pro bono on his labor law case, and teamed up with the union lawyer. I uncovered lots of documents and testimony proving that our client did not steal the materials he was accused of stealing. Cargill had to offer our client his job back, and the state had to dismiss all charges.
I am a big believer in the freedom of speech and regularly defend people’s rights under the First Amendment. In 2019, I represented local protestors in multiple charges connected to protests against the city of Amarillo’s cruel homeless policies. My clients got dismissals, case refusals, and acquittals in all charges ranging from Class C camping charges to felony theft of utilities.
I have also represented the United Steelworkers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members, defending their rights under the First Amendment to strike against unfair working conditions by the international conglomerate Asarco.
From 2017 through 2019, I was part of the legal team that filed a class action lawsuit against Ruby Tequilas for unfair labor and wage practices. After several years of litigation, the workers, who went unpaid and without a job after an abrupt closure of the restaurants got their back pay and expenses.
My extensive and diverse experience representing underdogs has resulted in attorneys from around the state and from coast to coast seeking out my advice on how to handle big complex, high stakes cases here in the Texas Panhandle. I have served as local counsel in several high profile cases, repsresenting DANCO labs in the mifeprestone case, Planned Parenthood, as well as minority farmers in a discrimination case in the panhandle.
To me, practicing law is about more than fighting and winning against the government and big companies, though. Criminal defense in particular is about getting to know the client and always tailoring a defense goal and defense strategy that is unique and fit for each client. At its core, the work of criminal defense is caring about people. This approach has led to many dismissals and reductions and hearing “not guilty” in most cases I’ve tried to a jury.
Caring about people goes deeper and broader than our client-centered approach. Locally, I am engaged very politically, helping to form a local NORML chapter and staying involved with local political groups and organizations. I am also a frequent contributor to local, regional, and national news channels on a variety of legal topics.
Outside of the local community, I am an active member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association, The Panhandle Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association, the National Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association, the DUI Defense Lawyer’s Association, the National College For DUI Defense, the National Association of Public Defenders, and the College of the State Bar.
