Crime and Law

Lauryn Hill's Side of the Story

Lauryn Hill will be gone till October. A week after making headlines for signing a million dollar five-song deal with Sony, she showed up to court on Monday with a check for $970,000. But it wasn't enough to save her from jail time. The five-time Grammy winner and highly esteemed queen of neo-soul w ... More >>

SMU's Sexual Assault Task Force Recommends Keeping Controversial Student Conduct Panels

Prosecutors recently dropped charges in one of the high-profile cases that spurred SMU to take a long look at its often baffling handling of sexual assaults. Last night, a week-and-a-half before another student is set to go to trial on charges that he raped a classmate in a dorm room, the university ... More >>

Neiman Marcus is Fighting Back Against a Notorious Dallas-Based Patent Troll

In the decade since it was founded in Dallas, IP Nav has established itself as a global leader in the increasingly lucrative business of "patent assertion," offering clients the ability to "maximize the value of their IP assets." Put more bluntly, it's a patent troll, shaking down companies by threa ... More >>

The Girl Who Accused Highland Park Baseball Star Ryan Romo of Rape is Now Suing Him

The 16-year-old girl who accused a former Highland Park baseball star of rape is now countersuing him in civil court. In March, after a grand jury declined to indict Ryan Romo on rape charges, the Romo family sued his accuser and her family, claiming, among other things, defamation and negligent ... More >>

Katy Trail Robber's Tale of PCP Addiction, "Purse Snatching" Fails to Win Jury's Sympathy

Dominique Thornton did not testify in his trial for charges that he committed a string of armed robberies along the Katy Trail last May. It probably wouldn't have done any good. He was IDed by victims as the gunman in the heists, and police found Thornton's thumbprint on a stolen purse they later re ... More >>

The New Cane Rosso Was Robbed of its $2,500 Prosciutto Slicer Over the Weekend

Neighbors and pizza aficionados have been eagerly awaiting the opening of Jay Jerrier's second Cane Rosso, planned for Grand and Gaston just south of White Rock Lake, since word of its existence first leaked in November. It was slated to open in the middle of April -- just about now, in other words ... More >>

Craig Watkins' Contempt Battle a Silly Distraction in Scary Times

I'm scared. One, I'm scared because of what's going on in Kaufman County. Two, I'm even more scared because of what's going on here, which seems to be one big stupid-fest. You will remember, perhaps, that Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins brought criminal charges last year against Al H ... More >>

Three Gunman Tried to Rob a Retired Cop Near White Rock, Ran Away When He Drew First

As he walked along the sidewalk of his Far East Dallas apartment complex at 5:15 on Easter morning, a 24-year-old man heard someone call out from behind, asking him to hold up. He turned and saw three Hispanic men, clad in identical white T-shirts, hop out of a black Toyota Corolla. They simultaneo ... More >>

In the Wake of Kaufman Slayings, Dallas County Prosecutors Encouraged to Ammo Up

The murder this weekend of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, two months after assistant DA Mark Hasse was gunned down in broad daylight, has Texas prosecutors on high alert. The Associated Press reports today that district attorneys throughout the state are taking extra ... More >>

At the Mayor's Rally Against Domestic Violence, Big Promises and Some Mixed Messages

The couple started arguing on Saturday, around 3 in the morning, in a house near Fair Park. The man told the woman he hadn't forgotten their past arguments, all the times she had "disrespected" him. He shoved his palm hard against her face and forced her down against a desk. She fought him, pushing ... More >>

Judge Dismisses Charges against Al Hill III after Craig Watkins Refuses to Answer Questions

Update, 3:52 p.m.: The Dallas Morning News' Jennifer Emily tweets that the case against Hill has been dismissed. Judge Levario cited Watkins' refusal to testify as part of her basis for dismissal. Original post: Craig Watkins wasn't sick today, and contrary to the inexplicably wrong tweets from o ... More >>

Federal Judge Finds No Proof of Misconduct by Craig Watkins, but that Won't Help Him in State Court

The District Attorney's office very excitedly announced today that a federal judge found no merit in Al Hill III's allegations of misconduct against Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins. The allegations stem from a dispute Hill had concerning legal fees he owed his former attorney Lisa Blue, a pr ... More >>

