A new bill introduced in the Texas Senate would allow counties to open their own holding centers for juvenile law-breakers. Teenage offenders are currently held in lockups operated by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Senate bill 511, authored by state Senator John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, would give counties the…
When a Lake Highlands woman was raped last month by an attacker who climbed through the window of her Ferndale Road home, it seemed like an aberration in a generally quiet and well-kept neighborhood. It seemed like somewhat less of a fluke when the same thing happened three weeks later…
Publicly shaming convicted sex offenders is nothing new. Relatively few people object to their names and photos being plastered on the Internet as a scarlet letter tattooed to their foreheads for all to see. There’s a plausible argument to be made that this helps promote public safety by alerting neighbors…
Dallas police didn’t set out to arrest Julio Escobar at the intersection of Oak Lawn and Hall Street at 5 a.m. this morning. They set out to arrest the 25-year-old at a Lemmon Avenue apartment complex a half mile away, where they took note of his slurred speech and alcohol…
The Dallas County District Attorney’s office has dismissed its case against John David Mahaffey, the SMU student arrested in September and accused of forcing another male student to perform oral sex. Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case on March 14. The one-page request says, simply: “Upon review of…
This crowd during this weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities was relatively well-behaved, as far as these things go. Sure, there were three dozen public intoxication arrests and one DWI, but by far the most common offense was a simple parking violation, of which police issued 243. Not a bad outcome,…
Christopher Jones was lurking behind a dumpster at a FedEx Kinkos at Skillman and LBJ around 2 this morning when, according to Dallas PD, a police cruiser pulled to a stop nearby. The officers inside, Kyle Tholl and Erik Vasquez, were on routine patrol when they spotted spotted two men…
In late 2008 and early 2009, the Five Points area was put on edge by the news that two girls there, one 12, the other 14, had been bound with tape and sexually assaulted by a suspected serial rapist. Detectives, after combing through police calls and incident reports, zeroed in…
On February 5, U.S. Postal Inspectors customs agents were doing a routine inspection at the North Texas Processing and Distribution Center when they spotted a package freshly arrived from Singapore and destined for a home address in Crowley. The customs agents opened the mail — they have the authority to…
As Washington shuffles forward toward some sort of expansion of gun control (universal background checks, yes; bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, maybe not), state legislators in Texas are debating the optimal technique for thumbing their noses at the federal government. On Wednesday, the House Select Committee on Federalism…
Late last month, 27-year-old Sondra Scarber and her girlfriend Hillary Causey headed to a Mesquite elementary school’s playground, to take Causey’s 4-year-old son Jaxon to play. The couple later told police that soon after they arrived, some much bigger boys started pushing Jaxon around. “Can you please keep your hands…
It’s hard to fathom why someone would murder a 79-year-old woman in the home she’s lived in for 50 years, and do so in such a brutal manner that police have declined to so much as hint at her injuries. But police might be a step closer to finding out…
There was a time when the Highland Hills Crips were a big enough catch that the Feds targeted them with “Operation Greedy Grove” and trumpeted the arrest of several members with a press release. Fast forward two-and-a-half years. It’s Sunday morning, 11 a.m. A youngish gentleman, who might ought to…
Tyrone and Patrick Weatherall had a number of bad habits. Besides the obvious one, their fondness for selling crack, the brothers had lavish, attention-getting taste, which is probably ill-advised when you’re in the drug-selling business. According to street lore, when the Weatheralls first united some Crips and Bloods to form…
There is, apparently, an entity known as the North Texas Counterproliferation Task Force. It’s sufficiently new/under the radar to yield exactly zero matches on Google, but it’s a thing, and it’s made up of agents from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security, and the Departments of Commerce and…
Timothy Woodard and Elizabeth Weaver, 48 and 53, respectively, were at their home in the 3800 block of Davila Drive at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when they answered a knock at the door. On the porch were two strangers, whom they invited inside. It’s not clear from police reports or a…
Last month, we told you that the Arlington Police Department submitted an application to the Federal Aviation Administration in 2012, asking to please be allowed to use the two small remote control drones they bought. The drones were purchased for a little over $200,000 from Leptron Industrial Robotic Technologies, with…
At first glance, Reddit’s Dallas thread may seem like an innocuous online forum where users engage in remarkably civil dialogue and provide easy content for Dallas’ finest journalists, graciously allowing them to get to the bar before noon. But an in-depth investigation by Unfair Park has revealed a contingent of…
Sometimes, through a lack of foresight or general carelessness, the state legislature passes laws that, while well-intentioned, are so poorly worded as to criminalize things that the criminal justice system probably shouldn’t concern itself. (See: felony penny theft). The latest example could be Senator Dan Patrick’s SB 249, which the…
Tammy Lowe, a 53-year-old Grand Prairie teacher, surrendered to police in January, five days after she allegedly struck and killed 6-year-old John Raidy in a horrific hit-and-run. She was charged with injury to a child and failure to stop and render aid. Now, those charges are about to be dismissed…
Update, 3:52 p.m.: The Dallas Morning News’ Jennifer Emily tweets that the case against Hill has been dismissed. Judge Levario cited Watkins’ refusal to testify as part of her basis for dismissal. Original post: Craig Watkins wasn’t sick today, and contrary to the inexplicably wrong tweets from one TV news…
Club Extasis, the nondescript Grand Avenue night club where Orr-Reed owner John Hargrove was brutally beaten to death in the early hours one January morning, has always had a vacant look to it, at least during the daytime. The bars across the door were a permanent fixture, and the neon…
