Criminal Defense Attorney in Sherman, Texas

A Frisco firm serving Sherman and Grayson County — the honest version

Let us be straight with you from the first line, because you deserve that when your freedom is on the line. L and L Law Group, PLLC is based in Frisco. Our office is at 5899 Preston Road, Suite 101, and we do not keep a second location in Sherman. What we do have is a practice that reaches across North Texas, and Grayson County is squarely within the area we serve. Sherman sits about 51 miles north of our office, a straight shot up US-75, the Central Expressway, and roughly an hour's drive in ordinary traffic. When a family in Sherman, Denison, Van Alstyne, Pottsboro, or anywhere else in Grayson County calls us, we answer, and we take the case if we are the right fit for it.

Why does a Frisco firm end up in the Grayson County courthouse? Because the same US-75 corridor that connects Frisco to Sherman also ties this whole stretch of North Texas together. People who live and work in the Collin County suburbs travel north for work, family, and recreation on Lake Texoma. People who live in Grayson County come south to Frisco, Plano, and Dallas. When something goes wrong — a traffic stop that turns into a DWI, an accusation that turns into an arrest — the case lands in the county where the conduct is alleged to have happened, and that means the Grayson County courts. We prepare for those courts the way we prepare for any court: by learning who the judge is, who the prosecutor is, and what the evidence actually shows.

We are careful never to oversell the geography. We will not pretend to have a corner office two blocks from the Sherman courthouse, and we will not tell you that a local address is what wins a criminal case. What wins — or at least what gives you a real fighting chance — is command of the law, a hard look at the State's evidence, and a lawyer who actually shows up prepared. If, after we talk, we believe your matter would genuinely be better served by counsel who lives and practices in Sherman full-time, we will tell you so. That kind of candor is the entire point of a free consultation.

How the Grayson County court system is organized

Understanding where your case will be heard removes a lot of the fear that comes with a first arrest. In Grayson County, the criminal courts are consolidated in the Grayson County Justice Center at 200 S. Crockett Street in Sherman, the county seat. That single complex houses the trial courts, the District Attorney's office, and the county jail, so most of what happens in a case — from the first appearance before a magistrate to the eventual plea or trial — happens on that campus.

The level of the charge decides which court hears it. Felonies — the most serious offenses, punishable by time in a state prison — are heard in the district courts. Grayson County is served by the 15th, 59th, and 397th District Courts, and the 336th District Court, which the county shares with neighboring Fannin County, also handles some Grayson matters. These district courts have general jurisdiction, meaning they can hear both criminal felonies and civil cases. Misdemeanors — Class A and Class B offenses, punishable by county-jail time and fines — are handled by the two County Courts at Law, Court at Law No. 1 and No. 2. The lowest level, Class C, fine-only offenses such as most traffic citations and many public-order matters, are heard in the Sherman Municipal Court rather than at the county level.

Prosecuting all of it is the Grayson County Criminal District Attorney's Office, which is organized into a Felony Division and a Misdemeanor Division. That office decides what to charge, what to offer in negotiation, and whether to take a case to trial. We deal with the assigned prosecutor directly, and we build the defense around what the file actually contains rather than around what the police report claims on its face. The Texas criminal case process guide walks through every stage a case moves through, and we map your specific Grayson County matter onto that timeline at the first meeting.

Arrest, booking, and bond in Grayson County

Inside the Sherman city limits, the arresting agency is usually the Sherman Police Department, headquartered at 2600 W. Travis Street. Outside the city — on the county roads, the rural stretches, and much of the US-75 and US-82 corridors — an arrest may come from the Grayson County Sheriff's Office or the Texas Department of Public Safety. Whichever agency makes the arrest on a Grayson County charge, the person is booked into the Grayson County Jail, which is housed inside the Justice Center at 200 S. Crockett Street in Sherman. That is where booking, fingerprinting, and the first appearance before a magistrate take place.

Texas law requires that a person be taken before a magistrate within 48 hours of arrest under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17. At that appearance the magistrate reads the accusation, gives the statutory warnings, and sets bond. Bond amounts are governed by Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.15, which directs the magistrate to weigh the seriousness of the charge, the accused person's criminal history, and their ties to the community — not to punish before trial. Release usually comes through a surety bond posted by a licensed bail bondsman, who typically charges a premium of roughly ten to fifteen percent of the bond, or through a cash bond posted in full. If the magistrate sets a figure your family cannot reach, or attaches conditions that go further than the case warrants, we can file a motion to reduce the bond or to modify its conditions.

