Ellis County Criminal Defense Services

Ellis County criminal-justice infrastructure

Ellis County is a fast-growing exurban county on the southern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, home to 192,455 residents at the 2020 Census and an estimated 232,000 by 2024 — the 25th-most populous county in Texas — spread across roughly 936 square miles of land. The county seat is Waxahachie, where criminal cases are heard at the Ellis County Courts & Administration Building on South Jackson Street. The county’s four largest cities are Waxahachie (population about 41,000), Midlothian (about 35,000), Ennis (about 20,000), and Red Oak (about 14,000).

Criminal cases arising in Ellis County are prosecuted by the Ellis County and District Attorney’s Office, a combined office that carries both felony and misdemeanor matters rather than splitting them between separate county- and district-attorney staffs. Felonies (state-jail through capital) are filed in the district courts; Class A and Class B misdemeanors go to the county courts at law; Class C offenses and citations are handled by the justice-of-the-peace and municipal courts. Federal cases arising from Ellis County activity proceed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (TXND).

Sitting on the southern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, Ellis County has grown from a rural county into one of the fastest-growing exurban counties in Texas, and its criminal caseload has grown with its population. Interstate 35E runs north–south through Waxahachie and Red Oak, Interstate 45 crosses the eastern side of the county through Ennis, and US-287 links Midlothian toward the Fort Worth side of the Metroplex — the same corridors that carry daily commuter and commercial traffic also drive the county’s DWI, drug-interdiction, and traffic-enforcement dockets. Where in the county a case arose often shapes which agency’s records and which patrol practices a defense examines first.

Services for Ellis County clients

L and L Law Group provides four primary service categories for Ellis County criminal matters. Each has a dedicated information page with the full defense workflow:

Practice areas covered in Ellis County

The firm handles the full charge spectrum in Ellis County. The most common case categories filed at the Ellis County Courts & Administration Building, 109 S. Jackson Street, Waxahachie:

• DWI and intoxication offenses — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 49. First offense Class B (BAC under 0.15), Class A (BAC 0.15+), felony DWI (third offense or with child passenger), intoxication assault, intoxication manslaughter. See our DWI defense page.
• Drug crimes — Tex. Health & Safety Code Ch. 481. Penalty Group 1, 1-A, 1-B, 2, 2-A, 3, 4 across possession, possession with intent, manufacture, and delivery. See our drug defense page.
• Family violence and protective orders — Tex. Penal Code §§ 22.01, 25.07, 25.11. Class A family-violence assault, continuous family violence felony, violations of protective orders. Federal Lautenberg firearm-ban consequences under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). See our family-violence page.
• Sex crimes — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 21-22 plus § 33.021. Sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, indecency, child-pornography, online solicitation. Federal Adam Walsh SORNA registration cross-reference. See our sex-crimes page.
• Weapons charges — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 46 + federal 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). UCW, felon-in-possession, prohibited weapons, weapon transfer. See our weapons page.
• White collar and fraud — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 31-34. Theft, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering. See our white-collar page.
• Federal charges — TXND and TXED indictments. Pre-indictment negotiation, Guidelines sentencing, safety-valve and 5K1.1 departures. See our federal defense page.
• Juvenile cases — Tex. Family Code Title 3. § 54.02 transfer-to-adult-court opposition, juvenile-record sealing, juvenile sex-offense conditional registration. See our juvenile defense page.
• Expunction and non-disclosure — Tex. Code Crim. Proc. ch. 55 + Tex. Gov’t Code ch. 411. Eligibility analysis, petition drafting, agency-service distribution, post-order compliance. See our expunction page.

Why retain L and L Law Group for a Ellis County matter

Three operational reasons. First, direct attorney access: every retained matter is handled by Reggie or Njeri London personally — no intake clerk, no junior associate handoff. The partner who takes the consultation is the partner who appears at every hearing. Second, flat-fee structure: engagement fees are quoted in writing at the free initial consult and cover the entire defense through final disposition or trial in chief. Hourly billing in criminal defense creates the wrong incentives because the State controls the case pace. Third, dual prosecutor-and-defense perspective: Reggie’s prior service as a Dallas County Assistant District Attorney informs the firm’s reading of probable-cause affidavits, plea-evaluation thresholds, and trial-preparation escalation. Njeri’s federal admissions (TXND, TXED, 5th Circuit) and motion-practice depth complete the framework.

