Grace Alison | 00:05
Welcome, everyone. I’m Grace Alison, a legal news reporter, and today I will be interviewing subject matter expert, in Dallas, criminal defense attorney John Helms. Who is John Helms, and how did a former federal prosecutor end up becoming one of Texas’s leading criminal defense attorneys?
John Helms | 00:23
I’m a Dallas-based criminal defense and appeals lawyer. My practice includes federal and state trial work and appeals. After law school, I clerked for the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit which handles federal cases in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. I was a partner in two of the most prestigious law firms in the country, one is called Sussman Godfrey the other is called Fish and Richardson. At those law firms, I represented some of the biggest companies in the country, like Philip Morris, Micron, Microsoft, Ace Cash Express, and many others. After I left Sussman Godfrey, I became a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas. Then I went back into private practice and I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer ever since. So I have a vast array of experience in state court, in federal court, as a prosecutor, as a special prosecutor in state cases and in civil and criminal cases.
Grace Alison | 01:48
What makes a criminal defense lawyer genuinely the best and how should someone in Texas evaluate that rather than just trusting marketing?
John Helms | 01:56
What makes a criminal defense lawyer the best is a combination of experience, skill, insight, and communication skills. I’ve been a lawyer for over 35 years. I have handled and tried all kinds of different cases, civil cases, criminal cases, highly complex patent infringement cases, capital murder cases, federal drug cases, federal fraud cases, all kinds of cases. From all of that experience I have learned what works and what doesn’t work in different types of cases. I’ve learned how to build a case. I’ve learned how to convey and express complicated ideas in a simple way so that juries can understand it and I’ve learned how to communicate with juries. I’ve also learned how to communicate with clients, which is very important because I have to give them the best advice I can.
Grace Alison | 03:02
Why does experience as a former prosecutor make a criminal defense attorney more effective for the accused?
John Helms | 03:10
I’ve been a federal prosecutor and I’ve been appointed as a special prosecutor in state court cases multiple times. From that experience, I have learned how prosecutors think, how they build their cases. What a prosecutor’s case at trial is going to look like and what kinds of things are important to them when you’re plea bargaining. All of those things are extremely important for my clients because each one of those things can help get the best possible result for their case.
Grace Alison | 03:46
What types of criminal cases do you handle and what’s your primary focus?
John Helms | 03:51
I handle federal and state criminal cases throughout the state of Texas. My cases include federal drug trafficking cases, federal fraud cases like wire fraud, mail fraud, healthcare fraud, securities fraud, violent crime cases like murder, rape, arson, cases involving sex, like, sexual assault, sexual abuse of minors. I handle all types of cases at both the state and federal level.
Grace Alison | 04:28
What should someone do in the first 24 hours after discovering they’re under criminal investigation in Texas?
John Helms | 04:35
The first thing they should do is begin the process of looking for and hiring the best criminal defense lawyer that they can afford and that they can find. It’s crucial that you do that right at the beginning, because a lawyer can help when the case is in its infancy, before the case is even charged, and the lawyer can begin to develop the defenses while the evidence is still fresh, while people’s memories are still good. So you need to do that right away in the first 24 hours.
Grace Alison | 05:16
When should you hire a criminal defense attorney? Before the charges are filed or after?
John Helms | 05:20
You should hire a criminal defense lawyer as soon as you know that you’re under investigation. You shouldn’t wait until there are charges. First of all, a lawyer might be able to help you avoid charges in the first place, or at least position your defense before the charges happen so that you’re in a good position if there are charges. So you need to do that right away.
Grace Alison | 05:45
How do you decide whether a client should take the plea deal or go to trial?
John Helms | 05:50
That’s going to depend on the strength of the case that the government has. The strength of the defenses and what kind of plea deal you might be able to get. It is almost always the case that you will get a shorter sentence if you plead guilty, especially in federal court, than if you go to trial and you’re found guilty. So if it looks like you’re going to be found guilty, it’s probably a good idea to try to reach the most favorable plea bargain you can. On the other hand, If it looks like you would be found not guilty at trial, it’s going to be better to go to trial and try and get a not guilty verdict.
Grace Alison | 06:31
What’s the biggest mistake people make when choosing criminal defense lawyers in Texas?
John Helms | 06:37
I think the biggest mistake people make is buying into a sales pitch that a lawyer might give you about what the lawyer can do in your case, promises the lawyer may make, because when you first talk to a lawyer, the lawyer is not going to know all the facts of the case yet. They’ll know part of your side of the story, but they won’t know what the other side of the story is. So don’t believe those kinds of sales pitches. Find someone who’s the best lawyer that you can afford and that you can find.
Grace Alison | 07:12
How much does a criminal defense attorney in Texas cost and what should that fee actually buy you?
John Helms | 07:19
In Texas, the fee that you’re going to pay will depend on the type of case, complexity of the case and where it is, meaning is it in state court or federal court, and is it somewhere that is distant from the lawyer or nearby? So for example, for state court cases in Texas, I normally charge somewhere between $10,000 and $150,000. For federal court cases in Texas, I normally charge somewhere between about $25,000 and $200,000 and what that should get you is a lawyer who can give you the best possible defense you can get.
