Crime and Law

Dallas Security Agency Launches New Service For Victims of Domestic Violence

Before this morning, we had never heard of Reynolds Protection, a Dallas purveyor of bodyguards, or its owner, Chad Reynolds, who judging from his bio photo is roughly the size of a refrigerator. A very bald, imposing refrigerator. But this morning Reynolds Protection sent around a press release ann ... More >>

Columbine, Hollywood, and the National Obsession That Never Ends

Thirteen years and a hundred school shootings later, why is Hollywood still obsessed with this one?

This is Why The Voter ID Debate is Not Going Away

Is Texas still racist enough to warrant hand-holding by the federal government? That's the essence of where the voter ID debate stands now and where it's headed. Though it may seem like a straightforward question, and one that many politicos have reduced to a "yes" or "no" sound bite, the issue is a ... More >>

Bid Document: Dallas PD Wants 300 More Surveillance Cameras in 27 Parts of Town

​Scanning the city's inscrutable bids website this morning in the hopes of finding that not-there-yet Dallas Farmers Market RFP, I came across this instead: a 102-page request for proposals from the Dallas Police Department, which is looking to significantly step up its arsenal of video surveillan ... More >>

Before George Rivas's Execution, His Attorney Talks About the "Poster Boy for Death Penalty"

It's been 11 years since George Rivas lead the Texas Seven in their escape from prison and shooting of a police officer, and the hour of his death is fast-approaching. At around 6 p.m, the State of Texas will end his life by lethal injection. Rivas confessed that he was the ringleader of the group ... More >>

Exoneree: Guantanamo Bay Is "Peanuts Compared to What's Going On In" Texas

Via.Anthony Graves, exonerated from death row in 2010​As "the death chaplain" at Huntsville prison, Reverend Carroll Pickett has counseled 95 prisoners, one at a time, on the day the state has scheduled to end their life. Death by lethal injection, the chaplain found, is not a quiet exit. It's ... More >>

Irving-Based MADD Is Now Also Against Promoter Who Didn't Deliver NASCAR, Money

​Google the phrase "SponsorMonsters," and the first thing that pops up is an item from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving website touting the John Carpenter Freeway-based organization's partnership with it. As in: "For 2011, Sponsor Monsters donated their lead sponsorship position to MADD and will ... More >>

19-Year-Old Garland Man Pleads Guilty to Being a Bank Robber After His Mom Turns Him In

​That photo you see at right comes from the F.B.I.'s Bandit Tracker website, which we've perused in the past. It was snapped June 14 of last year at a State Bank of Texas branch in Garland, off IH-30. The bandit in question: 19-year-old Anthony Blue of Garland. Which we now know thanks to Anthony' ... More >>

Dallas Federal Grand Jury Indicts Sam Hurd, Co-Conspirator For Cocaine Distribution

​Seems like only three weeks ago Sam Hurd was just another former wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys who was on his road to journeyman status, which, in his case, ran through Soldier Field. Then it was revealed: Even before his acquisition by the Chicago Bears, the San Antonio native fancied him ... More >>

Dallas County Judge Who Ruled Death Penalty Unconstitutional Is Forced To Recuse Herself

Teresa Hawthorne, the Dallas County judge who ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional, must recuse herself from a capital murder case, a judge ruled today. Hawthorne was presiding over the capital murder trial of Roderick Harris, who's accused of killing brothers Alfredo ... More >>

Tarrant County to Publicly Shame Drunk Drivers. Dallas Isn't Ready to Go That Far.

If your New Year's weekend plans include a destination in Tarrant County and you have a nasty and terribly irresponsible habit of driving drunk, your boozebaggery and bad decisions can make you famous -- which is to say, infamous. The Tarrant County District Attorey's Office will publish the names o ... More >>

Beyond DNA, Difficult Tests for the Justice System

Freeing the wrongfully convicted through science was the easy part. Now what?

In Dallas and Across Texas, More and More It's Life Over the Death Penalty

Via....not seeing a whole lot of action.​In the death penalty debate, Texas has a long-standing reputation for abiding by one guiding principal: an eye for an eye. But the state has increasingly chosen to holster its lethal-injection needles in recent years, with death-penalty sentences decrea ... More >>

How Effective Are Bait Cars, Anyway?

​No doubt you've seen the signs like the one at right; they've been around since 2004. The Dallas Police Department was among the first in the country to launch the Auto Theft Tracking Program, which involves putting monitoring devices in bait cars that the DPD can track and control after they've ... More >>

In the Boy Scouts' Police-in-Training Program, a History of Abuse

Dozens of teenage Explorers have been sexually assaulted by the cops they hoped to emulate.

