Texas law ranks each crime, and its rank decides which judge in the courthouse gets the file. Penal Code chapter 12 sets the punishments.

• Class C: a fine capped at $500, with no jail time. A justice of the peace takes these, unless a town officer wrote the citation for city court.
• Class B and Class A: Class B carries as long as 180 days in the county lockup, a fine reaching $2,000, or both. Class A raises the caps to a year and $4,000, alone or together. The constitutional County Court hears both grades. Those files belong to the County Clerk's office.
• Felonies, from state jail grade through capital murder: the 24th, 135th or 267th District Court. Those files belong to the District Clerk's office.

Anyone who loses can appeal to one of the regional courts of appeals. Past those, criminal appeals end at Austin's Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Each office below shares one street address: 808 Commerce St, Refugio, TX 78377. Hours follow a normal workday, so call ahead before driving over.

• District Clerk (felony records): letters to P.O. Box 736, Refugio, TX 78377; calls to 361-526-2721. Linked from its web page are this year's district court docket and the local rules of court.
• Room 111 holds Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, 361-526-4877.
• Room 103 holds Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, 361-526-1635.
• Room 108 is the County Attorney, 361-526-4123.
• Room 200 is the local District Attorney office, 361-526-1282.

The County Court posts its calendars on a county court dockets page. Judges of the three district courts ride a circuit through neighboring counties too, so they hold court here on scheduled weeks.

Read the paper the officer handed over. Printed on it are the court's name and your appearance date. A citation from a town officer may belong to that town's municipal court. A deputy's or trooper's ticket from rural roads lands at one of two justice courts:

• Precinct 1 justice court: 808 Commerce Street, Room 111, Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-4877.
• Precinct 2 justice court: 808 Commerce Street, Room 103, Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-1635.

The justice court page has a link for paying fines on the web. Short on cash? A judge may set a payment plan, count community service at $150 per 8 hours, or waive the amount. Jail for nonpayment needs a hearing first, and that hearing must find the person was able to pay but chose not to, under arts. 45A.252 to 45A.261.

Within 48 hours, a magistrate sees your relative, maybe in a courtroom, maybe by video from Mesquite Street (art. 15.17). Out loud, the magistrate covers:

• the accusation itself;
• hiring a lawyer, or how to request one for free;
• staying silent, since whatever gets said may be used in court;
• a lawyer's right to be present during questioning, and the right to halt any interview;
• for felony suspects, the option of an examining trial.

This same hearing also fixes bail. An examining trial tests probable cause in a felony before indictment, for someone jailed or bonded out (art. 16.01). Once the grand jury indicts, that right is gone.

For Class A and B charges, a prosecutor files a paper called an information in County Court. What follows:

1. Arraignment. The judge confirms who your relative is and takes a plea (art. 26.01). Their lawyer can waive this step on paper.
2. Docket calls. The case comes up on set docket days until it ends.
3. Deal or trial. Any plea bargain goes before the judge, who states on the record whether it will be accepted. A rejected bargain means the plea may be taken back (art. 26.13).

Deferred adjudication on a misdemeanor runs as long as two years. Complete it and the case gets dismissed without a guilty finding (arts. 42A.103, 42A.111). Two years is also the longest misdemeanor probation term (art. 42A.053).

Sitting in jail while the state stalls? On a Class A, the state has 30 days to announce ready, and a Class B gets 15. Past that deadline, art. 17.151 kicks in: release on a personal bond, or bail reduced.

Every felony needs an indictment from a grand jury. A case from this county usually goes:

1. Bail set by a magistrate, at the jail or on video.
2. An examining trial, the pre-indictment probable cause hearing, held when defense counsel asks.
3. A grand jury meeting closed to the public. Indicting takes votes from nine jurors or more (art. 20A.301).
4. Arraignment in whichever district court has the case.
5. Pretrial motions and plea offers, then a jury trial if nothing settles.

Penalties climb by grade:

• State jail grade: from 180 days to a two-year maximum, inside a state jail (§12.35).
• Third-degree: a floor of two years and a ceiling of ten (§12.34).
• Second-degree: that same two-year floor, under a twenty-year ceiling (§12.33).
• First-degree: a five-year floor, with ninety-nine years or life on top (§12.32).

Any grade may add a fine as high as $10,000, and prior felonies can bump the range upward (§12.42). A felony deferred adjudication term can't top 10 years (art. 42A.103). For a jailed felony defendant, art. 17.151 stretches the state's ready deadline to 90 days before personal bond or lower bail kicks in.

• Personal bonds off the table. Art. 17.03 keeps signature bonds away from many violent charges.
• Bail refusal. In November 2025, Texas voters passed Section 11d. Its list covers murder plus the aggravated forms of robbery and sexual assault, among others. A prosecutor seeking denial must show flight risk or danger at a hearing.
• Prosecutor pushback. Prosecutors who think felony bail is too low can go to a district judge, and listed cases allow a state appeal (arts. 17.029, 44.01).
• Family violence. Bond is posted, then the clock runs four hours before release (art. 17.291). Magistrates can also issue an emergency protective order. Such orders last 61 to 91 days. Weapon use or serious injury can stretch them longer (art. 17.292).
• Capital murder. Two outcomes exist for adults: execution, or life with no parole. Someone younger than 18 at the crime gets life (Penal Code 12.31).