The firm is in Frisco; Ellis County is in our default coverage area. Office at 5899 Preston Rd, Suite 101, Frisco, TX 75034. Phone (972) 370-5060 24/7. Email info@landllawgroup.com.

Ellis County criminal-defense help, 24/7

Free, confidential consultation — direct to attorney. Flat-fee representation.

Inside the Ellis County criminal-justice system

Ellis County's criminal courts sit at the Ellis County Courts & Administration Building, 109 S. Jackson Street, Waxahachie, TX 75165 — the working courthouse for criminal dockets, distinct from the landmark 1897 Historic Ellis County Courthouse a few blocks away on West Main Street. The district clerk, the county clerk, and the Ellis County and District Attorney's Office operate in and around the same complex. That combined prosecutor's office — a single county-and-district attorney rather than two separate offices — carries both the felony and the misdemeanor docket.

Four district courts serve the county: the 40th, 443rd, and 504th Judicial District Courts hear felony criminal cases, while the 378th District Court is designated for family-law matters. The 504th is new — created effective September 2025 — and under the local judges' allocation agreement, felony filings are divided between the 443rd and the 504th beginning December 1, 2025. Class A and Class B misdemeanors, including misdemeanor DWI, move through the county's three County Courts at Law and their Criminal Misdemeanor Division; Class C citations rest with the justice-of-the-peace and municipal courts. First appearances run through the county's justices of the peace, who act as magistrates across four precincts under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17, informing arrestees of the charges and setting bond. Defendants who live elsewhere still answer in Waxahachie unless venue is transferred under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 31. Ellis County also operates a verified Veterans Treatment Court under Chapter 124 of the Texas Government Code for eligible justice-involved veterans.

Geography, transportation, and policing

Ellis County blends established county-seat neighborhoods with fast-growing exurbs. Its largest incorporated cities are Waxahachie, Midlothian, Ennis, and Red Oak, while the Ellis County Sheriff's Office patrols the unincorporated remainder of the roughly 936 square miles of land the county spans. Interstate 35E and Interstate 45 both cut through the county, joined by US-287, US-77, US-67, and the state highways SH-34 and SH-342 — corridors that feed a steady DWI, drug-interdiction, and traffic-enforcement caseload for the Sheriff's Office and Texas DPS troopers. Arrests inside city limits are worked by the municipal police departments of the county's largest cities — Waxahachie, Midlothian, Ennis, and Red Oak — while the Sheriff's Office covers unincorporated areas, serves county-wide warrants, and runs the jail. Anyone arrested in Ellis County is booked into the Wayne McCollum Detention Center at 300 S. Jackson Street in Waxahachie, a short walk from the courthouse, where bonds are posted directly or arranged through a licensed bonding company.

Why local defense practice matters in Ellis County

Ellis County's criminal courts each have distinct case-management practices, plea-and-trial calendars, and prosecutorial dispositions. The DA's office staffs prosecutors who specialize in DWI, narcotics, sex offenses, family violence, and white-collar prosecutions — each unit operates with its own internal policies on plea offers, diversion eligibility, and trial readiness. Defense attorneys who appear regularly in the Waxahachie courts develop case-specific intelligence: which judges grant motions to suppress, which prosecutors will offer pretrial diversion in first-offense possession cases, which probation officers respond to early-termination motions favorably. That granular practice knowledge is the practical difference between an effective local defense and a generic representation that misses opportunities available only through local relationships.

L and L Law Group practices regularly in Ellis County's criminal courts. Our co-founding partners Reggie London (Texas Bar No. 24043514) and Njeri London (Texas Bar No. 24043266) handle felony and misdemeanor matters in Waxahachie, with substantial volume in DWI, drug-possession, theft, assault, sex offense, weapons, and family-violence cases. We work with bonding companies countywide and with clients whose employment, family, and community ties across Waxahachie, Midlothian, Ennis, and Red Oak frequently inform PSR-investigation preparation and § 3553(a)-style mitigation arguments at sentencing.

Practical logistics matter too. Ellis County’s criminal dockets are heard at the Courts & Administration Building on South Jackson Street — not the photogenic 1897 Historic Courthouse on West Main Street that most visitors picture — and first appearances are handled by the county’s justices of the peace, who sit as magistrates across four precincts. A defendant booked into the Wayne McCollum Detention Center is entitled to a probable-cause determination within roughly 24 hours on a misdemeanor and 48 hours on a felony under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17, and getting counsel involved before that window closes can shape both the bond and the early direction of the case.