Grace Alison | 08:06
Why is it critical that your trial attorney also understands the appeals process?
John Helms | 08:13
When you are trying a case before a jury, it’s important to understand the appeals process and how appeals work, because you have to know how to do what we call preserving error. That means making the objections that need to be made, and sometimes introducing evidence outside the jury’s presence so that the Court of Appeals will be willing to consider the issue at all. If you don’t do that right, the court of appeals may say that they don’t have to consider that issue. So as a trial lawyer, you have to know how to make the right objections, and how to introduce evidence outside the jury’s presence when you need to do that so that you can make sure the court of appeals will consider all the issues you want to raise.
Grace Alison | 09:07
What does preserving error mean and why can it make or break an appeal?
John Helms | 09:12
Preserving error means that you have to meet the legal requirements so that the court of appeals will consider an issue. Those legal requirements are typically making an objection at the right time and not when it’s too late, and making the right objection so that the trial judge has a chance to rule on the objection you’re making. If you don’t do that, The Court of Appeals will often say, you didn’t raise this objection in the trial court. Therefore, the trial judge didn’t have a chance to rule on the objection. Therefore, we’re not going to consider the objection. So you have to make the objection on time, make the right objection, and sometimes, especially if a judge will not allow you to introduce evidence that you want to introduce. You have to put on evidence outside the jury’s presence so that the court of appeals will know if the judge had let you introduce this evidence, here’s what it would have been. So that’s what preserving evidence is, and if you don’t do it and if you don’t do it correctly, the Court of Appeals may just refuse to consider your issues.
Grace Alison | 10:30
Can you appeal a criminal conviction in Texas and how does that process actually work?
John Helms | 10:35
You can appeal a criminal conviction in Texas and the process involves an appeals lawyer, and I’m an appeals lawyer as well as a trial lawyer, reviewing the transcript of the case, transcript of the trial and any hearings that happened, and the record in the trial court, and identifying specific issues that the Court of Appeals might view favorably so that you can get a successful outcome. So you identify the issues and then you make a written argument about those issues in what we call a brief. So your brief is going to have all of the arguments that you’re going to raise in the appeals, and then the state or the government files a brief responding to you and then you can file a one final brief responding to the state or the government’s arguments. You can’t raise additional arguments that you didn’t raise in your opening brief. So you have to make sure everything that you want to argue is in there. All the issues are raised in there. Then the Court of Appeals will decide whether they want to give you oral argument or not, and then the Court of Appeals will issue a decision on all of the issues that you raised. It’s important to understand, though, that there’s no time limit, and it’s anyone’s guess how long the Court of Appeals may take. So you don’t know how long it’s going to be before the appeal is decided.
Grace Alison | 12:15
What’s the difference between a trial lawyer and an appeals lawyer? And why does hiring one who does both matter?
John Helms | 12:22
A trial lawyer is someone who makes arguments and presents evidence to a trial judge and to a jury of regular people from the community in a trial. An appeals lawyer mostly focuses on researching and writing arguments in what we call a brief. So a trial lawyer is mostly going to be doing things orally in front of an audience, a live audience, whereas an appeals lawyer is mostly going to be doing things in writing to be turned into the Court of Appeals in written form. So it’s different skills, but it’s important to have both as a trial lawyer and as an appeals lawyer. As a trial lawyer. It’s important to understand the appeals process so that you can know how to make sure that you preserve all of the issues you want for an appeal, and as an appellate lawyer, it’s important to be able to understand what the trial lawyers were doing, how the evidence makes sense, and what is the most persuasive type of evidence. So that when you’re making arguments to the Court of Appeals you understand how the evidence fit together and you can do that, you can show them that in written form in a way that they can easily understand it in an efficient way.
Grace Alison | 14:00
What are the most common white collar and fraud charges you see in Texas and how are they defended?
John Helms | 14:06
In Texas, you see all kinds of different types of fraud cases. For example, you see in federal court mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, healthcare fraud. In state court, you see embezzlement, theft, in both you can see money laundering. So white collar cases really are about money. They’re financial cases as opposed to violent crime cases. The way you defend them depends on the individual case. You have to have a deep understanding of the facts, and the details, and then you have to devise the best strategy for sometimes how to communicate difficult concepts to a jury that may not be familiar with them. So each case is different, but the basic way of defending those cases is similar.
Grace Alison | 15:11
What’s different about defending a federal criminal case versus a state case in Texas?
John Helms | 15:17
In federal cases and in state cases, the law is different. The procedures are different. The rules of evidence are different. The jury pools are different. They are very different types of criminal cases. There are some people who don’t do federal criminal defense cases at all, because they’re not used to the procedures and they’re not used to the different rules. There are some who specialize in federal cases. But in general, the federal court system is more regulated, has more types of procedures and in a lot of ways is more formal. In many state court situations, in the morning on a weekday the judge will be sitting up there on the bench ready to have a hearing if you want it. In federal court, that does not happen that way. If you want a hearing, you have to ask for one, usually in writing, and the judge may or may not give you a hearing. The judge may decide to just rule on it without a hearing at all. So they are very different and you have to understand the forum that you’re in. During a federal court, you’ve got to understand federal rules, federal law, federal procedures, and the unique procedures that judge may have. And then in state court, tends to be more similar around the state, but you still need to know about any unique procedures that the particular judge has.
