Houston County District Attorney

In order to find a person guilty of violating probation, the judge need only decide the case on the burden of proof called "preponderance of evidence." Essentially that means that if the judge believes that the person probably did what probation says he did to violate probation, then the judge will find him guilty. Because the burden of proof with respect to VOPs is so low, and because the judge is the finder of facts, the judge’s decision in a VOP hearing is realistically almost unappealable.