Despite my best attempts to hang onto my affinity for Heavy-Weight boxing I have been forced to give it up to become an MMA fan. MMA is everywhere.

To officially announce my interest, I’m going in as the title sponsor of the next Pro MMA fight here in Houston at the Arena Theater on March 20th 2010. Here is the link to the fight’s site.

Men’s Health magazine recently released their list of America’s Drunkest Cities. Rounding out the top 5 is Austin, Texas. The magazine used 5 different criteria to determine the order of the list, which includes:

• Most liver disease
• Most binge drinking
• Most deaths in DUI-related crashes
• Most DUI/DWI arrests
• Least stringent DUI/DWI laws

Fresno, CA scored 1st place and title of the Drunkest City in America. Two other Texas cities scored top 10 positions, with San Antonio coming in 7th and Lubbock, TX coming in 8th place. Read the full article and list at MensHealth.com

If you are one of the many charged with DWI in Austin or a DWI in San Antonio, contact a lawyer highly experienced in DWI cases, such as Tyler Flood, right away.

Everybody heard about this when it happened a few months ago and now the Chronicle reported on it again today. Judge Carolyn Marks Johnson was reprimanded by the State for her illegal, unprofessional and just plain unconstitutional behavior of having a defendant submit to a drug test just moments AFTER she was found Not Guilty by a jury in trial. After a not guilty, unless there are some other criminal charges pending, the judge does not have any authority to order the acquitted person to do anything. No more so than anybody else standing around. Harris County has decided that she will not be allowed to sit as a judge for anybody any more in the County.

Despite Harris County’s ban on Carolyn Marks Johnson, despite her appalling behavior an despite the fact that the State of Texas punished her by reprimanding her, Montgomery County still uses her as a visiting judge. I just had a trial setting in front of her when Judge Johnson was serving as a visiting judge for County Court #4 in Montgomery County. Did Montgomery County not get the memo? Why would any County in Texas feel it is okay to employ a judge who was banned in another County for misconduct and a complete lack of respect for the Constitution? Montgomery County should be embarrassed.

Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson will make an appearance on my show “Law and Disorder next week..the show will air on Sunday at 5 pm and we will discuss the overhaul of the district clerk’s office that is currently taking place and the huge imaging goals he still has to achieve. The Show will air Sunday Feb 7th, 2010 at 5-6 p.m.

Any email questions will be answered live on the air. Please submit your questions for the show on my site tylerflood.com by using the form in the bottom left column.

Third show for Law and Disorder was a great success…my guests were Rodney Thompkins, owner of AMEX bail bonds and John Will, Program Director of PDAP, Palmer Drug Abuse Program.

We got a new engineer and a new taping format and it proved to be perfect. This show we discussed everything from Wizzinators to DIVERT.

Bond conditions were also discussed and what to do if you are arrested and how to get out of jail.

Had a great time speaking at the Houston Bar Association’s Litigation Section on Thursday at Maggiano’s. There was a large crowd and they even had to bring in more tables. I fielded lots of questions about common questions about DWI and even shed some light on a few urban legends. One attendee said he had always heard to request the officers to carry you to their car so the video won’t show you walking. That was a new one to me. Another was whether or not it would work if as soon as you were pulled over, take out the keys and start chugging a bottle of liquor. I actually heard that one before. Overall, I feel like I was able to provide some valuable knowledge for civil lawyers to be able to help any of their friends, family or clients if they are ever faced with a DWI arrest.

The DA’s office announced last week that they are changing the DIVERT policy to now accept offenders who live out of state. I had a couple clients that lived out of state and were arrested back in August. We were told that they were ineligible for DIVERT because they had to live in Texas. Those clients had bad trial cases, weren’t eligible for DIVERT and ended up just pleading guilty and taking the conviction. Had they been dealing with their DWI today, however, they would be able to take advantage of the DIVERT program.

On another note, I did have a client that lives in Louisiana in court today and was considering taking the DIVERT and then just driving to Houston from New Orleans for every meeting she would be required to attend. The judge however, feeling a little uneasy with potential liability issues or just the fact that he couldn’t “reach out and touch her” as he stated, added the SCRAM ankle monitor as a condition if he was going to approve the out of state DIVERT plea. My client was really opposed to wearing this ankle monitor because she was afraid her co-workers would see it and she decided against the DIVERT altogether and she just took a regular probation.

So far we have hosted Judicial Candidate Peyton Peebles on Law and Disorder, my show on CNN650 AM and this Sunday we will host Dennis Slate who is running for County Criminal Law number 13. I am extending an open invitation to all criminal court candidates to be on my show. You can send me an email here or call 713.224.5529.

Driving down Washington Avenue is like driving through HPD’s parking lot. This has become the number one hotspot fort DWI arrests in Houston. Therefore, I placed a billboard right in the heart of it all.

Had our first radio show. Went off without a hitch. Our guests were Mike Giglio from the Houston Press, Judicial Candidate Peyton Peebles who is running for County Criminal Court at Law number 1 and Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer Todd Dupont who discussed the legal ramifications of Tiger Wood’s wife’s actions and also the Charlie Sheen arrest.