Dallas police Chief U. Renee Hall’s days as an out-of-uniform civilian administrator are over. The Dallas Police Department announced Thursday morning that Hall has passed her Texas Commission on Law Enforcement licensing exam, making her a real Texas police officer and allowing her to wear a DPD uniform. “TCOLE test done!…
I’ve got a serious case of what I believe the shrinks would call cognitive dissonance going on here, involving a conflict between local news and the news from the White House. First, the local: A suburban Dallas mother and father have been sentenced to federal prison — the mother for…
Former Texas Rangers starting pitcher Esteban Loaiza — best known for being the biggest piece in one of the best trades in franchise history — is in a San Diego County jail after being arrested on three drug felonies Friday. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s Border Crimes Suppression Team found…
For the second time in less than a month, a man hunted around a Walgreens parking lot on Ross Avenue, searching for an unlocked car. At about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, he found one and hopped in the back seat, just as a man had early in the morning of Jan…
A Dallas County grand jury declined Wednesday to indict any of the Dallas Police Department officers who helped kill the gunman who shot and killed six Dallas officers in a July 7, 2016, ambush, according to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. The decision closes the books on an investigation…
Starting next Monday in the Dallas Police Department’s South Central Patrol Division, a new kind of team will respond to mental health calls placed to 911. Instead of sending just police officers or paramedics, the city will dispatch a three-person team made up of a specially trained police officer, a…
Late Monday afternoon, the Observer received a statement from the Dallas Police Department about a “civil rights video” filmed over the weekend at the department’s southeast patrol division. It sounded very serious. “The Dallas Police Department is aware of the video filmed at the Southeast Division over the weekend and takes…
A Dallas County grand jury has indicted Wesley Mathews in the capital murder of his 3-year-old daughter. The grand jury also charged Mathews, 37, with tampering with physical evidence for allegedly dumping Sherin Mathews’ body in a culvert after killing her in the family’s garage. Mathews is now charged with…
After a day and a half of deliberations, a Dallas County jury sentenced former Farmers Branch police officer Ken Johnson to 10 years in prison Tuesday for the 2016 murder of Jose Cruz. Johnson, 37, shot two teenagers in March 2016 after he caught them breaking into his Chevy Tahoe at…
Following a 2017 filled with legal trouble, Joshua Baish, the owner of the now-defunct Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton, kicked off 2018 with an early morning arrest. Baish, according to a Denton County arrest warrant affidavit, punched one of his former employees outside Andy’s Bar before hopping in his…
A single porch light shined on a white mobile home one mid-July night in a rural neighborhood north of Dallas, illuminating drops of blood that trailed down the porch’s faded blue wooden steps. More blood pooled at the bottom of the steps and stained the porch’s handrail and floor. Along…
This case was different. The murder conviction this week of off-duty Farmers Branch police Officer Ken Johnson only happened because fellow police officers worked hard to make it happen. The lead community activist, seeing that a conviction would depend on good police work, worked equally hard to make sure his…
The estranged mother of 11-time NBA All-Star and Lincoln High School graduate Chris Bosh faces felony charges. Police say Freida Bosh allowed drugs to dealt from a DeSoto home owned by her son. Freida Bosh, who was living at the home, and her ex-roommate, Johnathan Brown, are charged with exploitation…
After nearly two days of deliberations, a Dallas County jury found a former Farmers Branch police officer guilty of murder and aggravated assault Tuesday afternoon. Ken Johnson, 37, shot two teenagers in March 2016 after he caught them breaking into his Chevy Tahoe at his Farmers Branch apartment complex. Sheriff’s…
Sometimes, Dallas cops get the guy. So far in 2017, the Dallas Police Department has captured a serial rapist, quickly arrested a 15-year-old who shot and killed a mother of six during an early November robbery and tracked down Earl Wayne Humphries, a man police believe committed two similar murders of day…
A 17-year-old and a swarm of yet-to-be identified accomplices lured four men to a vacant Pleasant Grove apartment Tuesday before robbing and beating them, according to the Dallas Police Department. DPD arrested the teenTuesday, but they aren’t releasing his name because they’re looking into his possible involvement in several similar…
A former Dallas County jailer pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon in a Dallas federal courtroom to one count of enticement of minor. Kevin Scott Morris, 44, will be sentenced April 4 to a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison, closing a sordid saga that lasted the better part…
Two North Texas men spun an elaborate tale involving the Illuminati, the NBA and Under Armour in order to defraud a would-be real estate investor out of nearly $1 million, according to Dallas’ U.S. Attorney’s Office. Dallas’ Joshua Pugh and Frisco’s Glenn Clifton will appear at a detention hearing Tuesday…
Among the biggest immediate challenges faced by Dallas police Chief U. Renee Hall is the riddle of the Dallas Police Department’s recruitment and retention. The department hemorrhaged officers in early 2017 as the tenure of her predecessor ended, dipping from 3,700 officers at the department’s peak to about 3,000 officers, a 10-year…
Competitors and attendees of the Call of Duty World League tournament evacuated Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center twice this weekend after anonymous bomb threats. Dallas police confirmed that they received a second bomb threat against the convention center Sunday afternoon, prompting another evacuation of the building and a second interruption to…
A Dallas County grand jury indicted two Dallas Police Department officers Thursday for their role in the death of Tony Timpa. Both officers are charged with misdemeanor deadly conduct. On August 10, 2016, Timpa panicked in the parking lot of the New Fine Arts adult video store at 1720 Mockingbird…
One week after finding out he’d be hanging onto his deputy chief position during a shakeup of the Dallas Police Department, Vernon Hale is leaving. Hale, who was set to become head of DPD’s Tactical Support Division, will instead resign and move to the Galveston Police Department on Jan. 2. “I…