Time matters more here than almost anywhere else in a case. The hours right after an arrest are when statements get made, consents get signed, and evidence gets gathered — and once those things happen, they are hard to undo. Getting a lawyer involved before the first custodial interview, rather than after, is one of the most consequential decisions a family can make. We take jail-release calls around the clock at (972) 370-5060.

The criminal charges we handle for Sherman clients

We defend the full range of the Texas Penal Code and the Health and Safety Code. In practice, the cases we see most often out of Grayson County cluster around a handful of categories, and each one has its own pressure points where a defense is built.

DWI and intoxication offenses. A driving-while-intoxicated charge under Texas Penal Code Chapter 49 is the case we field most from the US-75 corridor. A first DWI is a Class B misdemeanor; a second is a Class A; and a third becomes a third-degree felony. A DWI also triggers a separate civil proceeding — the Administrative License Revocation, or ALR — that carries its own short deadline and can suspend a driver's license independent of the criminal case. We attack the stop, the field-sobriety administration, and the breath or blood evidence, and we file the ALR request immediately so a license is not lost by default. See our DWI defense page for the full approach.

Drug offenses. Possession and distribution cases under Health and Safety Code Chapter 481 range from a Class B misdemeanor for a small amount of marijuana up through first-degree felonies for larger quantities in Penalty Group 1. The defense frequently turns on the legality of the search that produced the drugs and on whether the State can actually prove the accused knowingly possessed them. Our drug crimes page lays out the penalty groups and the common suppression arguments.

Assault and family violence. An assault charge can be as low as a Class C citation or as high as a felony, and a family-violence allegation carries collateral consequences — protective orders, firearm restrictions, immigration exposure — that reach far beyond the courtroom. These cases often come down to conflicting accounts and thin corroboration. We handle them through our assault and family violence practice.

Theft and property crimes. Theft grading climbs with the value of the property, from a Class C for the smallest amounts up to felony brackets. Burglary, criminal mischief, and fraud fall in this family too. Our theft page covers the value ladder and the defenses that apply.

Violent crimes and weapons charges. Aggravated assault, robbery, and homicide are among the most serious matters the district courts hear, and weapons offenses under Penal Code Chapter 46 — unlawful carry, felon in possession — often accompany other charges. We take these cases through our violent crimes and weapons charges practices.

Juvenile and federal matters. Cases involving a client under 18 move through a separate juvenile system with its own rules and its own emphasis on rehabilitation; we handle those through our juvenile defense practice. And because Grayson County lies within the federal Eastern District of Texas, some cases — larger drug conspiracies, certain firearm and fraud matters — are charged federally rather than in state court. We handle federal defense as well. For a full index of offenses with statutory detail, see the Texas charges library.

How we defend a Grayson County case, step by step

1. 1Free consultation, directly with an attorneyYour first call is with Reggie or Njeri London, not an intake clerk. In 30 to 45 minutes we hear the facts, identify the deadlines that cannot slip — the ALR window on a DWI, grand-jury timing on a felony, protective-order responses on a family-violence case — and quote a written flat fee if we are the right firm for your Grayson County matter.
2. 2Bond and pretrial releaseIf you are held in the Grayson County Jail, we move on bond first — a motion to reduce or modify under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.15 where the amount or conditions are excessive, and a challenge under art. 17.151 if the State is not ready to proceed within the statutory window.
3. 3Discovery and evidence auditWe file the Michael Morton Act discovery demand under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 39.14 and comb the file — body-camera and dash-camera video, lab reports, and the arresting agency's own records — for the Fourth Amendment, evidentiary, and chain-of-custody problems that become motions.
4. 4Motion practice and negotiationWe litigate the suppression record before we talk resolution, because a documented Fourth Amendment problem is what actually moves an offer. Where the facts support it, we negotiate for dismissal, a charge reduction, or a deferred-adjudication path with the Grayson County District Attorney from a position of strength.
5. 5Trial or resolution, then reliefIf the case should be tried, we try it — voir dire, cross-examination, and a theory the jury can follow. If it resolves, we make sure the terms are ones you can actually live with, and we calendar any expunction or non-disclosure eligibility so the record can be cleared when the window opens.

