OK, Don Hill, raise your finger every time you hear a defendant in the City Hall corruption case plead guilty.This afternoon, as promised, the U.S. Attorney's Office forwards John Lewis's plea agreement -- the one that finds him promising to testify against former Dallas City Council member Don "What Me Worry?" Hill. You'll find that and two other absorbing court documents filed today -- a little light weekend reading for those of us working on our novels about the city that likes to live large
Hey, Don Hill, how many weeks till your trial starts? Wrong. It's two, not one.First, there was Allen McGill. Then, Andrea Spencer. Then, John Lewis. To that roster of names of folks who've pleaded guilty in the Dallas City Hall corruption case, add a fourth: Kevin Dean, president and a principal of Kevin Dean Asphalt Technology and a concrete subcontractor who today in a Dallas federal courtroom copped to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion for which the mandatory max is five years in p
Kimberly ThorpeDon Hill and Sheila Farrington filed a prayer of their own in federal court yesterday.Late yesterday, Don Hill's PR man, Ken Carter, sent to media an objection filed in federal court in which the former Dallas mayor pro tem and his wife, Sheila Farrington, want U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn to keep from the public's prying ears the feds' "audio-visual evidence" against the two in the public corruption case set to go to trial on Monday. Reads the important part of the legal doc:
Sam MertenDon and Sheila Hill left the courthouse Tuesday afternoon in good spirits.An admittedly nervous Steve Williams spent all of Tuesday afternoon on the stand discussing his eight-year tenure as Don Hill's administrative assistant, pushing the anticipated debut of developer Brian Potashnik to this morning. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham paused his redirect examination of Williams as U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn wrapped up the day, so Williams will be back for at least another 30
Today's testimony from Bill Fisher, the government's wire-wearing witness in the City Hall corruption trial in federal court, brings us an even more explicit bribery-extortion scenario than we have seen before in this two-months-old trial.Fisher is alleging a series of events that followed a meeting with hair-care magnate Comer Cottrell and Kevin Dean, a paving contractor. At that meeting -- a tape of which was played last week -- Cottrell promises to help Fisher get former Dallas Mayor Pro
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection/Library of CongressAt this point, Schutze is like the Mel Allen of the City Hall federal corruption trial.Today at the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial at the Earle Cabell, defendant John Lewis, who has pleaded guilty and is testifying for the government, is being cross-examined by the defense. Lewis says he was part of a plot to buy votes from former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, the lead defendant, for a developer of tax-subsidized aff