Here's Why Neither Texas Senator Voted for the Violence Against Women Act

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). It now heads to the House for what will likely be an ugly battle over its renewal; President Obama used part of his State of the Union address last night to urge the House representatives to pass it. Th ... More >>

Stacey Hargraves' Mary Kay Job Didn't Pay Well, So He Became a Terrible Bank Robber

Stacey Hargraves was pulling in $300 per week from his job in the sanitation department at Mary Kay, but it never seemed to stretch far enough to support his wife, children and his propensity to gamble and go to sporting events. And so, according to the FBI, he walked into the Comerica Bank on Illi ... More >>

As Texas' 500th Execution Approaches, Death Penalty Opponents Ramp Up Calls For Reform

On an August night in 1998, Douglas Feldman pulled his Harley up next to an 18-wheeler that had just cut him off on a highway in Plano. Feldman shot and killed the driver, Robert Everett, then paused on his way home to murder an Exxon tanker driver named Nicholas Velasquez. A week or so later, he ki ... More >>

Checkmate

Prosecutors team with debt collectors to terrorize consumers in ways both highly profitable and usually illegal.

Former Ellis County Observer Publisher Joey Dauben Gets Three Ten-Year Sentences For Sexual Assault and Indecency With a Child

Two years ago, Joey Dauben was full-time small-town muckraker, publishing the Ellis County Observer and a string of other small papers, blending investigative stories with vicious gossip and baseless speculation at a rate of speed that thrilled and enraged his target audience. He focused intensely o ... More >>

Cowboy Jerry Brown Was Sober When He Died in a Car Driven by His Drunk Teammate

The Associated Press is reporting that Jerry Brown, the Cowboys practice player who died in a drunk-driving accident last month, was sober at the time of the crash. Brown's teammate, Josh Brent, had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit when the car he was driving crashed. The two had been par ... More >>

Considered a Sex Offender Since He Was 12, a Plano Man is Finally Freed from the Registry

In May, the Texas Observer profiled Josh Gravens, a 25-year-old Plano man struggling to find a job and otherwise coping with life on the Texas Department of Public Safety's sex offender registry. His crime? Molesting his 8-year-old sister -- when he was 12. Gravens's case illustrates a flaw in the ... More >>

Faking Car Accidents Not A Great Business Model, Will Get You Sent To Prison, Fort Worth Family Learns

There must be easier ways to make a living than faking car accidents and submitting false insurance claims for those fake car accidents. It also sounds like a ton of work to set up fake chiropractic clinics to generate fraudulent medical records and bills to submit with those fake insurance claims. ... More >>

Patent Trolls and the War on Innovation

On the front line of the costliest battle in the high-tech world.

A Highland Park Student is Charged with Rape, and Culture Map Kicks Off the Victim Blaming

On Tuesday, Ryan Adam Romo, an 18-year-old Highland Park High School senior and star baseball player, was charged with sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony. Romo is accused of raping a HPHS classmate after a Ghostland Observatory concert at the Palladium Ballroom Saturday night. Given ... More >>

Dallas Parole Officer Nichelle Derricks Took Bribes To Overlook Alan Todd May's $7 Million Oil Scam, Feds Say

It's hard to forget Alan Todd May. He's the Texas con man who, until his phone privileges were revoked, used to sell spaces in made-up trade shows from his Harris County prison cell, not to mention any number of more pedestrian financial misdeeds. His boldest scheme started in 2008, when he formed ... More >>

Wal-Mart Wins Texas Lawsuit Over Gender Discrimination

Nearly a year and a half since the U.S. Supreme Court tossed a class action lawsuit filed by some 1.5 million female Wal-Mart employees who say they hit a corporate glass ceiling, the plaintiffs hit a brick wall in Texas. Because the court ruled the women of Wal-Mart could not sue as a class, a num ... More >>

Time For Chief Brown to Admit He's Fudging the Crime Numbers

There is good news to be found in the city's crime stats. For the ninth year in a row, Dallas is on pace to see a drop in its crime rate and, while violent crime is about flat, burglary and theft are down by 15 and 11 percent, respectively. The improving numbers are partly tied to a drop in crime n ... More >>

Three Men Robbed a Dallas Liquor Store with an AK-47, Then the Clerk Shot Back (Video)

If someone rolled into Unfair Park HQ and pointed an assault rifle at me while they stole my $800 and seven packs of Newports, I'd probably piss my pants and then go become a monk or a farmer, or maybe a farmer-monk. The owner of McGriff's Beer & Wine are not so fainthearted.