Clearing a Grayson County record after the case ends

For many clients the case is only half the concern; the other half is what an arrest does to a background check. Texas gives two tools for that, and which one applies depends entirely on how the case ended. An arrest that resulted in a dismissal, an acquittal, or a grand-jury no-bill is generally eligible for expunction under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Chapter 55, which destroys the records and lets you lawfully deny the arrest ever happened. A case that ended in a successfully completed deferred-adjudication probation may instead qualify for an order of non-disclosure under Tex. Gov't Code Chapter 411, which seals the record from most public view even though it remains visible to law enforcement. A straight-probation completion or an ordinary conviction usually qualifies for neither. Because eligibility turns on the fine print of the disposition, we review it as part of the representation and calendar the filing for the exact date the waiting period opens. See our expunction and record-sealing page for the eligibility matrix.

Why a North Texas firm can serve a Sherman case well

The value a lawyer brings to a Grayson County case is not measured in miles from the courthouse. It is measured in preparation. Reggie London spent years as an Assistant District Attorney in Dallas County, which means he has stood on the other side of the aisle and knows how prosecutors actually evaluate a file — what makes them dig in, what makes them reconsider, and what a defense has to put on the record to change the calculus. Njeri London brings trial-tested motion practice with a focus on Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues. Together the firm carries more than forty years of combined criminal-defense experience, and that experience travels.

When we take a Grayson County case, we do the homework that closes the distance: we learn the specific district court or county court at law the case is assigned to, we identify the prosecutor handling it, and we prepare for that setting rather than a generic one. We handle the early stages — consultation, records-gathering, and the first filings — remotely by phone, video, and e-filing so that a family in Sherman is not driving to Frisco for routine steps, and we make the drive north on US-75 for the appearances that require us in the room. It is a model built for exactly this kind of case: a serious matter, in a county an hour away, that deserves a lawyer who treats the distance as a logistical detail rather than an excuse.

And if it is genuinely not the right fit — if the matter calls for someone in the Sherman legal community day in and day out — we will say so at the consultation, before you have spent a dollar. That honesty is not a weakness in how we practice. It is the foundation of it.

Sherman Court, Jail & Bond Resources

If a family member has just been arrested in Sherman, the urgent questions are logistical, not legal-strategic: where is the case heard, where is the person held, and how does bond get posted? Because Sherman is the seat of Grayson County, the courts and the jail share one building, which makes the early steps straightforward to navigate.

Courthouse. Grayson County criminal cases are handled at the Grayson County Justice Center, 200 S. Crockett Street, Sherman, TX 75090. Felonies are indicted by a grand jury and assigned to the 336th or 397th District Court, while misdemeanors move through the County Courts at Law in the same building. The Grayson County Criminal District Attorney prosecutes on behalf of the State.

Jail & booking. Whether the arrest is made by the Sherman Police Department, another Grayson County agency, or the Texas Department of Public Safety, an adult is booked into the Grayson County Jail, housed inside the Justice Center at 200 S. Crockett Street, and run by the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office. Booking, the magistrate’s warnings, and bond posting all take place there; a surety bond is arranged through a licensed bondsman once an amount is set, and a cash bond can be posted directly at the jail.

How bail is set. A magistrate must see an arrestee without unnecessary delay and no later than 48 hours after arrest under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17, then sets bail using the art. 17.15 factors — ability to pay, the nature of the offense, and community safety. If the bond comes back higher than a family can manage, a defense attorney can file to reduce or modify it, and we move on that first when it stands between a client and release.

These related resources, several of them our own sister sites, can help a Sherman family with the early logistics:

• Grayson County jail, inmate search & court directory — booking lookups and county court contacts in one place.
• Sherman municipal court & city jail guide — local Sherman court and holding information.
• How bail works in Texas — a plain-English guide to magistration, bond types, and posting.
• Active warrant help — LiftMyWarrant — guidance when the arrest is on an outstanding warrant.
• Texas bail-bond requirements and bond conditions explained — the rules and restrictions that attach to pretrial release.

Sherman & Grayson County criminal defense FAQs

Arrested in Sherman or Grayson County?

Free, confidential consultation — direct to an attorney, 24/7. We answer jail-release calls at all hours and drive north on US-75 for every hearing.