San Antonio News – Attorney Legal Counsel

San Antonio ACS touts new hiring days after attorney accuses department of negligence | San Antonio

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:13 +0000

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Michael Karlis

Animal Control Services boasted that it’s hired “closew to 20” officers since October. However, it’s unclear if those hiring have had any impact on San Antonio’s “Dangerous Dog” problem.

San Antonio Animal Care Services sent out a press release Monday touting the “early impacts” of a strategic plan the embattled city department put in place after a major budget increase last fall.

After City Council voted to bump up ACS’s annual budget by 33% to $28.5 million, the department hired “close to 20” additional animal-care officers, according to the announcement. ACS Director Shannon Sims, who’s set to retire this summer, told council last fall he’d add a total of 29 staffers if given the proposed budget boost.

ACS issued Monday’s release days after attorneys representing a couple charged in a deadly 2023 dog attack told the Express-News that the department’s negligence led to the fatality. The mauling took the life of elderly veteran Ramon Najera, grabbing national headlines and prompting outrage about San Antonio’s problem with loose dogs and its low number of ACS officers.

The pit bulls involved in the February 2023 attack that killed Najera were involved in a separate mauling just one month prior, according to the Express-News. The victim in the first attack suffered bites to their leg and shoulder.

ACS impounded the dogs — owned by couple Christian Alexander Moreno and Abilene Schnieder, who face criminal charges in the second attack — but returned them 11 days later, according to the Express-News. What’s more, ACS workers failed to label either of the canines as “dangerous,” according to the couple’s attorneys.

“The City of San Antonio violated the law — their own obligation to take care of the situation,” criminal defense attorney Jorge Aristotelidis told the judge in the couple’s criminal case Friday, according to the daily. “For some reason that we don’t know, judge, San Antonio animal control released these dogs. I don’t even think there’s a record of who it was that did it. The record-keeping is atrocious.”

In Monday’s news release, ACS said its workers wrote more than 2,300 citations since Oct. 1, the start of the city’s current fiscal year. Its staffers also declared 62 dogs “dangerous” or “aggressive” in that same timeframe.

Even so, the Alamo City has continued to experience dog attacks. Since the start of the city’s current fiscal year, San Antonio has tallied at least four high-profile dog attacks. None has proven fatal.

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San Antonio attorney says it’s too early to call for Councilman Marc Whyte’s resignation | San Antonio

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 05:13:21 +0000

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Facebook / Marc Whyte for City Council

After posting $2,000 bond on Saturday, Whyte told News4SA he took “full ownership of his actions.”

A San Antonio criminal defense attorney is warning that it’s too early to call for District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte’s resignation even though he picked up a charge of driving while intoxicated over the weekend.

San Antonio attorney Shannon W. Locke of the Locke Law Group posted a Jan. 1 TikTok video arguing the DWI case isn’t clear cut. Locke, who counts DWI cases among his specialties, said the evidence against the councilman isn’t overwhelming.

“It is way too early to call for anybody’s resignation or to say that anybody was for sure DWI,” Locke said in the 2-minute clip.

@shannonlocke5

No one should ever drink and drive but the offense of DWI requires the State clear a number of hurdles before getting a DWI conviction. Let’s use the Marc Whyte arrest to discuss some of the Constitutional questions that his arrest might pose

♬ original sound – Shannon Locke

Whyte was arrested Friday after a San Antonio police officer witnessed him swerving between lanes, failing to use his turn signal and driving 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, according to paperwork obtained by KSAT.

The arrest came roughly a year after Whyte’s District 10 council predecessor, Clayton Perry, was charged with a DWI. In the wake of his legal troubles, Perry opted not to run for a fourth term.

According to Locke, swerving between lanes and failing to use a turn signal aren’t enough to justify a DWI stop. Although speeding is enough to pull someone over, speeding at night doesn’t indicate DWI, the attorney argued in the TikTok video.

The arresting officer reportedly smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Whyte, and the councilman allegedly “staggering while balancing,” according to paperwork obtained by KSAT. However, Locke said he’s not convinced those signs were enough to justify a blood draw warrant.

“We have a strong odor of alcohol; an odor of alcohol is not a strong indication of intoxication,” Locke said. “People can smell like alcohol and be completely sober. Additionally, there’s a question about whether or not he was ‘staggering while balancing.’ We don’t know what that means.”

Locke continued: “All of these questions need to be answered before we rush to judgment to decide whether or not Councilman Whyte was properly stopped, properly searched for his blood and properly charged with this DWI.”

Whyte posted a $2,000 bond and was released from the Bexar County Jail on Saturday, where he told News4SA’s Jordan Elder that he took “full ownership of his actions.”

“I take full ownership.”

We were the only cameras outside the Bexar County Jail as Councilman Marc Whyte was released this afternoon.

Here’s part of his statement to our Mike Guerrero: pic.twitter.com/z2nzWHkUXA

— Jordan Elder (@JordanElderTV) December 30, 2023 “Well, listen, I am always going to take full ownership for my actions, and the same goes for what happened last night,” Whyte told Elder. “But I’ll tell you, I have never, ever gotten behind the wheel of a car when I felt intoxicated. The same was true last night. But with that said, even having two or three drinks over a five-hour time period is still not right. You should never get behind the wheel of a car when you’ve had anything to drink at all, and so I take full ownership.”

Whyte has hired David Christian the same attorney who defended Perry, Texas Public Radio reports.

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Study: San Antonio ranks in the top 5 U.S. cities for bargain hunters | San Antonio News | San Antonio

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 15:47:39 +0000

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Brandon Rodriguez

A variety of paintings, antiques and oddities sit inside San Antonio artist Paco Felici’s gallery. The space opens monthly for people to sift through and purchase objects.

With its abundance of thrift and resale shops, San Antonio ranks as one of the best cities in the U.S. for bargain hunting, according to a new study.

The Alamo City landed at No. 4 on the list, conducted by lawn care company Lawn Love, putting it in the company of fashionable cities including New York (No. 1), Los Angeles (No. 2), and Houston (No. 3).

To get the rankings, researchers analyzed 200 U.S. cities and assigned weights to factors such as general access to bargains, clothing, antiques and furniture. San Antonio’s access to consignment shops, flea markets and specialty reuse stores also contributed significantly to its high ranking, researchers said.

San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Houston were the only cities in the top 10 for the story’s second consecutive year. Houston, in particular, stood out for having the most Habitat for Humanity ReStores and the nation’s second-highest number of thrift stores.

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