After spending 23 years in a prison cell for a crime he did not commit, Jerry Lee Evans’s first order of business is a Big Mac from McDonald’s. So said the man who, at a little after 2 p.m. today, was welcomed back to the free world by Judge Carter…
A 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 be stuck with a butterfly needle attached to a vacuum-packed container, and two vials’ worth of your blood will…
Former Dallas County judge and prosecutor Catherine Crier left her hometown long, long ago — exactly 20 years ago, matter of fact, when she swapped the bench for the bright lights of CNN, then ABC, then Fox News Channel, then Court TV and a series of books. Says her bio…
Courthouse News this morning highlights the story of Ginger Weatherspoon, a former assistant attorney general in Greg Abbott’s office who claims she was fired after refusing to lie under oath about 254th District Judge David Hanschen. Weatherspoon, who worked from July 2006 through February ’08 in the the Office of…
The Garland police officer involved in a shooting that left a suicidal 17-year-old boy dead on March 19 is back on duty after an administrative leave and departmental review, according to a department spokesperson. “That review has been done, and he’s been released, and he’s back on the streets,” says…
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins certainly likes to make an entrance, which isn’t hard to do when you’re 6-foot-5, star of a nationally broadcast reality mini-series, a recent guest on The View and the subject of countless gushing profiles for your office’s work in helping to free the wrongfully…
In about an hour, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle will go before the city council’s Public Safety Committee to present the city’s latest crime statistics, at least as counted through the end of April. This sneak peek, for those who can’t read be bothered to read the whole four pages…
Jose and Alicia Elizondo, the parents of a Garland teen who died on March 19 from gunshot wounds suffered after a Garland police officer responded to a 911 call for a suicide attempt, have filed a civil rights and wrongful death suit in Dallas County District Court. The 15-page lawsuit…
Unfair Park had two visitors this morning: Enrique Hubbard Urrea, consul general for the Mexican Consulate on Stemmons Freeway, and Jesus Contreras Cantu, the consul of media affairs. They stopped by to address the lawsuit we mentioned yesterday in which the consulate is referred to as “a ‘lawless’ world where…
Dallas County public defender Michelle Moore — who’s on loan to Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’s Conviction Integrity Unit — chimed in last night with a comment on Unfair Park. Specifically, she wanted to clear up any, well, let’s just say misunderstandings stemming from last week’s item concerning something…
Quite the shocker to pull up Courthouse News and see a big ol’ Texas Rangers logo. Then again, when Daddy needs his money, Daddy needs his money, and he’ll go to Tarrant County District Court to get it. Because, according to the complaint filed yesterday, Dallas-based Highland Capital Lending owes…
On The View this morning, when Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said Dallas County has exonerated 19 wrongly imprisoned men using DNA evidence, he received an enormous round of applause. But the appearance was less about Watkins than it was his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit and Johnnie Lindsey, who,…
In February, the Dallas Business Journal ran a Q&A headlined “Two Minutes with Saul Meyer,” referring to the founder of and partner at Harwood Street-based Aldus Equity. In the piece, Meyer said that what set Aldus apart from other private equity firms is its “degree of governance and transparency,” which…
At 4 a.m. on Tuesday, two men drove a few blocks in a bulldozer to the Walgreens on 1306 N Beckley Avenue. They backed it up, and then rammed the ‘dozer into a side wall, sending hundreds of goods flying off the shelves and creating a cloud of dust. See…
As the boss pointed out in his first-episode review yesterday, Dallas DNA debuts tonight at 9 p.m. on Investigation Discovery. So happens that those who attended Central Dallas Ministries’ 14th Annual Urban Ministries Prayer Breakfast last week got a sort-of sneak preview of tonight’s premiere: Before the breakfast, where Dallas…
I winced when asked to screen an advance copy of Dallas DNA, Investigation Discovery’s new six-part series that adds to the growing legend that is Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. It took Henry Wade decades in office to achieve legendary notoriety, but with the global media fawning over a…
In May of last year, CNN went looking for Wiley Fountain who, in 2003, received a full pardon from Gov. Rick Perry after DNA evidence revealed Fountain did not commit the aggravated sexual assault of which he’d been convicted in 1986. But the network’s Ed Lavandera couldn’t find the 52-year-old,…
View Larger MapFellow Northwest Dallas resident Sharon Boyd directs our attention today to some heretofore unreported news involving a significant piece of the neighborhood: On Monday, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage will conduct hearings concerning several bars located at 2900 Walnut Hill Lane, otherwise known as the patch of land where…
The Dallas City Council’s committees have plenty on their plates today — everything from establishing a trust fund related to the NBA All-Star game to checking in on the Lancaster Corridor, which is in serious need of some upgrading, to parsing over crime stats (according to the Dallas Police Department,…
On September 14, 26-year-old Army Sgt. Wesley Durbin of Hurst was killed at a small patrol base south of Baghdad when he and another soldier, 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson of Florida, were gunned down by a fellow soldier. As The Dallas Morning News noted in September, Durbin was a…
Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch blog wonders this morning, “Is DNA exoneration too real for reality TV?” The show in question, of course, is Dallas DNA, Investigation Discovery’s six-part series about Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit and the use of DNA to free those who’ve been…
City council candidate Billy MacLeod was assaulted in Deep Ellum early this morning, resulting in a police report naming a “known suspect” who put MacLeod in a “choke hold” and threw him into Elm Street. MacLeod claims the attack was related to the new smoking ordinance, which took effect just…