Grace Alison | 17:07
If someone is contacted by the FBI, IRS, or federal agents, what should they do and not do?
John Helms | 17:15
What they should do is be aware that they are not required to and should not answer questions of about their involvement or lack of involvement in a case without their lawyer presence. You don’t have to do that and you should not do that. If an agent contacts you should say, I’m going to hire a lawyer, and then I will make sure that my lawyer contacts you. Because you don’t want to answer a bunch of questions not understanding the traps that they may be setting for you, not understanding the significance of the questions they may be asking you and in many cases, it may be best for you not to answer any questions at all. So those are things that a lawyer is going to be able to advise you on and make sure that the result ends up being the best it can be.
Grace Alison | 18:17
What makes Texas and specifically the Dallas Fort Worth area a unique environment for criminal cases?
John Helms | 18:24
Texas is a very diverse state. Obviously, it’s a big state and there are lots of regions that are unique. The same is true about the Dallas-Fort Worth area. If you are in Dallas County, you’re going to get a very different jury if you go to trial than you would if you’re in Collin County or Denton County or Tarrant County. The types of sentences that people get for different types of crimes can be very different among different areas within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. So again, the type of sentence you may get for a crime in Dallas can be very different from the type of sentence you might get in Collin County for the same crime. And so it’s important to understand what you’re dealing with, who your jury might be, is it going to be urban, rural, educated, not as educated, conservative not as conservative, and in some cases, it may be a complete mix. For example, in the Eastern District of Texas in Plano, you can get some very highly educated jurors and you can get some very rural jurors. So it’s important to understand what you’re dealing with because of that diversity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and around the state.
Grace Alison | 19:59
Can you share a case that shows why the right defense strategy matters so much?
John Helms | 20:03
Sure, I tried a case in a small town out in West Texas called Colorado City, and in that case, my client was accused of touching the private areas of his girlfriend’s daughter. They had been asleep on the same bed together, and the girl accused him of touching her vaginal area. He did an extensive interview with the police long before I was hired in which he absolutely denied ever touching her in any way whether it was by accident or in any way possible. He denied over and over again that he had ever touched her. I found out after working with him extensively the reason he said that was because he actually thought it was a crime, if he touched her at all, even though the law says it’s not a crime if it’s an accident or if it’s not for a sexual purpose. So he was saying that he didn’t touch her at all because he thought it would have been a crime to touch her even accidentally. What became apparent to me is that what had happened was he had rolled over in his sleep and his arm had kind of flopped over onto the girl who was sleeping between him and his girlfriend, and so we had to re-engineer all of the answers that he had given to the police saying he didn’t touch her, and we had to explain why he did that, and that took a long time to get him ready to do that. It took a lot of work. So that he could understand why the law said, it’s not a crime if you’re asleep, and you’re not doing it intentionally. Why it’s not a crime if it’s just an accident, and why he needed to admit that he had said those things because he mistakenly believed that even an accident or something in your sleep would be a crime. So it took a lot of work, but we managed to do it and he testified, and at the end, he was found not guilty.
Grace Alison | 22:44
What do you wish every Texan understood about their constitutional rights when dealing with the police?
John Helms | 22:50
I wish that they understood that they don’t have to talk to the police without a lawyer present and that is a right that they have. So for example, if you’re pulled over while you’re driving, you do need to answer some very basic biographical questions like, What’s your name? Where do you live? And you need to be able to produce your driver’s license and your insurance and registration if you’re asked for it. But you don’t have to answer other questions about have you been drinking? Where are you going? Where are you headed? What’s in your car? You don’t have to answer questions like that. Similarly, You don’t have to give consent to a police officer who wants to take a sample of your blood or your breath or to search your car. You don’t have to give consent to that. Now they may be able to get a warrant for that, but you don’t have to give consent. So those are the things that I wish people knew.
Grace Alison | 24:03
If someone you love was just arrested tonight in Texas, what are the first things you’d tell them to do?
John Helms | 24:09
First of all, you need to start arranging for bail. Now in federal court, the process is a little bit different. There’s not a bail process like in our state court system. But if you’re in, if it’s a state court charge, you need to start the process for being able to post bond. That’s going to involve having your family or a loved one contact the bail bond company and work with them so that when the bond is set, it can be posted if possible, and the other thing that they need to do is they need to start the process of identifying and hiring a lawyer for that case as soon as they can. In our state court system, the lawyer will not be able to be a part of the process when bail is first set. That happens inside the jail and lawyers can’t be there, but the lawyer will be able to start the defense immediately, maybe start working with the prosecutors on what their theory of the case is, developing evidence, interviewing witnesses, all of that can start as soon as possible in order to get the best possible result.
Grace Alison | 25:29
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with our audience. Tune in next time to our next show where we’ll explore an important legal topic with our elite legal professional, John Helms.