Dallas County District Attorney's Office

Two Dallas Cops Were Fired, Charged with Felonies for Lying About Multiple Drug Busts

Dallas police officers Randolph Dillion and Jon Llewellyn were passing through an apartment complex on West Camp Wisdom Road at about 9 p.m. on December 9, 2011 when they spotted Melvin Williams from their squad car taking something -- drugs, they suspected -- from a man in a parked car. Williams wa ... More >>

Another SMU Student Has Been Arrested for Sexually Assaulting a Woman on Campus

SMU has traditionally handled cases of alleged sexual assault involving students through closed, "non-adversarial" hearings in which a panel of faculty and students, rather than, say, a grand jury, weigh evidence and testimony and render a confidential verdict. That was how the school handled more t ... More >>

Council to Sign Resolution Putting Columbia Packing Company on Code Compliance Clock

​Speaking of the council's Wednesday briefing and sewers and so forth ...There are a few things council will actually vote mid-week, seeing as how they're on spring break next week. Among 'em: a resolution tsk-tsk'ing the Columbia Packing Company in Oak Cliff, infamous for having been caught turni ... More >>

DPD Chief Brown Suspends Officer Who Shoved Occupy Dallas Protestor For One Day

At the top, that's Hollis giving Benavides a shove off the planter, as seen in this video that led the DPD chief to open his investigation​Seems like forever ago, but it was just last month that Stephen Benavides spent a few days in county lock-up on charges of assaulting a police officer and resi ... More >>

DPD Chief Brown, McGruff Visit City Council To Talk "Community-Based Crime Prevention"

Photo by Anna MerlanScott Griggs certainly appeared tickled by the appearance of a certain crime dog ...​On Monday a few Friends of Unfair Park seemed a little humbugged to hear that the Dallas Police Department, along with the mayor and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, would pref ... More >>

Mayor, Police Chief Ask You Not To Buy Your Christmas Gifts On The Black Market This Year

Photos by Anna MerlanMayor Rawlings, Chief Brown and the council at this morning's presser to announce "attack" on buyers, sellers of stolen goods​This holiday season, City Hall, the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office would like to remind you not to buy y ... More >>

Craig Watkins On Why Man Found Guilty of Murder, For Third Time, Won't Get Death

​Earlier today, Jennifer Emily noted that Jonathan Bruce Reed was found guilty of the 1978 murder of Braniff Airlines flight attendant Wanda Jean Wadle -- the third time he's been convicted of raping and strangling her in her Northeast Dallas apartment. (Prior convictions -- based upon the testimo ... More >>

DA Craig Watkins Weighs In On Yesterday's Push-N-Shove Between Brett Shipp, JWP

WFAA-Channel 8​The video below, in which Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price explains the hard way to WFAA's Brett Shipp that his office isn't public property, has been updated; it's the piece that ran on Channel 8 last night at 10, in which you do hear Price tell Shipp, in a bizarrely cal ... More >>

In Dallas Veterans Court, Desert Storm Soldier Gets His Promised Second Chance Today

Photo by Mark GrahamJudge Mike Snipes​Back in October, Sam wrote for the paper version of Unfair Park a lengthy piece about Dallas County's relatively new veterans court, which gives second chances to soldiers who come home from war -- some damaged in some way, many broke, most alone -- and turn t ... More >>

Woman Who Says Ex-Constable Cortes's Deputy Assaulted Her Sues County For $3.5 Million

Former Dallas County Deputy Constable Howard Watson​A woman who claims a former Dallas County deputy constable demanded sex in exchange for burying outstanding arrest warrants has filed suit against the county, claiming it failed to perform proper background checks on the deputy.In January 2010, a ... More >>

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 >>

Dorothy Budd, Daughter Have Written Big Book About 12 of the Wrongly Imprisoned

Deborah LusterThomas McGowan, who served 23 years for a burglary and sexual assault in Richardson he did not commit​Their names are, or should be, familiar by now, among them: Thomas McGowan, Entre Nax Karage, Johnnie Lindsey, James Giles, Eugene Henton and Stephen Brodie. Certainly, by now, you k ... More >>

Convicted in Cali and On Trial in NYC, Anand Jon's Next Stop Is a Dallas County Courtroom

Anand Jon Alexander with former client Paris Hilton​It's been almost three years since we first told you the sordid story of Anand Jon Alexander, the one-time designer to the stars who came to town promising women, many of them under-age, modeling jobs right before he sexually assaulted them. Wome ... More >>

Says Texas DPS: Earlier This Month, a State Trooper Used Excessive Force on the Tollway

​Until today, there has been not a single word of media coverage about an incident on the Dallas North Tollway earlier this month involving a state trooper accused of using excessive force to make an arrest. But moments ago Tela Mange, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, sent w ... More >>

Pot for Pain? Not in Dallas County, No Sir.