Domestic Violence Murders Up 25 Percent in Dallas This Year; DPD Beefing Up Its Staffing

The death of Deanna Cook, who police believe was murdered by her ex-husband as 911 operators listened, was a rare public reminder that instances of domestic violence can turn fatal, with alarming frequency. So far this year, 19 PEOPLE have been murdered in acts of domestic violence, few of which rec ... More >>

Walk Like a Woman

Liberty Institute: Assault on Religious Liberty is at All-Time High (and That's Just Counting Christians)

You know the Liberty Institute as the group that has steered Plano's infamous Candy Cane Case through the courts. More recently, it's championed the cause of Angela Hildenbrand, the Texas high school student who wanted to pray during her valedictory speech. As part of its work, in 2004 the nonprofi ... More >>

Chicago Police Make Arrest in Murder of 22-Year-Old Dallas Woman Brianna Gardner

It was not the scene housekeepers expected to find when they entered the seventh-floor room of the upscale Whitehall Hotel in Chicago: the body of Brianna Gardner, a 22-year-old Dallas woman, fatally shot in the head. Police found a cell phone in the room and, shortly after, brought it's owner in f ... More >>

Kimberly McCarthy, Lancaster Woman Convicted of Murdering Neighbor For Crack Money, Set to Die Jan. 29

It was a grisly scene Lancaster police found on July 22, 1997: Dorothy Booth, a 71-year-old retired psychology professor, stabbed to death on the floor of her dining room stabbed, her left ring finger severed from her hand. The evidence quickly led police to Kimberly McCarthy, Booth's next-door nei ... More >>

Dallas Stripper Sues Baby Dolls, Claims Club Shorted Her on Wages and Overtime

Strip clubs are the brave new frontier in employment lawsuits. Women who were for years treated as "independent contractors" are filing suit in droves against their current or former employers. All of them want basically the same thing: the minimum wage and overtime money they feel they should have ... More >>

Waxahachie Man Gets Life Sentence For Driving Drunk. Again.

In 1997, Blas Hernandez was convicted of drunk driving in Ellis County. It was his third DWI, making it a felony and, since he had two previous convictions for assaulting a public servant, they threw the book at him: Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison. Fast-forward to 2012. Hernandez, who wa ... More >>

Texas Eclipses California As State With Largest Prison Population

Last month, Texas' prison population was right at 154,000, the lowest its been in five years. Lower crime rates, an aging population, and alternative treatments have all contributed to the decline. But as the Star-Telegram noted yesterday, the drop hasn't been enough to spare Texas the dubious dist ... More >>

Mexico's Magical Homicides

While Awaiting Trial, Teens in Dallas County Jail Being Kept in Their Cells 23 Hours a Day

Each year, a handful of Dallas county teenagers accused of crimes are "certified," meaning they're being charged as adults and will appear in adult criminal court. While they await trial, they sit in Dallas county jail. We've learned that while in jail, these teens are kept in their cells for 23 hou ... More >>

Star-Telegram Says Better Policy is Why Tarrant Has Fewer Exonerations than Dallas County. But What's The Real Reason?