NatGeo's Dallas Reality Show Pitch: "Gripping, Gritty Long-View Into World of Incarceration"

​Just a couple of weeks back some Brits asked Dallas County for the okee-doke to film a 3D programme in the county jail for a couple of days, to which the commissioners courts said: Sure, fine. But the request going before Dallas County higher-ups today is much, much bigger -- as in, 120 days' wor ... More >>

Breaking: Mistrial Just Declared in Trial of Colony Man Accused of Murdering His Lover

Richard Hernandez​His family, defense attorneys -- even the bailiffs and the transport drivers -- noticed something was different about Seth Winder, who is standing trial in a Denton County court for allegedly murdering his 38-year-old lover Richard Hernandez in 2008, dismembering his body and ... More >>

So Close to Getting Away With Armored Truck Robbery, This Is What Finally Did Them In

​The U.S. Attorney's Office sends word that a man named Ennis Harris Jackson will be going to federal prison for more than 17 years for his role in holding up a Loomis armored truck in May 2010 outside a Mesquite Bank of America branch. Jackson was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Barbar ... More >>

Tower Heist: Lobby vs. Penthouse

Stealing from the rich to ... oh, whatever. Funny is the message.

New Council Map Now Out of City's Hands and In the Possession of the Department of Justice

The council-approved map​City Hall just sent word: At long last the city has submitted to the Department of Justice the new council districts map approved by the council on October 5. But that is hardly the entirety of the package sent to the DoJ yesterday: If you click here you'll find the massiv ... More >>

"That Could Have Been Me:" An Evening With Five Innocent Men Nearly Executed

Photo by Leslie MinoraFive innocent men who were nearly put to death for others' crimes.​Imagine spending five years in a Nebraska prison for having brutally murdered a teenage honor student but knowing that the real killer is at large. Or rolling over in the middle of the night to put your ar ... More >>

Fifth Circuit Judges Spend 100 Pages Debating Plano "Candy Cane" Case, First Amendment

​When last we checked in on the nearly 8-year-old (!) case involving those Plano ISD students (and their parents, more to the point) suing the district over those "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" pencils and candy canes they weren't allowed to distribute during winter-break parties, one of the ... More >>

Thirteen Locals, Who Feds Say Are Linked to Los Zetas Cartel, Indicted For Coke Trafficking

​Stories linking Los Zetas -- a drug cartel consisting of, among others, former Mexican Army commandos -- with North Texas have been around for years. Take this story, from three years ago, connecting a Collin County deputy constable with a cousin said to be working for the cartel. In March, The N ... More >>

Dallas-Based Concert Promoter Sued in Federal Court Over South American Motley Crue Shows

Vigo says this show should've been his.​In a Dallas federal courthouse on Tuesday, a civil lawsuit was filed against Dallas-based concert promoter Gabe Reed, accusing Reed and his company, Gabe Reed Productions, of fraud, breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation as pertains to a handful ... More >>

Kevin Glasheen Fought to See Innocent Prisoners Compensated, Then Fought To Take Millions For Himself

The Lubbock lawyer teamed up with Innocent Project lawyer Jeff Blackburn to see the state compensation for exonerees raised. Now both men are under fire from their clients.

Don Hardge Fired His AK-47 Into a Crowd Of Teens, But He Swears He's No Killer

The family of a dead teenage girl might disagree, even if the justice system didn't.

They Said They Were Selling Interests in Oil Wells. Instead, They Were Buying Picassos.

​Actually, it was just one Picasso -- along with "real estate, boats and other personal water craft, luxury vehicles, artwork, furniture, antiques, musical instruments, jade, expensive jewelry and wine." Still. That's not how Tony Rand and his boys Greg and Bill were supposed to be spending more t ... More >>

Texas' Innocent Prisoners Are Getting Compensated, and Their Lawyers Want in On the Deal

DA Watkins Says He'll Get a Law Firm to Collect That $35 Million in Missing Bail Bond Money

​No doubt you, the well-informed and engaged Friend of Unfair Park, are well aware that Dallas County's missing around, oh, $35 million that some bail bondsmen somehow forget to turn over to the county when their clients fail to show up for court. The Dallas Morning News had the story over the wee ... More >>

Sue Sue, Sue-dio: The Ten Most Interesting Lawsuits In Music History

​The finger-pointing game has begun in the wake of this year's Electric Daisy Carnival.  Although any legal repercussions in regards to the festival that took place this weekend have yet to be determined, we're keeping our eye on the whole thing -- mostly because, let's face it, music and leg ... More >>

State Rep. Giddings Wants School Districts to Stop Treating Students Like Criminals

​A couple of weeks back Texas Appleseed and ACLU of Texas reps were down in Austin asking why oh why do state school districts feel the need to write class C misdemeanor tickets to students, some as young as 6, in the case of the Dallas Independent School District back in '06-'07. John Whitmire's ... More >>

Comptroller's Office Foul Up Makes Public Private Info Belonging to 3.5 Million Texans

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs​On the other side is the full release sent by the Texas Comptroller's office in which Susan Combs reveals that personal info belonging to millions of Texans was "inadvertently disclosed" on a server easily accessed by ... well, anyone, really. Among ... More >>

Council Candidate MacLeod Takes Concerns Over Polling Place to the Justice Department

​A couple of weeks back, Sam mentioned that Billy MacLeod, who's running for the District 2 city council seat against incumbent Pauline Medrano, has a few problems with the coming elections. Chief among them: Votes will be cast at Esperanza "Hope" Medrano Elementary School -- which so happens to b ... More >>

