It was an argument, loud but only words, behind the door of an apartment off Ohio Drive. Then someone on the other side of a shared wall picked up the phone. The neighbor told the 911 dispatcher they thought a fight was going on next door. They couldn’t see anything. They only heard raised voices.
Minutes later, two Frisco Police Department patrol units pulled into the parking lot, and officers were knocking on your door while neighbors watched from the breezeway. One officer took your partner aside and listened. Another kept you in the doorway and told you to wait. By the time anyone asked for your side, the decision seemed already made. Maybe your partner was crying, or had a red mark from earlier in the day. Maybe you were simply the one who seemed angrier. Officers hear the first story, form a picture, and someone is leaving in handcuffs.
You may hear the words “mandatory arrest.” Texas has no statute requiring an arrest on every family violence call. The law gives officers broad power to arrest without a warrant when they believe a family member was hurt and more violence may follow, and many departments train officers to use that power almost every time, even when they’ve heard only one version of events.
The ride ends at the Frisco city jail inside police headquarters at 7200 Stonebrook Parkway. By morning, a magistrate has set your bond, signed an emergency protective order, and told you that you can’t go back to your apartment or keep your guns. Your case is already headed to Collin County.
Texas Penal Code § 22.01 defines assault as intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury, and physical pain alone can qualify. When the alleged victim is a relative, a household member, or someone you’ve dated, the charge is Assault Family Violence, a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
A misdemeanor family violence conviction triggers the federal Lautenberg Amendment (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9)), a lifetime firearm ban. Texas adds its own five-year ban after release from confinement or supervision. Deferred adjudication still counts as a prior for future enhancement under § 22.01(f), and it generally can’t be sealed by an order of nondisclosure.
The magistrate’s order for emergency protection under Code of Criminal Procedure art. 17.292 is usually what upends daily life first. Orders issued since September 1, 2025 typically last 61 to 91 days, or 91 to 121 days when a deadly weapon is alleged. While it’s in effect:
Need clothes or medication from the apartment? Ask your attorney how to arrange it lawfully. Stopping by “just to grab a few things” is one of the fastest ways to make a defensible case worse.
Frisco officers write the report, but Collin County prosecutors decide what happens to it. A misdemeanor is filed in a County Court at Law. A felony goes first to a grand jury and, if indicted, to a District Court. Both sit in the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building, 2100 Bloomdale Road, McKinney.
Frisco spans two counties. Homes in Phillips Creek Ranch and much of The Fields are on the Denton County side, where the case would be filed in Denton instead. Pin down the county before anything else.
Collin County’s prosecutors are widely known for handling family violence strictly, including pressing forward after a complaining witness says they want the charge dropped. The State, not the alleged victim, brings the case, and prosecutors may try to proceed on the 911 recording, body camera video, and photographs alone.
A felony family violence charge can’t go to a District Court without an indictment. Before the grand jury considers it, your attorney can present evidence and the defense’s account to the prosecutor. That file may include:
A complaining witness sometimes decides, entirely on their own, to sign an affidavit of non-prosecution or to ask to speak with the prosecutor. That choice is theirs alone. Never ask for one, draft one, or pass messages about one through anyone else. That can lead to a witness tampering charge under Penal Code § 36.05 and a bond violation. Prosecutors aren’t bound by anything a witness says.
The protective order, the grand jury, and the prosecutor’s first impression of your case are all on a clock that started the night of the call. Contact our Collin County family violence defense team for a confidential review, and let’s start building your file today.
