L and L Law Group, PLLC represents clients across Johnson County, Texas on the full Texas Penal Code and Health & Safety Code spectrum. Criminal cases are heard at the Guinn Justice Center, 204 S. Buffalo Ave, Cleburne. Felonies are prosecuted by the Johnson County District Attorney; adult misdemeanors, including DWI, are prosecuted by the separately elected Johnson County Attorney. Free consultation: (972) 370-5060.
Johnson County criminal-justice infrastructure
Johnson County sits on the southwestern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, immediately south of Tarrant County, with 179,927 residents at the 2020 Census and an estimated 210,547 by 2024, spread across roughly 734 square miles. The county seat is Cleburne. Its largest communities are Burleson, Cleburne, Joshua, Keene, Alvarado, and Grandview — though Burleson straddles the Johnson–Tarrant county line, which means an arrest in Burleson may be filed in either county depending on exactly where it occurred. That is a threshold question worth settling early, because it determines which courthouse, which prosecutor, and which set of local practices will govern the case.
What most distinguishes Johnson County from its Metroplex neighbors is that prosecution is split between two separately elected offices. Many Texas counties, including nearby Collin, consolidate both roles into a single Criminal District Attorney. Johnson County does not. The District Attorney prosecutes felonies in the district courts. A separately elected County Attorney prosecutes adult misdemeanors — the county’s own description expressly names family-violence assault, driving while intoxicated, and theft — in the County Courts at Law, and additionally carries all juvenile matters, CPS child-welfare cases, and family-violence protective orders.
The practical consequence is that a misdemeanor DWI and a felony drug case arising from the same traffic stop can be handled by two different offices, with different charging practices and different plea postures, in two different courtrooms. Federal cases arising from Johnson County activity proceed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (TXND), where both partners are admitted.
Services for Johnson County clients
L and L Law Group provides four primary service categories for Johnson County criminal matters. Each has a dedicated page with the full defense workflow:
Practice areas covered in Johnson County
The firm handles the full charge spectrum in Johnson County. The most common case categories heard at the Guinn Justice Center in Cleburne:
- 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 a child passenger), intoxication assault, intoxication manslaughter. Misdemeanor DWI here is prosecuted by the County Attorney in the County Courts at Law. See our DWI defense page.
- Drug crimes — Tex. Health & Safety Code Ch. 481. Penalty Group 1, 1-A, 1-B, 2, 2-A, 3, and 4 across possession, possession with intent, manufacture, and delivery. Felony quantities go to the district courts and the District Attorney. 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, and violations of protective orders. In Johnson County the County Attorney carries both the misdemeanor assault prosecution and the protective-order docket, so the two proceedings are closely coupled. Federal Lautenberg firearm consequences attach on conviction. See our family violence page.
- Theft and property offenses — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 31. Value-ladder grading from Class C through first-degree felony, plus burglary, criminal mischief, and fraud. See our theft defense page.
- Assault and violent offenses — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 22. Simple assault through aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and the serious-bodily-injury enhancements. See our violent crime page.
- Weapons charges — Tex. Penal Code Ch. 46, including unlawful carry, felon in possession, and prohibited places. See our weapons page.
- Juvenile matters — Tex. Family Code Title 3. In Johnson County the County Attorney prosecutes all juvenile cases, misdemeanor and felony alike. See our juvenile page.
- Warrants, bond, and probation — warrant lifts, bond reduction, and motions to revoke or adjudicate. See our probation revocation page.
- Expunction and non-disclosure — Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ch. 55 and Tex. Gov’t Code Ch. 411. See our record clearing page.
Why retain L and L Law Group for a Johnson 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 defense through final disposition or trial in chief. Hourly billing in criminal defense creates the wrong incentives, because the State controls the pace of the case. 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; Johnson County is within our coverage area. Office at 5899 Preston Rd, Suite 101, Frisco, TX 75034. Phone (972) 370-5060, 24/7. Email info@landllawgroup.com.
