Brian Wice

How Tom DeLay's Lawyer Learned To Love Mini-Satan As He Prepares For Wednesday's Hearing

Tom DeLay, the man who once easily held the title Most Hated Republican in his clawed hands, will finally have his hearing over campaign-finance money-laundering charges Wednesday before a three-judge panel in Austin. It's been a long road for the former congressman from Sugar Land -- some of the i ... More >>

Judge Jim #@&*@ Sharp: Rate His Cursing As He Tries To Spring Friend's Daughter From Jail

Justice Jim Sharp of the 1st Court of Appeals is a guy who doesn't mince words, it's safe to say. He's dealing with the fallout of all that, as the State Commission on Judicial Conduct has hit him with a public reprimand for his actions in connection with a January arrest of a friend's daughter in ... More >>

Diane Tran, Almost-Jailed Honors Student: Her Lawyer Urges Her Not To Reject Donations

Diane Tran, the straight-A student who was almost jailed for missing too many classes while working two jobs to support her younger brother, says she may not accept the $1000,000 or so raised on her behalf, saying other kids are more needy. Her lawyer, however, is urging her to. "Diane has been ab ... More >>

Is Tom DeLay Actually (Gasp) Correct That A Democratic Justice Can't Judge His Case Fairly?

Long before his tragically brief heyday on Dancing With The Stars, Sugar Land's Tom DeLay was convicted of campaign-finance violations. He's appealing that conviction to the state's 3rd Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, but many of the judges have taken themselves off the case. One justice who ... More >>

Blue-Eyed Butcher: Lifetime's Susan Wright Movie, Viciously Reviewed By One Of Her Attorneys

Susan Wright is the Houston woman who tied her husband to their bed and stabbed him 193 times. Kelly Siegler is the prosecutor who re-enacted that scene in court, bringing in a bed, tying a fellow prosecutor to it, and then fake-stabbing him 193 times for the jury's sake. Lifetime has made a movie ... More >>

The Susan Wright Lifetime Movie Blue Eyed Butcher Looks Awful, Script Shows

Michael Keaton is NOT in the movie but....​Because God wants us to suffer, the Lifetime network is airing a made-for-TV movie about the Susan Wright case March 3. Wright, you'll remember, is the woman convicted of tying her husband to the bed and stabbing him 193 times, a scene re-enacted in c ... More >>

Out of Hand

Michael Glyn Brown was recently acquitted of assaulting his wife. But that's only the latest allegation against the violent, drug-abusing doctor, long a fixture of Houston TV commercials and society.

Brown Trial: Jury Still Out

Michael Brown awaits a jury decision.​The jury in Michael Brown's assault trial will resume deliberations tomorrow, unable to reach a decision after three hours today. The deliberation followed fiery closing arguments by prosecutors Jane Waters and Nathan Hennigan, acting more alive than they ... More >>

Brown Trial: Rachel And Bagwell, Sittin' in a Tree

Jeff Bagwell lends a hand​Judge Jim Wallace did not allow Michael Brown's lawyers to introduce evidence that the ex-hand surgeon's wife is banging former Astro Jeff Bagwell in Brown's assault trial today. Arguing admissibility after the jury was excused, attorney Dick DeGuerin got Rachel Brow ... More >>

Rob $1K from a Bank, Get Four Years; Defraud It of $100K, Get One Year

The hammer comes down, sometimes.​Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen. -- Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd" Our advice: Do your bank robbing with the fountain pen. Or its modern equivalent. One ... More >>

Tom DeLay's Appeal Brief Is As Hilariously Over the Top As He Is

Tom DeLay knows about razzle-dazzle.​Tom DeLay's embarrassing stint on Dancing with the Stars apparently taught him one thng: Go Hollywood and go brash. The appellate brief filed seeking to overturn his money-laundering conviction is, courtesy of Houston lawyer Brian Wice, as over the top as ... More >>

Jerry Eversole's Trial: The Winners and Losers

The youthful Eversole, before the feds started pestering him.​Jerry Eversole surprised a lot of people when he escaped conviction on bribery charges. A hung jury ended in a mistrial, but prosecutors expect to take another swing at it soon. In the meantime, everyone is poking through the wrec ... More >>

He's Only a Perv

Court rules video voyeur not a child pornographer

Alan Ray Steen: Just a Perv, Not a Child Pornographer

A tanning bed is not sexy, court rules​The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has formally ruled: Alan Ray Steen is a pervert, he's not a child pornographer. Steen liked to go to tanning salons and stick a video camera over the cubicle wall to tape women; one day the person he taped turned out ... More >>

