Do you have a pending Class A or B misdemeanor case in Williamson County, Texas? If you meet certain criteria, you may be able to avoid a conviction, avoid any additional jail time, and avoid a possible 12 to 24 month term of probation for a Williamson County misdemeanor offense IF you participate in a special program called Pre-Trial Intervention that is run by the Williamson County Attorney's office.
The PTIP Program was last changed in March of 2018. Make sure you use the latest application form. Please note that the program was changed in March 2018, but they are still using the application dated August 2017 to apply for the program. (Some of the information in the application is outdated because of the program changes. The county attorney's office will update the application and I will post it as soon as they start using an application that is newer than the one I have in this web page.)
Make sure that you review the latest information from the County Attorney's Office when deciding if the PTIP Program would be a good fit for you. Click on the following links to download pdf files that contain the PTIP Program Summary and Criteria for Admission, the latest PTIP Application that you must use to apply for the program, and a memo from the County Attorney's Office that details recent changes to the program:
The local PTIP program used to be six months long for all participants. Now it can be 6, 9, or 12 months long. The Program Summary and Criteria for Admission explains who will qualify for the program and how long the term will be for each person who qualifies and gets admitted into the program.
If you successfully finish this PTI program, then as soon as you finish the program you can immediately request a local District Court to completely remove the arrest record from your criminal history (unless you are charged with DWI). If the arrest is removed from your criminal history (this is called an expunction), then you can legally deny that you were ever arrested for this offense and you will still have a clean criminal record.
The Pre-Trial Intervention program (PTIP) is primarily designed for first time misdemeanor offenders. You should look at page 4 of the Program Summary and Criteria for Admission for complete details to see who is eligible and who is not eligible for the program.
The Williamson County Attorney requires that you have an attorney to apply for the PTIP program. If you thinkyou might be interested in this program, you should call Ken Crain at 512-630-3745 to discuss it. The great thing about this program is that if you apply for the program, get accepted into the program, and then successfully finish the program, then the criminal charges are dismissed and you will not end up with a criminal conviction for the offense you were originally charged with.
At your own expense, certain PTIP participants are also required to have an ignition interlock device installed on their vehicle that will require a breath test each time before the vehicle will start. Certain defendants will have to keep the ignition interlock device on their vehicle for the entire 6, 9, or 12 month length of the PTI program.
Defendants cannot have alcohol or substance abuse issues or other conditions that should be monitored in a more formal probation environment (like a regular supervised misdemeanor probation or deferred adjudication). If your crime involves restitution to a victim, you must be willing and able to pay any and all restitution owed to a victim at the beginning of the PTIP when the PTIP contract is signed.
To apply for the program, you have to hire an attorney and you must complete the program application and submit it to the Williamson County Attorney's office within 30 days of the date you receive your first plea offer from the county attorney's office. The sooner you hire an attorney, the sooner your attorney can advise you if this program would be a good one for you and the sooner you can complete the application.
A word to the wise: you will have to submit to drug testing and submit the drug test results along with the PTIP application. If you do not pass the drug test, then you will not get accepted into the program. All program applicants are drug tested, even if the crime you are charged with does not involve drugs. If you want to get into this program, you need to make sure you stop using drugs immediately to increase the chances you will pass a drug test.
If you are accepted into the program, you and your attorney will meet with the County Attorney's office to sign a Pre-Trial Intervention contract. You will have to pay a $360 to $500 program fee by money order at this meeting, sign a contract, do community service monthly until you complete 20 to 40 hours total, stay out of trouble with the law for 6, 9, or 12 months, and submit to random drug testing during the program. If you are charged with a DWI, you will also be required to have an ignition interlock device installed on your car that will require you to pass a breath test before your car will even start.
If your program is 6 months long, you will have to do 20 hours of community service during the program. People whose program is 9 months long will have to do 30 hours total. People whose program is 12 months long will have to do 40 hours total.
Most people who are admitted into this program are successful in completing it. However, you need to be aware that the contract you sign when you start the program states that you waive your right to a trial (by jury or by judge) in the event that you fail to complete the program for any reason and that you agree to enter a plea of no contest to the original charge. The contract will state what the agreed plea bargain would be if you fail to complete the Pre-Trial Intervention Program. In the event that you fail to complete the program, the punishment is usually comparable to what you would have received if you had bypassed the program altogether and entered a "guilty" or "no contest" plea to start with.
If you are not facing a DWI charge and you successfully finish the Pre-Trial Intervention Program in Williamson County, you can even apply to get the arrest expunged so that you can legally deny that the arrest ever happened. (Normally, to expunge a misdemeanor arrest you have to wait until at least one year has passed since the date of the original arrest. However, if you successfully finish a pre-trial intervention, you can start the expunction process as soon as the pre-trial intervention program has been completed.) Your criminal history will still be clean if you get the arrest expunged. (Since the expunction process is a separate legal proceeding, legal fees and filing fees to apply for an expunction are not included in my fee to apply for the Williamson County Pre-Trial Intervention Program.)
My fee for assisting with the PTIP application process is $1,600.00. This fee includes all legal work related to applying for the program, meeting with a prosecutor to sign a contract to start the program, and getting you a dismissal order from the court after the successful completion of the program. I accept cash, personal checks, money orders, debit cards, and most major credit cards.
Please call Ken Crain at 512-630-3745 if you have questions about the Pre-Trial Intervention Program in Williamson County.
The PTI Application contains a lot of additional information about the program and how to apply for the program. You have to use the most recent version of the PTI Program Application in order to apply for the program. The County Attorney last revised the program application in June 2022. You can download the most recent version of the application by clicking on the link near the top of this page.
The Williamson County Attorney requires you to have an attorney in order to apply for the program. I have already helped many people successfully apply for the program.
Please call Ken Crain at 512-630-3745 if you have questions about the Pre-Trial Intervention Program in Williamson County.
Do you have a pending Class A or B misdemeanor case in Williamson County, Texas? If you meet certain criteria, you may be able to avoid a conviction, avoid any additional jail time, and avoid a possible 12 to 24 month term of probation for a Williamson County misdemeanor offense IF you participate in a special program called Pre-Trial Intervention that is run by the Williamson County Attorney's office.
A word to the wise: you will have to submit to drug testing and submit the drug test results along with the PTIP application. If you do not pass the drug test, then you will not get accepted into the program. All program applicants are drug tested, even if the crime you are charged with does not involve drugs. If you want to get into this program, you need to make sure you stop using drugs immediately to increase the chances you will pass a drug test.
If you are not facing a DWI charge and you successfully finish the Pre-Trial Intervention Program in Williamson County, you can even apply to get the arrest expunged so that you can legally deny that the arrest ever happened. (Normally, to expunge a misdemeanor arrest you have to wait until at least one year has passed since the date of the original arrest. However, if you successfully finish a pre-trial intervention, you can start the expunction process as soon as the pre-trial intervention program has been completed.) Your criminal history will still be clean if you get the arrest expunged. (Since the expunction process is a separate legal proceeding, legal fees and filing fees to apply for an expunction are not included in my fee to apply for the Williamson County Pre-Trial Intervention Program.)
