Hosam Maher Husein Smadi’s probable cause hearing is a week from today in U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez’s court, during which time the Jordanian government wants to be filled in and kept in the loop. But over the weekend, the 19-year-old arrested Thursday for plotting to blow up Fountain Place…
Megan just returned from the outskirts of a crowded courtroom for the arraignment of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, the 19-year-old arrested and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi asked for an Arabic translator, but one wasn’t available. The public defender assigned to Smadi, Richard Anderson,…
Speaking of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and thwarted plans …Yesterday, the Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma announced that three men, all previously convicted felons, will serve a combined 37 years in prison for having guns and ammo and much, much more in their rental car…
This just in from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, via press release:James T. Jacks, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Office of the FBI, announced today that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, has been arrested and…
After presenting the city council’s Public Safety Committee with the latest crime statistics showing nearly an 11 percent decrease in overall crime from last year, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle this morning addressed the elephant in the room: the police department’s methodology of reporting crimes. Earlier this month, The Dallas…
Kim’s at the city council’s Public Safety Committee meeting this morning; she’s got a few crime-stat questions for Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, who brought with him to City Hall the latest crime report. Till she returns, these are the latest figures according to the DPD…
It’s cute when it happens in the movies and stars, oh, Andie McDowell and Gérard Depardieu or Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. But when you screw around with immigration documents and arrange for foreign nationals to marry U.S. citizens for permanent residence or citizenship, well, that’s a federal offense that…
Earlier this month, Steve Thompson and Tanya Eiserer took a long, hard look at how the Dallas Police Department reports car burglaries and thefts — or, rather, how the DPD doesn’t report some car burglaries and thefts. The reason: the so-called Auto Theft Affidavit, which was introduced in June 2007…
After 13 weeks and 45 trial days, jurors begin deliberations this afternoon in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial, determining the fates of former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, his wife Sheila, former plan commissioner D’Angelo Lee, community activist Darren Reagan and car dealer Rickey Robertson. I’m glad the end…
Much thanks to the many Friends of Unfair Park who’ve sent along the Associated Press’s EXCLUSIVE! report concerning the degree to which the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission investigates, um, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Because, sure, it’s one thing to discipline a few agents in a highly publicized raid-gone-wrong. But…
Steven Phillips served 24 years in prison after having been convicted in 1982 of sexual assault and robbery — a crime for which he was exonerated in 2008, after DNA evidence revealed he was not, in fact, the perpetrator. As the Associated Press noted earlier this month, the Dallas resident…
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana continued her disjointed closing argument in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial this morning, focusing on the prosecution’s belief that former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and others masked the alleged bribe payments from affordable-housing developer Brian Potashnik. Saldana asked: What kind of legitimate business…
Here we sit, waiting for closing arguments to begin in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial in federal court. Judge Barbara Lynn is listening to the lawyers on both sides as they tell her what instructions they think she should or should not give the jury after the closing arguments,…
As Don Hill took the stand earlier this month in the City Hall corruption trial, we checked in with his wife’s attorney, Victor Vital, to find out if Sheila would also testify in her defense. Vital told us that she was in fact one of his witnesses, claiming she aimed…
So, the third-string team is in to cover what will probably be Don Hill’s last day of testimony. Appropriate, then, that the morning’s starting off with technical difficulties with Hill’s mic and computer monitor. Buzz!Hill’s being questioned about $18,000 and $12,000 payments from Brian Potashinik’s Arbor Wood development to his…
We caught up with Sheila Hill’s attorney, Victor Vital, after the cross-examination of Don Hill Wednesday afternoon in the City Hall corruption trial, to find out if he had any concerns about putting his client on the stand. “Oh, not at all,” he says. “Don did wonderfully today. The truth…
Since it’s been a couple of weeks since the Daytime Juvenile Curfew went into effect, we thought it might be a good time to find out how many kiddos the Dallas Police Department’s done rounded up for skipping school. But as it happens, that’s easier requested than done: We called…
As testimony concluded yesterday in the City Hall corruption trial, it appeared as though the prosecution would begin its cross-examination of Don Hill after Doug Greene, D’Angelo Lee’s attorney, finished what is expected to be his relatively short questioning of Hill, especially after Victor Vital told us he had no…
Don Hill’s third day on the stand in the City Hall corruption trial began with his attorney, Ray Jackson, asking about statements he made in wiretaps about fairness concerning developer Brian Potashnik’s decision to reject bids from Ron Slovacek and Andrea Spencer because they were too high. Hill says the…
After speculation Thursday followed by a statement from Judge Barbara Lynn this afternoon regarding a potential appearance by defendant Sheila Hill as a witness in the City Hall corruption trial, we asked her attorney, Victor Vital, if she will take the stand in her defense. Vital tells us he indeed…
Back in March we told you the story of Frank Farias, the airman arrested for murder after running over a man outside a Lower Greenville nightclub in January. There’s an update: The 23-year-old is awaiting his first hearing in front of a military panel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he’s…
Attorney Ray Jackson resumed the direct examination of his client, former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, this morning at approximately 8:45 a.m., as Jackson continued to ask Hill about his accomplishments as a Dallas City Council member. Hill says former council member Maxine Thornton-Reese urged him to accomplish two goals:…
