On one level, the whole thing’s absurd, that there are so many legal questions to argue about as we approach former Dallas Police Department Officer Amber Guyger’s murder trial. The facts are not in dispute. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean almost a year ago, as Jean hung out alone…
We accept the murder of children here. We allow it. We expect it. We are unwilling to make any of the serious sacrifices necessary to save these lives. Calling these deaths random or senseless is a lie. In six weeks, three children have been shot to death in two incidents…
The Dallas Police Department said Thursday afternoon that they’ve identified a suspect in the shooting death of 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett. She was shot and killed Wednesday evening as she sat in her apartment on Munger Avenue in Old East Dallas. According to Dallas Police Maj. Danny Williams, the first link in…
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his plans Wednesday to address the Aug. 3 mass murder in El Paso. It sounds an awful lot like his response to the school shooting in Santa Fe last year. This time around, the governor will be holding roundtable discussions and convening a task force…
It started almost as soon as police arrested the man accused of murdering 22 people at an El Paso Walmart on Saturday morning. Texas’ political leaders got in line and on their marks before turning to one of the most well-worn pages in their hymnals. Thoughts and prayers abounded, as…
The 21-year-old man accused of shooting almost 60 people in El Paso Saturday morning has North Texas ties. Patrick Crusius, identified as the suspect by multiple media reports, graduated from Plano Senior High School in 2017 and lived in Allen, according to Collin County state Rep. Jeff Leach. Police received…
Rakem Balogun and his son were asleep in their apartment early one December morning about two years ago when they woke up to the sound of a crash. Balogun, a North Texas activist, got out of bed and walked into his living room. From where he was standing, he couldn’t…
Last week, D Magazine posted an interesting piece by Peter Simek about gentrification. The setup gave me pause. Something about the Jim Lake Co. telling me gentrification is good for me summoned unpleasant memories of my Grandma Alice and Pepto Bismol. My brothers and I suspected her of owning stock…
Walking to his ride-share pickup point and smoking a cigarette after a late show at the Twilite Lounge, a man, who has asked to remain anonymous, was approached by two men who asked him for a light. One of the men lit what looked like a blunt, appeared to take…
Our basic rights: that’s one thing. Very important. I’m a huge fan of basic rights. But I also don’t want people to get shot. So I’ve been wondering lately if here in Dallas we need to have a second conversation. If, like me, you really don’t want to get shot,…
A third, previously unidentified domino has fallen in the federal corruption case involving late former City Council member Carolyn Davis and low-income housing developer Ruel Hamilton. According to documents filed in federal court, the go-between for alleged bribery payments between Hamilton and Davis pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony…
A Dallas County jury has found a former Mesquite Police Department officer not guilty in his second trial for aggravated assault after shooting an unarmed man twice in the back in 2017. Derick Wiley’s first trial in 2018 ended with a hung jury. Wiley shot Lyndo Jones after responding to…
The script, if you’ve been around cop trials in Dallas or anywhere else over the last several years, is easy to follow. Derick Wiley, the former Mesquite Police Department officer on trial for aggravated assault by a public servant, shot Lyndo Jones twice in the back as Jones ran away…
For the second time, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is trying to send former Mesquite police officer Derick Wiley to prison for shooting Lyndo Jones in the back. Wiley is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, a first-degree felony. Wiley shot Jones after responding to a call…
Former Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who said “times have changed” since he helped convicted sex-predator Jeffrey Epstein skate, made himself ridiculous by choosing too recent a date. Things can’t have changed that much since 2008, basically the blink of an eye. But some things may have changed in more…
The motion filed by former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger’s lawyers asking for her murder trial to be moved out of Dallas is 60 pages long not counting appendices. It raises very tough questions that anybody with a fair mind would have trouble answering thoughtfully right off the bat. They…
Hours after the 2016 shooting that ended five police officers’ lives at a rally against police brutality in downtown Dallas, Mark Hughes was making the long walk through the chaos of the night back to his truck with a friend. His friend’s phone rang. “Get away from Mark,” the voice…
If you’ve got a criminal record from Dallas County that you need cleared, now’s the time. The county’s district attorney’s office, public defender’s office and district clerk’s office are holding the county’s annual Expunction Expo, during which attorneys will be helping eligible people have their records expunged, county officials announced…
Attorneys for a fired Dallas police officer who shot and killed a 26-year-old man in his apartment are seeking to have her murder trial moved out of Dallas County. Amber Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, an accountant from St. Lucia, on Sept. 6.
Less than a day after a Dallas County grand jury indicted a Farmers Branch police officer for allegedly shooting a man as he drove away, the Dallas Police Association excoriated the process that led to the indictment. On June 12, Michael Dunn and other Farmers Branch officers were watching a…
Late Wednesday afternoon, a Dallas County jury sentenced Wesley Mathews to life in prison for his involvement in the death of his 3-year-old adopted daughter, Sherin Mathews. A grand jury indicted Mathews on capital murder charges in 2018, but Mathews pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, injury of a child…
Nathan Hawkins lives in an apartment in a nice neighborhood in the the Mid-Cities — exactly where, he doesn’t like to say. During the week, he works 12-hour shifts at a job hanging electrical signs on high-rise buildings. When he’s not working, he runs a custom woodworking business. On weekends,…
