Harris County DA to speak in Spring Branch

The Houston Police Department Northwest Division's Positive Interaction Program (PIP) meeting will be held at the Long Point Baptist Church located at 8009 Long Point Drive in Spring Branch. The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. and the guest speaker is Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos.

I would imagine the new DIVERT program will be front and center with a different focus that Roger Bridgwater's "meet and greet" with Harris County defense attorneys.

I will be there with a couple of questions, a couple of colleagues and a couple of daughters. I encourage everyone within earshot to attend to find out more about the program and to ask Ms. Lykos the questions that need to be asked.

I want to know about the tenor of the meeting the DA's Office had with the judges in Harris County. Was it an "informational" meeting or did Ms. Lykos and her team try to persuade the judiciary to go along with 30-day minimums for all first-time DWI's?

Did Ms. Lykos' team consult with the legal department at the Department of Public Safety to determine whether this "pretrial diversion" program is a pretrial diversion and not deferred adjudication under a different name? Did they ask the DPS attorneys whether or not the DPS would oppose requests for expunctions after successful completion of the program?

Is the purpose of the program to offer a mulligan to first-time offenders who are arrested for drunk driving, or is it to force defendants into accepting a supervision that is more stringent that a regular probation?