Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

IN RE: RISK LEVEL

On July 29, 2010, I was in my backyard naked talking on the phone, and the neighbor�s 16-year-old son and two of his friends came home from wherever they had been and saw me. I was charged with Indecency with a Child by Exposure.

Alexandra M. Gauthier, my court appointed attorney, told me that the prosecutor offered me 10 years deferred, but that I should not accept it because the next month she would get the charge dropped down to Indecent Exposure. The next month, she came back and told me that the prosecutor had found out about robberies I had been convicted of in Washington State in 1983 and 1987, and changed the offer to three years in TDCJ. I told Ms. Gauthier that I would take it to trial.

She told me I should accept the offer because I would be convicted due to the robberies and the prosecutor would give me ten years, and she would enhance it and add 25 more years to the charge. She also said that I would only have to do one of the three years and I had already been in jail for eight months so I would only spend a few months in prison, and I would only have to register as a sex offender for nine years.

I took her advice and ended up doing all three years. Before my release, the officers at the Goree Unit informed me that I was classified as High Risk because the prosecutor had given each of the three teenagers a different Cause Number, making it appear on paper that I had committed the crime three separate times.

Alexandra M. Gauthier knew or should have known what the prosecutor was doing, and what the outcome would be. If I had known this beforehand, I would have taken it to trial.

I am not looking to have this charge reversed since I plead guilty to it, but since this is my first offense could I get the High Risk level lowered? Thank you.

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