Burkes v. State

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

MILLER, Judge.

A jury convicted appellant, Burkes, on his not guilty plea of the offense of cocaine possession in an amount less than twenty-eight (28) grams. Punishment was assessed at eleven years confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections 1 and a $5,500 fine. We granted review to consider whether handcuffing a person and placing him upon the ground constitutes an arrest.

On the night of February 20, 1988, the dispatcher of the Longview police department received an anonymous phone call relating information that a pit-bulldog…