No, Evan Smith, “exonerated” is not “too strong a word” when describing what happened last week to Thomas McGowan, the 16th Dallas County prisoner freed after DNA testing revealed he wasn’t guilty of the crime for which he’d been convicted and sentenced to prison for 23 years. Smith, the editor…
Clay Graham From left to right: James C. Giles, Thomas McGowan, James Waller and Charles Chatman Clay Graham, a newly minted lawyer with The Innocence Project of Texas, was on hand in the courtroom of Judge Susan Hawk yesterday and snapped photos as Thomas McGowan, wrongfully convicted of burglary and…
Thomas McGowan The most stunning thing about the Thomas McGowan case, as mentioned below, is “how normal it is,” says Jason Kreag, staff attorney with The Innocence Project of New York. Kreag just arrived in Dallas so he could appear with McGowan at a hearing tomorrow afternoon in the courtroom…
Thomas McGowan Moments ago, Unfair Park received a media release from The Innocence Project that says tomorrow afternoon, Thomas McGowan — who’s spent the past 23 years behind bars after being convicted of rape and burglary in Dallas County — will be released from prison, as DNA testing has revealed…
Stumbled across the Dallas Police Department’s YouTube page today — good thing too, as the DPD just posted a video in which some dude breaks into a car parked at 2616 Swiss Avenue, which, I believe, is a recreational facility of some kind. Only, I’m not posting that video, but…
At the end of last year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission adopted Federal Sentencing Guidelines that reduced penalties for crack cocaine offenses, after years of study and debate determined folks popped for crack usually got about three and a half years more prison time than people convicted of powder-cocaine offenses. The…
Beginning on page 138 of today’s agenda for the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court meeting you’ll find Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ request for some $823,000 with which he’ll keep funding the county’s efforts to use DNA evidence to free the wrongly convicted. That figure is for two years’ worth…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement What this photo of the T. Don Hutto detention center doesn’t adequately communicate is the smell of urine and fear. This month brings some interesting and troubling tidbits on our favorite immigrant detention center, the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility — which, as you…
Tomorrow, Shared Hope International, which investigates and documents incidents of sex trafficking across the country, will release the first in a series of reports that detail how 10 American cities respond to victims of the sex trade. Tomorrow’s report focuses on Las Vegas, and an assessment of the Dallas-Fort Worth…
The owners of Texas Hydroponics on Elm Street — right next door to the Sons of Hermann, of course — are offering $300 to anyone who can ID the dumpster-defacing vandals seen in this 10-minute video. I’ll be honest: I didn’t think I’d make it through 38 seconds of the…
On Friday we showed you the Bedford Police Department’s recruitment video — seems only fair, then, to post today the Dallas Police Department’s help-wanted ad, posted this morning to YouTube. Among the endless advancement opportunities: You get to ride bikes, ride horses, wear dreads and buy drugs. Where do I…
Maybe you read a little something about a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy’s patrol car getting a love tap Tuesday night from a drunk driver. Happened around 8 p.m. on State Highway 310, just north of Interstate 20. Thankfully, the Associated Press is distributing, courtesy the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, a…
Adrian Estaban Sanchez Heredia After the jump, a media release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office — this one, involving today’s guilty plea of 49-year-old Adrian Estaban Sanchez Heredia, a cocaine trafficker who smuggled the drugs from Mexico to Dallas via Laredo. As in: In documents filed in Court, Heredia admitted…
After the jump, an e-mail from Sergeant Walter Clifton of the DPD’s Central Patrol Division concerning a rash of car break-ins ’round the Lower Greenville area — and, hey, just in time for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade this weekend. Though, spoiler alert, this opening paragraph may provide some clues…
This, of course, is not Charles Cooper Burgess, who clearly came in last using the good leads Today comes word that U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn had some not very nice things to say about 52-year-old Charles Cooper Burgess. Like, oh, he’s a “slick talker.” And a “con and…
A Friend of Unfair Park who’s looking to do you a solid points our attention to this missive from the City of Dallas — a little something about the 2008 Statewide Warrant Roundup. As in, “Beginning Feb.16, officers will arrest people with outstanding warrants pending before their respective municipal courts.”…
Former Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill, now in the defending bidness Not that I would pimp my former boss for my current one, but my old colleague and pal John Council at Texas Lawyer brings word that ex-Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill has risen from the politically expired,…
View Larger Map For such a short, pleasant-looking street, Chapel Creek Drive — off Webb Chapel Road, just south of Walnut Hill Lane — has a fairly lengthy list of criminal activity, according to this morning’s Daily Crime Report. Since Thursday alone, the Dallas police have been called to six…
Just got off the phone with the attorney for Chrissy Haley, the wife of former Dallas Cowboys assistant coach Todd Haley who, in 2006, found a rat in her Southlake McDonald’s salad. Seems her case against the grotesque golden arches won’t be going to trial this month after all. “All…
In May 2000, Brent Wagman pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud — something to do with his pocketing $30 million in worthless high interest corporate notes sold to retirees and other elderly folks across the U.S. and A. Wagman ran several companies out of a Dallas office, among…
At around 11 a.m. yesterday, Dallas police were called to the 2100 block of Hickory Street. Why? Funny I should ask. From the Daily Crime Report, quickly becoming the day’s must-read missive, this assault: “SUSP HIT COMPL IN THE BACK WITH CHICKEN LEG, COMPL FELT OFFENDED.” Or, as we call…
Raul Rodriguez The very definition of “shock probation”: Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins was shocked to find out that Raul Rodriguez — who provided the Texas Seven with a getaway vehicle upon their escape from the John B. Connally Unit, shortly before they gunned down Irving police officer Aubrey…