The District Attorney handles felony prosecutions. A local branch sits at 808 Commerce Street, Room 200, Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-1282, and the head office is at 307 N. Gonzales, Cuero, TX 77954, 361-275-2612.

The County Attorney's office is at 808 Commerce Street, Room 108, Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-4123. Phone there about a county-level charge.

Four counties, this one included, share the Crossroads Regional Public Defender's Office, 203 N. Liberty St., Victoria, TX 77901, 361-582-5885. Speak up for a free lawyer during the magistrate's warnings. Small counties like this one, under 250,000 people, have a three-working-day clock to name the lawyer after the request lands (art. 1.051).

The judge weighs income, assets and debts. A person found too poor to pay keeps that label through the case unless finances shift a lot (art. 26.04). A copy of the plan used here for appointing lawyers sits with the Texas Indigent Defense Commission.

re:SearchTX is a free-to-join statewide records site. Cause numbers and charging papers show up there, with small fees for copies. Hearing times don't, so get them straight from the court:

• Felony settings: call the District Clerk at 361-526-2721 or read the posted district docket.
• Class A or B settings: the county court dockets page.
• Class C settings: Precinct 1 justice court at 361-526-4877 or Precinct 2 at 361-526-1635.

DPS runs a paid conviction name search listing convictions reported to the state.

Out in the county, Sheriff's deputies serve warrants, and town officers serve them within city lines. Call the Sheriff's Office at 361-526-2352 and ask if one is active. Texas keeps a Texas 10 Most Wanted list of its worst fugitives. The issuing court can say whether its warrant stands, by phone or at the counter. For felonies that is the District Clerk, 808 Commerce St, Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-2721. Before clearing a warrant, get a defense lawyer's advice. Next comes surrender at the jail, 405 Mesquite St., Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-1698. Courts sometimes allow a bond or a fresh date instead.

Victoria hosts the Southern District of Texas division that hears this county's federal charges. Its clerk's counter is at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Building, 312 S. Main, Room 406, Victoria, TX 77901, 361-788-5000.

• Release or custody before a federal trial gets settled at a detention hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• U.S. Marshals hold federal prisoners and drive them to court. Their Victoria office: 312 South Main Street, Room 326, Victoria, TX 77902, 361-578-4932.
• Closest federal public defender: 500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Room 301, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, 361-888-3532.
• The BOP inmate locator covers people serving federal time.

An ICE hold doesn't pause the state case, but release may work differently:

1. ICE may ask the Mesquite Street jail, through Form I-247A, to hold someone.
2. With it, the jail can keep someone up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Art. 2A.060 makes Texas jails obey detainers. Only proving citizenship, or lawful presence in the country, gets around that.
4. Government Code 752.053 says counties and cities can't adopt rules limiting immigration enforcement.
5. December 1, 2026, is the Senate Bill 8 deadline: by then, every jail-holding county in Texas has to ask ICE for a 287(g) pact.
6. Before any guilty or no contest plea goes in, art. 26.13 has the judge warn a non-citizen about deportation.
7. Once ICE takes custody, search the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

After a sentence on Commerce Street, people stay in the county lockup until TDCJ, the state's prison agency, takes them to intake. TDCJ manages two kinds of lockup: state jails for state jail felons, and prison units for worse grades. Intake staff classify each one and pick a unit.

• Once the move happens, the TDCJ inmate search will show them. It covers only people already on a unit.
• Units get one-by-one profiles on our Texas state prisons page.

Texas juvenile court takes kids who were between their 10th and 17th birthdays when the offense happened. Seventeen is the adult line in Texas criminal law (Family Code 51.02). The juvenile court is picked by each county's juvenile board (51.04).

• Officers have to notify a parent promptly (52.02).
• Held children get a lawyer. Their detention hearing comes within two working days, but a Friday or Saturday hold pulls it to the first working day (54.01).
• For certain grave felonies, a judge may move a child aged 14 or older to adult court, but only after a full study and a hearing (54.02).

The county runs no juvenile detention center of its own. Contracting counties place youth at the Victoria Regional Juvenile Justice Center, 97 Foster Field Dr., Victoria, TX 77904, 361-575-0399. To learn which facility has a child, call the Sheriff's Office at 361-526-2352.

Art. 56A.051 gives crime victims a list of rights. Ask, and you can be told about hearings, bail, plea offers and parole. Judges weigh victim safety when setting bail, and victims may present an impact statement.

• In felony cases, the District Attorney's office assists victims: 808 Commerce Street, Room 200, Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-1282.
• Booking or release alerts come from Texas IVSS-Counties or 866-268-8959, any hour.
• TDCJ Victim Services, 800-848-4284, handles cases where the offender is in state prison.
• The Attorney General's Crime Victims' Compensation program, 800-983-9933, can repay up to $50,000 toward medical care, counseling, lost wages and similar costs.