Inside the Johnson County criminal-justice system
Johnson County concentrates almost its entire criminal-justice apparatus in a single building: the Guinn Justice Center, 204 S. Buffalo Ave, Cleburne, TX 76033. It houses all three district courts, both County Courts at Law, the District Attorney’s Office, and the County Attorney’s Office. For a defendant that consolidation is convenient; for defense counsel it means the prosecutors, coordinators, and judges who shape a case all work within the same walls.
Three district courts serve the county — the 18th, 249th, and 413th Judicial District Courts. All three are constitutional courts of mixed jurisdiction, hearing felony criminal alongside civil and family matters; Johnson County has no separately designated criminal district court. An important jurisdictional detail: the 18th and 249th also serve Somervell County, so their dockets and the judges’ calendars are split across two counties. Only the 413th sits exclusively in Johnson County. Class A and Class B misdemeanors, including misdemeanor DWI, are heard in County Court at Law No. 1 and No. 2; Class C offenses and citations rest with the justice-of-the-peace and municipal courts.
There is no standing magistrate court. Magistrate duties are performed by the county’s justice-of-the-peace courts across four precincts, which may issue search and arrest warrants and conduct preliminary hearings. After arrest, Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17 requires a magistrate to advise the arrestee of the accusation and of their rights and to set bail without unnecessary delay, and not later than 48 hours after arrest.
Geography, transportation, and policing
Johnson County spans roughly 734 square miles between Fort Worth and the rural counties to the south, mixing established county-seat neighborhoods in Cleburne with fast-growing suburban development along the Burleson corridor. Interstate 35W runs the length of the county and is joined by US-67, US-287, US-377, SH-81, SH-171, and SH-174 — a highway network that generates a steady DWI, drug-interdiction, and traffic-enforcement caseload for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Texas DPS troopers. Arrests inside city limits are worked by municipal police, principally the Burleson and Cleburne police departments, while the Sheriff’s Office patrols unincorporated areas, serves county-wide warrants, and runs the jail. Anyone arrested in the county is booked into the Johnson County Corrections Facility at 1800 Ridgemar Dr, Cleburne — a separate location from the courthouse, roughly two miles away — where bonds are posted directly or arranged through a licensed bonding company.
Why local defense practice matters in Johnson County
The split between the District Attorney and the County Attorney is the single most consequential local fact in a Johnson County case, and it is routinely misstated. Published guidance — including material previously on this firm’s own site — has described Johnson County cases as uniformly “prosecuted by the District Attorney.” For a misdemeanor DWI, the county’s most commonly filed serious misdemeanor, that is simply wrong: the case belongs to the County Attorney. Counsel who does not know which office holds the file cannot direct discovery requests, plea discussions, or Michael Morton Act demands to the right place.
A second point of frequent misinformation concerns diversion. Johnson County does not currently appear in the Texas Office of Court Administration’s registry of registered specialty courts, and the county’s community-supervision department publishes education and monitoring programs — DWI education, drug-offender education, SCRAM, ignition interlock, anger management — rather than a standing drug, mental-health, or veterans court. A number of legal-marketing pages assert that Johnson County operates such courts. Treat those claims with caution and ask counsel to confirm what is actually operating before relying on one. Diversion and deferred-adjudication outcomes here are negotiated case by case with the prosecuting office, not routed through a standing program.
L and L Law Group practices in Johnson County’s criminal courts. Co-founding partners Reggie London (Texas Bar No. 24043514) and Njeri London (Texas Bar No. 24043266) handle felony and misdemeanor matters at the Guinn Justice Center in Cleburne, with substantial volume in DWI, drug possession, theft, assault, weapons, and family-violence cases. We work with bonding companies countywide and with clients whose employment, professional licensure, or immigration status turns on the outcome. Consultations are free and available 24/7 at (972) 370-5060.
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