On Saturday morning in Norman, Oklahoma, officer John Terry was called to an apartment complex, where a man was sleeping in a car that had been allegedly stolen. Terry confronted the dude, who then tried to drive off — while dragging Terry along for the ride. The officer had enough…
Henry Wade First thing that comes up when you search for “Dallas” in Google News for the past month is this freshly minted piece about former Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade. The headline blares: “After Dallas DA’s death, 19 convictions are undone.” Craig Watkins says of his predecessor: “There…
Interesting media release this afternoon from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, about how 55-year-old Dallas-based FBI “support employee” Deborah Lee Stinson and her 27-year-old son Mark have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The entire narrative, as usual, is after the jump, but the feds allege that from January…
No doubt, Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast puts it best concerning yesterday’s late news out of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office that 38-year-old Patrick Waller will, next Thursday, become the 19th Dallas County man freed from prison since 2001 following a DNA test. Notes Henson, “This one blows…
This morning, Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave a speech at the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives National Conference, which takes place today and tomorrow in D.C. The title of his speech, delivered moments ago, was “Victory of the Level Playing Field,” and in it, he referred to…
A couple of days ago, the Dallas Police Department posted this video of a man taking his sweet time to play stick-’em-up at the the Shell station at 13910 N. Central Expressway at 9:13 p.m on June 12. Says Det. Martha Sanders this a.m., the guy’s also wanted in conjunction…
Yesterday, during our weekly staff meeting, the question was raised concerning the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 2007, a preliminary version of which was released last week. We wondered if perhaps we’d missed it in The News; all I can find concerning the report’s release is this very general Associated…
Charles Dean Hood The story of Charles Dean Hood, who was scheduled to die tonight for the 1989 murder of Ronald Williamson and his girlfriend Tracie Wallace in Plano, has garnered national attention since at least 2005, when Salon first broke the story that State District Court Judge Verla Sue…
Ronald “Buffalo” Chambers, as he looked 32 years ago Dallas Observer editor Mark Donald and I have written about Ronald Chambers on and off for years — Mark, for D, way back in the spring of 1986. (Ancient Observer stories, alas, have not been been so rigorously archived.) For 32…
Dallas lawyer Laura Shockley told a Utah newspaper she is considering filing a civil rights lawsuit against the state of Texas stemming from the April 3 raid of the polygamist compound in Eldorado. A spokesman for the polygamist group, Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker, also said he is considering…
Brad Lollar On Tuesday, Dallas County Chief Public Defender Brad Lollar resigned — right about the time he was being forced out by Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who claimed Lollar wasn’t very good at his job — wasting money, wasting time. From jump, Scott Henson at Grits for…
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins wants to address “the bigger picture” concerning wrongful convictions. One month ago, hundreds of law-enforcement officials from around the state gathered under the dome in Texas’s Senate chamber at the behest of Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston. They came to pay their respects to…
More than 4,200 defendants convicted in federal court in the Northern District of Texas owe their victims $1 billion, give or take. Which would make U.S. Attorney Richard Roper and his financial litigation unit the biggest debt collector in North Texas, give or take. Among Department of Justice Districts, Northern…
Say it ain’t so, Joe Ezeokeke. Because, really, if you can’t take more than three ounces of liquid onto an airplane, what in the world made you think you could bring four kilos of cocaine onto a flight? Alas, that’s just what the Nigerian citizen did on December 22 of…
Breaking Adam “Pacman” Jones news this a.m., courtesy the Las Vegas Sun, which is reporting that the Clark County District Attorney’s Office has issued a felony arrest warrant for the Dallas Cowboys’ latest and greatest. The warrant was issued late last night, as Jones hasn’t paid $20,000 in gambling debts…
While looking over the year-to-date crime stats prepared for today’s meeting of the city council’s Public Safety Committee, I discovered a couple of things. One: Through the end of April, Dallas had 13 fewer homicides in 2008 than in 2007 — a drop of 18.1 percent, if I read my…
Dallas County Sheriff’s Department/CNN Wiley Fountain, last seen when he posed for this March mug shot On Friday, we pointed your attention to some CNN pieces about James Lee Woodard and how he’s adjusting to life after spending 27 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Today, CNN…
PBC minister Joe Barron That was awful quick: Prestonwood Baptist Church has all but eradicated the name Joe Barron from its Web site — and with good reason, as today the Bryan-College Station Eagle has the news that the 52-year-old Barron, listed as a Minister of Married Adult III on…
CNN James Lee Woodard, getting a driver’s license after 27 years in prison Speaking of local news stories getting national attention this a.m., CNN follows in 60 Minutes’ footsteps with a story about James Lee Woodard, who was released from prison on April 29 after serving 27 years for a…
“Fort Worth Native on Emmy-nominated Court show.” That was the subject heading of a missive sitting in UP’s e-mailbox this a.m. Which didn’t quite prepare us for the actual contents concerning a forthcoming episode of Judge David Young, one of the dozen or so People’s Court knock-offs airing on KDFI-Channel…
Barry McNeil of Haynes and Boone For six years, Barry McNeil, a partner at Haynes and Boone, has been trying to spring two Mexican nationals from a Panhandle prison, where they’ve been incarcerated for life for a murder they didn’t commit. And, yesterday, the Dallas litigator, working with two other…
State Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, who called for yesterday’s meeting to discuss Texas’ wrongful convictions At some point, the Texas State Senate’s Web site should contain the audio from yesterday’s “Roundtable on the Prevention of Wrongful Convictions,” held down in Austin. Till then, here’s the Houston Chronicle’s account of…