Susan Wright, Who Stabbed Her Husband 200 Times, Gets Slightly Lower Sentence

Susan Wright: Slight reduction in sentence​Things usually haven't gone half-assed in the Susan Wright case -- you've got her stabbing her tied-up-in-bed husband 200 times; you've got a prosecutor bringing a bed into the courtroom, tying up a colleague and then pretending  to stab him 200 time ... More >>

Former Judge Pleads Guilty To Keying A Neighbor's Car

Former district judge Woody Densen,a little-missed Harris County courthouse fixture, has pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and fined $1,500 for the idiotic, petty keying of a neighbor's car caught on security video, the Houston Chronicle is reporting.Densen was apparently annoyed that the neighbo ... More >>

Judge Blasts Autopsy In Baby-Killer Case; New Trial May Happen

​Eleven years into a life sentence for killing his girlfriend's daughter, Neil Robbins might be granted a new trial.After hearing arguments this morning from Robbins's attorney, Brian Wice, and Montgomery County District Attorney Bill Delmore, District Court Judge Michael Mayes concluded that ... More >>

Texas Court Of Criminal Appeals Agrees With The Houston Press

Photo courtesy Marshall Wice​You know, when the Houston Press names someone the Best Criminal Defense Attorney, we expect that the high honor will result in further good works -- it's the whole Obama-Nobel Prize train of thought.So it should come as no surprise this morning that recent winner Bria ... More >>

You Can't Be Serious

Our readers debate this year's Best of Houston® winners.

Former Judge Woody Densen Indicted, And There Is Much Rejoicing Among Some Veteran Lawyers

Former district judge Woody Densen was indicted today for criminal mischief after getting caught on video keying a neighbor's car. It's a state-jail felony charge, since the car damaged was expensive, so he's facing up to two years in jail.And around the courthouse, among veteran lawyers, there is m ... More >>

Woman Who Stabbed Husband 200 Times May Get New Punishment Hearing, This Time Without A Dramatic Re-Enactment

Photo courtesy Marshall WiceSusan Wright, the woman who killed her husband and whose trial featured a prosecutor tying another to a bed and pretending to stab him 200 times, may get a new sentence.Wright stabbed her husband for real and then tried to hide his body; her attorney argued that she had s ... More >>

"Nicest Guy" Gets Break

Still on death row, though

"Nicest Guy On Death Row" Gets A Reprieve

In a ruling Friday that flew under the radar until today, US District Judge Vanessa Gilmore overturned the capital-murder conviction of Mariano Rosales, because Harris County prosecutors had improperly rejected minorities from the jury pool.The technical term for the tossing-minority-jurors claim is ... More >>

Change Comes To The Harris County Courthouse

Update From Beaumont Cop: Those Orgasms Sucked

Tax Break for the Rich; Roger Clemens at the Capitol; Green Sex

Mayor White gets help from the appraisal district

Sign Me Up

They'll take Iraq over Houston

Blog War!!

Punk'd!

Graffiti artists get their moment to shine on camera

A Blog of His Own

One analyst indulges his gonzo side

Turkeys of the Year

Just stuff 'em

No Pain, No Gain

Our solution for saving Texas's claim to capital punishment fame

Cut and Run

No porn future for a Bobbitt protégé

Spring Thaw

There's actual good news for CITGO's battling refinery union

Strong Convictions

Hard-line leaders such as loopy Stephen Mansfield have taken their agenda to the Court of Criminal Appeals, where legal precedents--not prosecutions--get overturned

Shame, Shame, Shame

Judge Ted Poe's shame-based punishments have brought him fame and the D.A.'s job...if he wants it

Law and Disorder

In Janice Law's quests for a judgeship, the fourth time was a charm -- and now an alarm for the rest of the courthouse

Rough Justice

Last week Anthony Ray Westley was executed for a murder he may not have committed. Only his lawyer and family seemed to care.

Crimes of Hygiene

City inspectors battle the scourge of Houston -- ill-kempt cabbies

The King and His Courts

Traffic-ticket lawyer David Sprecher is a master at beating the system. But the system may need him more than his clients do.

Crime & Punishment

Ten years ago, Anthony Ray Westley entered a bait shop to commit a crime. Was it a crime worth dying for?