Even if he just gets probation, he then has to deal with the Commish.
"PackFanWithTwins" wrote:
This is the rub right here. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the specifics of his case, but in generalities, knowing how the Houston DA's office works, I'd be very surprised to see Johnny walk away from this with anything more than probation. While it's true that the State of Texas (and Houston in particular) crack down very hard on drug and alcohol related cases, this is more on the arrest side than the conviction side. Not they they don't often go for strong convictions, but more often than not, the DA's office is just trying to get some sort of conviction, any conviction, to pad their "stats" and show the voters how they're cracking down on crime.
What bodes even better for Johnny is that a lot of these cases end up getting dropped or plead down to very minimal sentencing at the last minute. Drug and alcohol cases (or at least minor drug cases, including codeine, lean, syrup, purple stuff or any other name is popular in the local hip-hop lingo) are relatively low priority cases, yet the dockets are booked to the brink due to the arrest happy police force. What this means is two things:
1. Prosecutors want nothing more than to reach a pre-trial agreement, and like I said earlier, often plea down to severely reduced sentences just to put a W in the column.
2. When they do go to trial, good defense attorneys have extremely high success rates, mainly because they completely outmatch and outgun the rookie prosecutors who cut their teeth trying alcohol and minor drug related cases. Basically, the defenses opponent here is the weakest of what the city has to offer.
Essentially, Johnny has very little chance of seeing real, substantial legal trouble, if this case even goes to trial. Remember, only the grand jury has indicted. It's still 50/50 (sort of a made up number there) that the case even sticks. The prosecutor may take a look at the evidence and the oppsing counsel and dismiss the case. (Again, I know none of the particulars of the case)
Point being, even with a cadillac deal for a plea agreement, the Commish is the worry here, not the DA's office. Though since Johnny has no prior history that I'm aware of, I can't imagine Goodell coming down too hard. My guess would be a 4 game suspension, which at the end of the day, isn't too crippling.
EDIT: I do legal marketing here in Houston, primarily on the PI side, but I do work with several clients in criminal defense, particularly DWI and minor drug charges. So that's where my somewhat "inside" look into the Houston DA's office is coming from.