8 results

page 1 of 1

Mark Donald

Visit my author page »

Good time Charlie

The don of Dallas criminal lawyers, Charles Tessmer reshaped justice through decades of hard-fought cases and hard drink

By Mark Donald
Dec 23, 1999

His bright red hair has turned ashen with age, bereft of the pompadour that once gave him a more towering presence in court. His hawkish blue eyes appear puffy and sullen, clouded by too many years of litigation and liquor. His back hurts, his arthritis is killing him, and too...
Buzz

Make nice; Hacked off; Party hardly

By Mark Donald
Oct 21, 1999

Make nice It sounded like a right honorable thing to do: District Attorney Bill Hill, still in his rookie year, told The Dallas Morning News he was dustin' off his trial boots this week and gettin' back into the courtroom. He claimed he was just living up to the campaign...
Buzz

The truth shall set you free; Trouble dribble

By Mark Donald
Oct 14, 1999

The truth shall set you free Seems Dallas Independent School District superintendent and chief hatchet man Bill Rojas is quick to learn how we do things in Dallas. Taking his cues right out of Mayor Ron Kirk's playbook, Rojas has figured out how to quiet his critics: by making them...
Innocence Lost

Railroaded onto death row, Kerry Max Cook endures rapes, beatings, and suicide attempts while waiting for justice

By Mark Donald
Jul 22, 1999

S E C O N D O F T W O P A R T S When Kerry Max Cook arrived on death row on July 18, 1978, he was given a haircut, doused with disinfectant, tagged with an execution number, and branded a punk, a fag,...
Innocence lost

Prosecutors lied and cheated to put Kerry Max Cook on death row for 16 years. He's out of prison now, but still not quite free.

By Mark Donald
Jul 15, 1999

For this kind of decision, Kerry Max Cook needed room to pace, but 5 feet was all he would allow himself: Two steps forward, turn, two steps back, turn. The distance was set in his bones. Pacing that same 5-foot span for hours at a time had been his way...
Buzz

By Mark Donald
May 13, 1999

Spare the rod and spoil the rider Buzz has never understood the love affair Texans have with their cars. (Now in their cars--that's a different story.) We've also never been one to snub mass transit, particularly since the old Buzzmobile is about as sexy as a pair of Dr. Scholl's...
Buzz

By Mark Donald
Mar 25, 1999

Punching Rocco's Ticket It didn't take long. Less than a week after the Dallas Observer's story about KTCK-AM (1310) appeared ("Talking up The Ticket," March 18), Ticket noon-to-3 p.m. talker Rocco Pendola was fired by station management. Not that the Observer story had anything to do with the talk-jock's firing...
The Boy Scout, the hustler, and the porn queen

Former Dallas police officer and onetime X-rated movie star Jordan Lee finds herself hunted by two ex-cops who say she did them wrong

By Mark Donald
Mar 4, 1999

Things hadn't been right in the Kastler household for quite some time. Building a new life in suburban Los Angeles, raising a family, growing a business--none of this seemed to matter to Samantha Kastler anymore. During her and her husband's years in the Dallas Police Department, she was the one...