The saga of Sam Krasniqi, an Albanian Moslem who was acquitted of molesting his son and daughter but was nonetheless unable to regain custody of his children anyway (“Tell Mama Why You Cry,” Nov. 17, 1994), took a strange turn last week when Krasniqi was indicted on three counts of…
Like businesses throughout the city celebrating the holiday spirit, the office of Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Corporation held a Christmas party last week in the Oak Cliff home of one of its staff members. It was a bittersweet affair, to be sure, because Fred Cuny, the founder and director of…
Head erect, shoulders squared, Dr. Linda Norton walks purposefully into a packed courtroom in Belton, Texas, to take her seat on the witness stand. For the next hour and a half, Norton, a forensic pathologist, will lead the hushed courtroom on an exacting and graphic tour of the bruises and…
Sahar Ayad cried when she first learned about the plight of Sam and Kathy Krasniqi, the Albanian Muslim couple from North Dallas who lost their children to the state amid child-abuse charges (“Tell Mama Why You Cry,” Observer, Nov. 17, 1994). Sam was ultimately acquitted of those charges, but the…
For the third time in five years, an African-American attorney has been nominated to the federal bench in the North Texas District. And for the third time, that nomination has stalled–again a victim, insiders say, of partisan politics. Cheryl Wattley, a former federal prosecutor now in private legal practice in…
On a sweltering hot day in early September, a red-haired woman with manicured fingernails is scrounging around the dirty floor of my two-car garage. She thinks she has spotted pocket change. “O-o-o-o, this is good,” Helene Glazer coos, picking up some coins and slipping them into her pocket. “When I…
Henry Clayton is a short, plump man with a sharp, angular nose. He wears a pearl-button western shirt, a beaded necklace and ties his hair back in a pony tail. He looks, at least, like what he claims to be–the chief of the largest Indian tribe in Texas. A 48-year-old…
You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that the Democratic Party–particularly in Texas–has big problems. From lowly constable positions to the highest elected office in the state, Democratic candidates took a drubbing in the last general election. Taking their cue from such successful political initiatives as…
Two and a half years ago, Sonya Kennedy moved from an apartment in North Dallas to a house with a huge backyard in Ferris, a town 20 miles south of Dallas. She made the move for one reason: to give her two dogs room to romp and roam. “They were…
It was a sultry, moonlit night in July, on a back road in rural Archer County, and Gail Bennett thought it would never end. Gail and her ex-husband, Tony Marsh Bennett, had been fighting all day, and Tony’s rage roiled into the evening hours. This time, he was enraged that…
Fred Cuny is missing in action. One of the world’s foremost authorities on disaster relief and refugee management, Cuny was on an emergency mission helping refugees in Chechnya, the breakaway region under attack by Russian troops, when he and three Russian aid workers disappeared. The group has not been heard…
Breezy was a beautiful bitch, and Chuck Milner loved her dearly. He loved the way she seemed to float as she walked, the way she held her exquisitely formed, regal head high like a princess. She had perfectly shaped almond eyes, an aquiline nose. She was very well-traveled and a…
State District Judge Hal Gaither has earned a reputation as a no-nonsense jurist. In the seven years Gaither has sat on the bench in Dallas County juvenile court, making tough decisions on the sentencing of delinquents and the termination of parental rights, he has often preached the gospel of personal…
Chalk it up to a slow news week, but an Observer reporter was intrigued by space travel research being conducted at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The NASA-funded study required research subjects to lie in a hospital bed for three solid months to test a drug that prevents…
To the victor belongs the spoils. Or so the saying goes. But if the victor happens to defeat the city of Dallas, his battle has just begun. Just ask civil rights lawyer Mike Daniel. For the past year, he and fellow lawyer Betsy Julian have been trying to collect their…
Lots of people donate their bodies to science. But most of them wait until after they’re dead. Not Charlie Procter. For five months earlier this year, the 45-year-old petroleum engineer allowed nurses to probe and prick him dozens of times while drilling for blood; underwent several bone-density sonagram tests forcing…
Ticketgate was about to unravel in Coppell. Late one night in early June, Arthur Kwast, the resident gadfly of this shiny suburb northwest of Dallas, was sitting in his house when the phone rang. The caller, talking in furtive tones, detailed how a prominent merchant in town had gotten a…
Most of the houses in this quiet, middle-class Richardson neighborhood look alike –wide, one-story, brick homes with small, manicured front lawns. The home of Sam and Kathy Krasniqi has one distinguishing feature: rain or shine, several pairs of men’s and women’s shoes can be found lined up on the porch…
Throughout the fall, the Krasniqis diligently abided by the court order. Krasniqi rented an apartment and attended a sexual offender’s group treatment program run by Chester Grounds, a staff psychologist with DHS. Grounds said in court that Krasniqi originally admitted in group that he had sexually abused his children, including…
