I told the sad saga of former Dallas Cowboy Dwayne Goodrich in an Observer cover story back in December. Something tells me Jeremy Schaap is going to tell it even better tonight.
To say I "consulted" ESPN E:60 is probably a little strong, but I did sit down with Schaap and his producer at the Bob's Steak & Chop and House on Lemmon in February to eat some meat and chew the fat over the compelling story. Tonight on ESPN's investigative show at 6 Schaap will provide his prison interview with Goodrich, serving a 12 1/2-year sentence in a West Texas prison for the hit-and-run killing of two Good Samaritans on I-35 in 2003.
Goodrich's story has even more national relevance, what with the recent DUI manslaughter charges against NFL receiver Donte Stallworth.
And on the local level, it'll probably always be fascinating.
To me, the missing link of Goodrich's tale was/is Frederick Lamont Person, otherwise known as the first domino.
I still don't believe Goodrich was drunk that night. And I don't believe he would've been involved in an accident if it weren't for Person, then a 27-year-old driving a 2002 black Mitsubishi Galant with a suspended license, no insurance and opened beer cans in the back seat. It was Person who clipped the rear end of an 18-wheeler in the far right lane of I-35 around 2:05 a.m., according to the Dallas Police Department's accident report. The collision sent Person's car careening across the freeway 220 feet and into the concrete median, which catapulted it another 60 feet before it came to rest diagonally in the far left lane.
With Person unconscious from the impact, his car's engine burst into flames.
Enter the Good Samaritans, then Goodrich, and the gruesome unfolding of one of the most disturbing and deadly hit-and-run accidents in the history of Dallas.
I know Schaap and ESPN were efforting to locate Person, who was treated and released from Parkland Hospital without being interviewed by Dallas police the night of the accident and disappeared forever.
Goodrich believes Person should be sitting in prison next to him.
Maybe tonight Person will tell us why he isn't.
