Bay Area Houston

Give me liberty or give me meth! — Frank Gallagher, Shameless

There’s a lot of opinions and questions about the felony conviction of La Marque City Councilman Joseph Lowry for possession of methamphetamine and whether he was eligible to run for office. I dug into the court records which was not easy. Here is what I found. The legal documentation can be found at the Superior Court of Washington for King County website, case # 05-1-06568-7.

The Arrest.
On 9/29/2004 Lowry, age 25, was stopped for a traffic violation in Auburn Washington. After determining his identity the police found he had an outstanding warrant. He was arrested and his car searched. The search found a baggy of methamphetamine (meth), a scale, cold medications used for the production of meth, and a glass pipe with residue. You can read the entire document filed in the Superior Court of Washington for King County case 05-C-06568-7 KNT here.

Bail.
The State requested a bail of $10,000 based upon his criminal history of theft in 1997, 1998 drugs possession, 1998 Harassment, 2004 Assault and resisting arrest, a pending telephone harassment, and an outstanding warrant for a racing charge.

Guilty Plea.
On 9/6/2005 Lowry plead guilty to one count of possession of methamphetamine. You can read the entire plea here. Lowry stated in his own words “On September 24, 2004, I did unlawfully and feloniously possess the residue of methamphetamine, a controlled substance, located on the scales found in my car in King County Washington.”

Sentencing. Lowry was sentenced to 97 days in jail with time served. (I assume that means he was in jail for 97 days) He had to complete 12 months of community custody. You can view the sentencing document here.

Vacating the conviction. 16 years later the Washington State Supreme Court in State v. Blake, found the state’s felony drug possession statute unconstitutional. Based upon this ruling Lowry petitioned the court to vacate his conviction. According to google:

 Vacating a conviction is a legal process where a court withdraws or annuls a past guilty plea or judgment, effectively making the conviction void. This is achieved by filing a motion with the court, arguing reasons such as newly discovered evidence of innocence or constitutional violations during the original trial. If successful, you are released from the penalties of the offense and can legally state you were not convicted of the crime, though this does not erase the fact you were initially charged. The specific legal grounds and procedures vary significantly by jurisdiction, so consulting with a qualified attorney is crucial for pursuing this type of post-conviction relief in Texas. 

Applying for City Council.
A few years later Lowry ran for La Marque city council. On his application he checked the box “I have not been finally convicted for a felony”. Whether checking that box instead of the box that states he was convicted but the conviction was vacated, makes him ineligible to run is for someone with legal experience and not a two bit blogger or an Undercover Investigative Journalist.

In Conclusion.
So there you have it. Arrested. Charged. Convicted. Served time. Vacated. I hope this clears up this situation.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2025 at 7:13 am and is filed under Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.