Attorneys Wrestle to Take Lead on Those Class Actions Over Super Bowl Seats That Weren't

Photo by Harry Wilonsky​A Friend of Unfair Park asks if there's any news about those federal lawsuits filed following those copious Super Bowl ticket snafus. As a matter of fact, at this very moment, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Lynn is considering two things -- whether to consolidate the two ... More >>

BREAKING NEWS: Arrest Warrants Issued for Okolo and Aqib Talib

​This just in, stemming from this, and this. From the Garland Police Department: Garland investigators have obtained warrants for Aqib Talib and Okolo Talib in connection with a disturbance police responded to on March 21 in the 900 block of Green Pond Drive. On Monday, March 21, just before 7:30 ... More >>

Rawlings, Kunkle Dispute Cause of Domestic Violence During Food Bank Debate

Okpa, Kunkle, Natinsky and Rawlings at North Texas Food Bank debate this morning​There was a rather interesting exchange between mayoral candidates Mike Rawlings and David Kunkle at this morning's mayoral debate at the North Texas Food Bank. And it began with a question posed to all four candidate ... More >>

In the Collin County courthouse, due process has a funny way of expressing itself: payback, personal vendettas and overzealous prosecutions.

Fit For A King

Craig Watkins's Legislative Wish List

​On the other side is a lengthy missive we just received from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office in which Craig Watkins outlines his to-do list for the new Legislative session. But you can probably guess what's top-of-the-pops with a D.A. seeking criminal system reforms: eyewitness ident ... More >>

Report: Dallas County's DA Cited as One Reason for Decline in Texas's Use of Death Penalty

​The Associated Press this morning directs our attention to this year-in-review: The Death Penalty in 2010, released at midnight by the D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. Says the report, Texas is still executing more inmates than any other state -- 17 in 2010, the lowest in almost a dec ... More >>

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

Clay Chabot Pleaded Innocent For Decades. But Suddenly, He Copped to Murder in Court Today.

Clay Chabot​Behind bars for more than 20 years, after being found guilty of the 1986 rape and murder of a Garland woman named Galua Crosby, Clay Chabot always maintained he was innocent. This morning, that all changed: In a Dallas courtroom,  Chabot pleaded guilty to Crosby's murder. He was p ... More >>

Tomorrow, Turning Criminals Into Unwitting Artists In the Cedars' CorinthPark Studio

​A large-scale vandalization job at South Dallas's CorinthPark warehouse-workspace will be turned into an gallery exhibition in the Cedars tomorrow during the Cedars Open Studios Eighth Annual Studio Tour. Thousands of dollars worth of damage was done over a period of days last month by a "jealous ... More >>

Prosecutor Says Craig Watkins Fired Him Because He Partied With GOP on Election Night

Tom Nowak​Much like other media outlets, we've been following the courthouse rumors of two prosecutors fired on Friday by First Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore as payback for attending the Election Day shindig at Hotel Palomar hosted by the Dallas County Republican Party. But until one ... More >>

Realtor Eleanor Mowery Sheets Sentenced to One Year In Federal Prison Home Confinement

Eleanor Mowery Sheets and husband Nicky​And so the long, sordid story of high-tone Realtors Eleanor and Nicky Sheets comes to an end. Four months after Eleanor pleaded guilty to four counts of tax evasion, she was sentenced this morning by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney to a year in prison ... More >>

Once, He Ran West Dallas Drug Houses. For the Next 30 Years, He'll Be in State, Federal Prison.

Click to embiggen to see where some of the West Dallas Gator Boys' drug houses were​Back in August Sam told you all about Tyrone Weatherall, a leader of the West Side Gator Boys -- and an exotic animal collector -- who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distrib ... More >>

Craig Watkins's Campaign Says Danny Clancy's TV Ads Are Misleading Voters By Claiming Watkins Hasn't Prosecuted a Case as DA

If you've seen Republican Danny Clancy's latest political ad above or his first one, you know what he views as District Attorney Craig Watkins's biggest wart: never prosecuting a felony case. But that's not true, according to Kurt Watkins, Craig's cousin and campaign manager. In fact, Craig exami ... More >>

Operation Streamline costs taxpayers millions, tramples on the Constitution, treats immigrants like cattle and doesn't work. So why are the feds so committed to it?

A Bank Robbery, With a Baby on Board, Lands Getaway Driver a 22-Year Prison Sentence

Bandit TrackerUnrelated, but while we're on the subject, Austin PD's looking for a man who last week robbed a bank wearing a George Bush mask.​Surely you recall the tale of Inequa Rushing and Waylon McDonald? No? Then a refresher: In late January, the twosome robbed a bank at East R.L. Thornton Fr ... More >>

Larry King, At Least, Salutes Craig Watkins

​As mentioned yesterday, several of the Dallas County exonerees appeared on CNN's Larry King Live last night, where they were joined by the stars of the movie Conviction, The Innocence Project's Barry Sheck and Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. On the other side you'll find King's int ... More >>