Updated to include an additional interview. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial published this weekend concludes that Tarrant County has not exonerated nearly as many innocent prisoners as Dallas County simply because it did not wrongfully incarcerate them in the first place. This black-and-white ... More >>

Today, We Find Out if Texas' Single-Drug Lethal Injection Actually is More Humane

Texas has executed five people so far this year, all using the same procedure. First, a barbiturate, pentobarbital, is administered to induce unconsciousness. Then a dose of pancuronium bromide paralyzes every muscle in the body. Finally, a dose of potassium chloride stops the heart. That wil ... More >>

Texas Executes Prisoners Like Dogs Now. And (If We're Going to Kill Them Anyway) That's A Good Thing

On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced it would use a single drug -- pentobarbital, a barbiturate -- to carry out executions due to a shortage of one component in a three-drug cocktail. Overseas manufacturers of pancuronium bromide, a powerful paralytic, have halted shipment ... More >>

When Innocent Prisoners Finally Go Free, Their Prosecutors Do, Too

On the trail for justice with Texas' exonerees.

Court Drops Gypsy Tea Room Skinhead's Lesser of Two '05 Convictions

The 2004 summer night when David Cunniff took his two teen daughters to an Old 97's show at the Gypsy Tea Room rattled Deep Ellum to the core. How it all went down depends who you ask, but the end result left Cuniff bloodied and beaten to the point that friends and family questioned whether he would ... More >>

Crime Keeps Going Down in Dallas, Except for Rape. But There's an Explanation for That.

There was some good news in the crime statistics presented to the City Council's Public Safety Committee a few moments ago. Burglaries, the bane of the Dallas Police Department in recent years, are down by double-digits thanks to ongoing efforts to shut down fencing operations through which thieves ... More >>

Texas Prisoners Cost $620 Million More Than They Did in 1990, Thanks to Longer Sentences

Meet the average modern Texas prisoner, released in 2009. He spent 2.8 years behind bars -- 32 percent more time than his average prisoner predecessor released in 1990. If he was busted for a violent crime, he spent 5.3 years locked up, a 44 percent increase from his predecessor in 1990. You've spen ... More >>

New National Database Shows Trends in Wrongful Convictions Across the Country

As most people who follow the news know by now, since Craig Watkins became Dallas County district attorney in 2007, 33 local men have been exonerated of crimes they didn't commit. But what does this number mean in the context of the rest of the nation, and what are the common issues that lead to wro ... More >>

Citing Carlos DeLuna, Protesters Call on Dallas DA Craig Watkins to Abandon the Death Penalty

Rick Halperin, head of SMU's human rights program, has been saying for years what became nationally recognized this week: "Yes, America, We Have Executed an Innocent Man," to borrow a headline from the Atlantic. Halperin has spent his career doing the academic equivalent of banging his head against ... More >>

Did Marc Veasey Call a Civil Rights Icon Senile? Domingo Garcia Says Yes.

There are 11 candidates in the crowded Democratic primary for the new congressional district spanning from Oak Cliff to Fort Worth, but the race is quickly sinking into a political pissing match involving just two as the May 29 primary approaches. Marc Veasey, a state representative from Fort Wort ... More >>

Too Many Dallas Teens are Getting Locked Up in Adult Jails, Study Says. And That Ain't Good.

An exhaustive new study has found alarming conditions for Texas teenagers housed in adult jails while awaiting trial, a practice that Dallas and Harris counties use more than anywhere else in the state. In essence, the study found that there's really no good way to keep teens and adults safely in ... More >>

Dallas Police Has Even More Explanation for its Response to That Whole Katy Trail Thing

The Dallas Police Department is continuing to explain away -- and maybe overcompensate for -- their initial silence concerning the armed robberies on the Katy Trail and the dozen-or-so incidents police believe they're linked to.A pair of press releases from police hit the inbox yesterday evening, on ... More >>

Anthony Blue, Bank Robber Turned in by Mom, Gets Five Years. Think He'll Write Home?

It was back in January when we first introduced you to young Anthony Blue, a 19-year-old man trying to make a go in the bank-robbing field. He was off to a decent start, actually: In June of last year, he had walked into a Garland bank and slipped the teller a note -- "50's 100's and no body gets hu ... More >>

Dallas County Does a Three-Fer in Exonerations

The number of convicts being freed after serving prison time for crimes they didn't commit keeps mounting in Dallas County, with Friday bringing a rare triple exoneration for three men wrongly accused of robbery. On November 17, 1994, five teenagers roamed the parking lot near the Eckerd drugstore ... More >>