In addition to criminal defense, we take many types of civil rights cases and have included a sample of cases with information that is already publicly available in published media.
City approves $1.25 million settlement in police shooting – Aug 7, 2014
Fox News: “Austin City Council awarded $1.25 million to the children of shooting victim Larry Jackson Jr.
Foster mother beats toddler to death – Aug 5, 2013
A foster mother in Austin, Texas has been charged with beating a toddler to death after she was placed in her care because social services found her biological parents smoking pot.
Emergency services responded to a 911 call from Sherill Small, 54, on Monday 29th of July asking them to come to her house because two-year-old Alexandria Hill was not breathing.
The tragic tot later died in hospital from a brain hemorrhage and doctors told police that the explanation Small gave them for the child’s injuries were not consistent with her wounds.
The little girl’s life support machine was switched off on Wednesday 31st of July and Small was arrested and charged with murder the next day – allegedly admitting to authorities that she had thrown Alexandria to the ground.
Her distraught parents, Mary Sweeney and Joshua Hill are now working to file a suit against the state and foster agency, Texas Mentor for placing their child in the care of Small in the first place.
‘She was placed into foster care for neglectful supervision because her mother and I smoked pot at the time,’ explained Hill to KXAN.Com.
Re-enactment discrepancies leave family still looking for answers – 11/5/2005
Attorney Bobby Taylor says his client Daniela Rocha still doesn’t know what happened in the last moments before her son, 18-year-old Daniel Rocha, was fatally shot by APD Officer Julie Schroeder on June 9 – even after reviewing a tape of the official police re-enactment of the shooting, recorded not quite 24 hours after Rocha’s death. Specifically, Taylor charges that Schroeder’s re-created recollections don’t match those of Sgt. Don Doyle, also present at the shooting. And, Taylor says, neither of their recollections match the expert opinion of forensic consultant Tom Bevel, hired by APD to determine the probable locations of both “deceased and … shooter” at the moment Schroeder fired her 9mm pistol. “Do I believe that [Schroeder] is a cold-blooded killer?” asks Taylor. “Absolutely not. But I do believe that a mother has the right to know what happened to her son.” <Full Story>
City approves $1 million settlement for the family of Daniel Rocha – Dec 11 2008
<Full Story>
Louis Guerrero vs Capitol City Baptist – May 5, 2004
AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) — Austin police arrested a church pastor and his twin brother Tuesday, alleging they used a tree branch to beat unconscious an 11-year-old who misbehaved in Bible class.
Joshua Thompson, 22, a pastor at Capitol City Baptist Church, and his brother Caleb turned themselves in Tuesday and were released on $25,000 bond, KEYE-TV reported. They were charged with injury to a child, a felony punishable by up to life in prison, the station reported.
The alleged beating took place July 3, according to reports. The brothers thought the boy did not take his Bible verses seriously enough during a church-sponsored summer camp for Spanish-speaking students, officials said.
The alleged abuse took place at a private home, said Bobby Taylor, the child’s attorney. “They … cut a branch off a tree, made my client lay on the bed, and beat him,” Taylor said. <Full Story>
After graduating from UT Law school, Bobby began his career with a non-profit providing legal aid. During this period, Travis County’s jail had become so outdated and overcrowded that conditions were unsafe. Bobby Taylor’s efforts in defending prisoner rights resulted in the closing of that jail and the construction of the current facility in Del Valle. <Full Story>