​Will the feds' new stance on medicinal marijuana have any impact on local users, even though, sadly, Texas isn't among the states that permit the practice? Craig Watkins's office says no way, no how. Local Libertarians, not surprisingly, are crossing their fingers. (As opposed to ...) "The federa ... More >>

Dallas DA, DPD Reopen 1997 Murder Case, and Discover They Convicted the Wrong Men

Dallas County District AttorneyClaude Simmons is one of two men being exonerated for a 1997 murder he did not commit.​Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins's office sends word this morning that two men convicted of murder in October 1997 -- 54-year-old Claude Alvin Simmons Jr. and 39-year- ... More >>

On the Bob's Steak & Chop House Hotline, Bankruptcy and Criminal Cases Collide

​A couple of weeks back, we mentioned that the U.S. Trustee handling Bob's Steak & Chop House's Chapter 11 reorganization wanted Judge Harlin D. Hale to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee to replace owner Bob Sambol. Because, see, as far as Willliam Neary's concerned, Sambol -- operating here as Sil ... More >>

One Day Before Convicted Killer's Set to Die, Craig Watkins Asks for Stay of Execution

How much does the Dallas County District Attorney's Office agree with defense attorneys that convicted murdered Roderick Newton had his rights violated during his 2000 trial? So much so that District Attorney Craig Watkins has agreed to a stay of execution in order to litigate the Brady violation in ... More >>

Court of Criminal Appeals Stays the Execution of Convicted Killer, Orders New Hearing

Roderick NewtonBelow you'll find the order from the Texas Court of Appeals concerning the fate of convicted killer Roderick Newton, who was scheduled to be executed tomorrow some time after 6 p.m. As you'll see, the court has stayed that execution and ordered a new hearing -- not only for the Brady ... More >>

This Weekend, Dallas Police to Make Drunk Drivers an Offer They Can't Refuse

Kimberly ThorpeMADD director Mary Kardell and Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle at this morning's press conferenceA word of caution before you head out for the long Memorial Day weekend: It's also No-Refusal Weekend. Which means? Well, if Dallas police pull suspect you're drinking and driving, you'll ... More >>

Just Because, Texas Watchdog Sifts Though AG's Open Records Opinions

Just to see what's open and what ain't these days, Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles sifted through a stack of November 12 rulings handed down by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office concerning open records requests. Today, she posts the results.About half of the opinions concern requests gen ... More >>

Eyewitness News: Surprise, Most Texas PD's Don't Have Lineup Policies

In August 2007, as it was becoming evident that Dallas was becoming "ground zero for criminal justice change," in the words of Innocence Project of Texas founder Jeff Blackburn, Glenna Whitley wrote that faulty eyewitnesses were partially to blame for the convictions of so many innocent men. Whi ... More >>

The Man Called Buffalo, "The Dean of Death Row," Gets Yet Another Reprieve

Hours Before Texas Gets Back in the Execution Business, a Small Protest

On May 8, A Summit in Austin to Discuss the "Tragedies" of Wrongful Convictions

After Tomorrow, Make That 18 Dallas County Men Freed After DNA Testing

James Lee Woodard's Is a DNA Exoneration Like No Other in Dallas County History

The Unique Story of Unique Performance's Unique Way of Not Selling Unique Cars

For the 16th Time, a Dallas County Prisoner Has Been Exonerated Following DNA Testing

A Former Dallas Democrat Seeks to Become the State's Most Powerful Prosecutor

Sharon Keller is Texas' Judge Dread

When Sharon Keller turned off the clock on a Death Row inmate's last-gasp appeal, she became the most vilified judge in Texas

A Nice Meal's Nice, But, C'mon

Can I Get an Eyewitness?

Mustang? Mustank, More Like It.

Dallas County Judge Jim Foster's Motto: "Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity!" But Thoreau He Ain't.

In and Out

Jim Foster is a hard man to find

The Kindness of Strangers

DA Does Have an Open-File Policy....Not

Re: Does the DA's Office Have an Open-Door Policy?

Accidental Victors

Wait...we voted for who?

Coulda Been Worse

Follywood

A B-actress, computer mayhem and families feudin'! Making a movie with your rich friends is just courting disaster.

Dim bulbs

This little light of Buzz's, we're gonna let it shine

Fixing the Fixers

Dallas makes slow but steady progress in cleaning up mail-in ballots

Letters

Judging John Marshall; Can't fight City Hall; Hair band hell ...

No joke

County Commissioner Ken Mayfield isn't laughing anymore about sexual harassment charges

Who ya gonna call?

Lawyer Kenneth Mayfield racks up a winning record in the courts he helps oversee as a county commissioner

The Ice Man

Diamond broker Bryan Wilson Taylor is so smooth, people say he can charm the horns off a billy goat. If he tries to sell you anything, run.

Blind-sided, again

Al Lipscomb assures us that he has no idea what's going on

Dead man waiting

After a decade on death row, Andre Lewis grasps at straws Andre Lewis is a dead man waiting.