Courts

A Dallas family says Uplift Education kept a known sexual predator on staff as a teacher for more than a year after learning he raped their teenage daughter. The rape, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the parents and alleged victim (all identified by pseudonyms), happened on the night…

The way he described it, Dallas police officer Matthew Antkowiak could have very easily been killed on the night of December 18, 2009. It started just before midnight, when the officer spotted 62-year-old Ronald Bernard Jones in the 300 block of Reunion Boulevard. Jones “appeared to be intoxicated or high…

During eight years working for Plano-based Goodman Networks, Jef Mindrup’s Buddhism was never really an issue, and why would it be? Serving as the marketing director for a large-ish telecom company requires allegiance to no specific creed. Mindrup says that changed on March 14, 2012, when Jody Goodman — Goodman…

It turns out that Arlington, of all places, is home to a sustainable garden/hippie residence called the Garden of Eden. Naturally, Arlington does not approve. Suspecting that the hippies were growing weed, officials first sent a manned aircraft over the Garden of Eden last year. Undercover officers paid a visit…

David Moorman isn’t old, at least not by any modern standard. The Fort Worth man is in his mid-50s, still nearly a decade away from reaching Medicare eligibility, still in command of all his faculties, and he still has several years of productive employment ahead of him. According to the…

If you’re feeling charitable, you might describe Ricky Bobby Sports Saloon and Restaurant, with its checkered flags and black-and-yellow stock car out front, as a loving, if unauthorized, homage to the 2006 Will Farrell/John C. Reilly film Talladega Nights. The breastaurant’s parent company, strip club conglomerate Rick’s Cabaret International, has…

There’s something rotten in Duncanville city government. Twenty-four of the past 30 months spent without a permanent city manager, a City Council bitterly divided, and now this: The city of Duncanville is suing Mayor Deborah Hodge. Yes, that is a thing that can happen. The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday…

Farmers Branch’s epic, seven-and-a-half year quest to ban people living in this country illegally came to a close on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s ruling that a city ordinance requiring tenants to prove legal residency before renting a home was unconstitutional. Whatever Mayor…

It’ll still be a while before gay couples are allowed to legally allowed to marry in Texas, but they took a big step today when a federal court ruled that the state’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Orlando wrote in an opinion on Wednesday that the constitutional…

Nine months ago, Skye Wyatt’s legal fortunes suffered what appeared to be a serious blow when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that Kilgore ISD had violated no established law when her high school softball coaches told her mother she was a lesbian. Now, Wyatt’s…

Just a few days after the Weather Channel published a damning, in-depth report documenting how natural gas drilling is wreaking havoc on Texas’ air quality, a group of wealthy property owners outside Dallas are dealing with another dark side of the energy boom: a really ugly water tower. Residents of…

There are two sides to every story, and on Thursday, District Judge Carlos Cortez’s version of what happened at his Uptown condo on the night of December 28 won out, when a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict him on charges that he choked his girlfriend and held her…

We’re not entirely sure why Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs just paid $2.2 million for a condo at Dallas’ One Arts Plaza. Vacation home? Rental property? That’s between him and the voters of Denton; the deed is now in his name, according to Dallas County records. (“My wife buys, makes over/redesigns…

Fired Dallas Voice editor John Wright’s feud with his former employer didn’t end with the parting shots he delivered here and elsewhere, nor with the launch of Lone Star Q, Wright’s new online news venture. It’s simmered on, first in hearings last fall before the Texas Workforce Commission, where Wright…

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia didn’t hand down any ruling Wednesday following a hearing on two Texas couples’ lawsuit challenging Texas’ gay-marriage ban. A decision, on whether to grant the couples’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking Texas’ constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex unions, “will be forthcoming at some time,” he…

Vic Holmes and Mark Phariss, the gay Plano couple suing to overturn Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage, will be in San Antonio on Wednesday trying to convince a federal judge to allow their case to continue. The battle lines are familiar by now. Gay marriage, proponents say, is a constitutionally…

Jordan Ross Hatcher made a number of undeniably stupid decisions on the afternoon of January 24, 2013. He stole a Wii controller from a Grand Prairie Target, then knocked down the cop who tried to stop him. The 22-year-old, a recently discharged Marine, according to his obituary, then ran across…

In June 2012, attorney William Trantham was riding high. He’d just scored a half-million-dollar jury award on behalf of his client, a black Denton County prosecutor named Nadiya Williams-Boldware who was outraged by racist remarks from colleagues and superiors. Two days after the verdict, District Attorney Paul Johnson fired four…

It was the shot heard by a couple of neighbors in Rylie but, thanks to a neighbor’s conveniently placed surveillance camera, seen by thousands more: On October 14, 2013, Dallas police officer Cardan Spender shot Bobby Gerald Bennett in the stomach. Bennett was confronted by police after his mother called…

After spending two years on the brink of shutting down, Parkland Hospital has turned a corner. Things are far from perfect, but the federal government is reasonably confidant that Parkland won’t kill you. That’s the medical side of things. According to a trio of nearly identical wrongful termination lawsuits filed…

Finally, after nearly two months being kept on life support, Marlise Munoz will be allowed to die. Just after 4:15 p.m., a Tarrant County Judge sided with Munoz’ family, declaring her legally dead and ordering her removed from support. The decision came after less than an hour of debate. Fort…