Embarrassed.That was the word used over and over by Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle during an afternoon press conference at DPD HQ during which he described how he felt about the conduct of police officer Robert Powell. As you’re no doubt aware by now, Powell detained Houston Texans running back…
Saturday morning, from the South by Southwest shindig down in Austin, Pete wondered over on DC9 whether Erykah Badu would be playing Auditorium Shores, as expected, or Malaysia, as pictured. Turns out, she was heading to Austin after all — but only after being delayed in Dallas, where police were…
Frank Librio at Dallas City Hall was kind enough to pass along this a.m. the latest report from the Office of City Auditor, which has determined that the city’s been losing a small fortune in muni court revenue since 2006. Why come? A bunch of reasons, actually, all of which…
Word around my Northwest Dallas neighborhood is that home burglaries have become troublingly common in recent days, as police officers have ID’d men between 15 and 22 who’ve been known to knock on the front door before breaking down the back door. Just the other day, a neighbor reported two…
Back in January, we told you the sordid story of Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy Standric Choice, who, with two other men, was arrested for plotting to steal cocaine so they could deal cocaine — how HBO. Two months and one confidential informant later, the 36-year-old former law enforcement officer is…
Just came across the press site for Dallas DNA, Investigation Discovery’s six-part series about Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit and … well, you know, because it’s right there in the title and because you follow the news. Word was Discovery had waited to shoot…
Three weeks ago, Frank Farias, an airman stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque was arrested for murder. Dallas police had issued a warrant that accused him of first-degree murder in the January 25 death of Marlon Alfaro, 23, outside a Lower Greenville club. Farias spent last week in…
The Irving-based Republican Victory Committee sure sounds like something associated with the Republican National Committee — which is why, in June 2004, the RNC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Because, see, the official arm of the Republican Party has absolutely nothing to do with the Republican Victory…
Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson and their posse are but bit players in this legal drama. But courtesy Courthouse News comes the tale of Jessica Hardwick, who yesterday filed suit against Blackfinn Restaurant and Saloon in Dallas County District Court. Her claim? That on August 23, 2008, one of the…
With little fanfare and hardly any spectators, the trial in the case of Graciela McKay vs. DISD wraps up this week in U.S. District Court, with a verdict expected as early as tomorrow. McKay is the Preston Hollow teacher who filed a federal lawsuit against the district and the school’s…
This afternoon, as promised, the U.S. Attorney’s Office forwards John Lewis’s plea agreement — the one that finds him promising to testify against former Dallas City Council member Don “What Me Worry?” Hill. You’ll find that and two other absorbing court documents filed today — a little light weekend reading…
And then there were three — which is to say, three folks who have pleaded guilty in the Dallas City Hall corruption case, scheduled to go to trial in June. Taking his cue from Andrea Spencer and Allen McGill, lawyer John Lewis — among the 14 named by the feds…
There are plenty of interesting council committee briefings scheduled for Monday; we’ll get to them in the a.m., as usual. But this early sneak preview courtesy the Public Safety Committee: the results of Public Trust and Confidence in the Police: The 2008 Dallas Community Survey provided by the recently created…
Chip Babcock’s representing Judge Sharon Keller in her fight with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which last week alleged five violations of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct that could lead to her removal from the bench following a public hearing. And he’s plenty upset about how much this…
Kenneth Hughes said Good Morning, America this morning, because, well, that’s what happens to guys from Garland whose wife and daughter hire a hitman to off dear ol’ Dad. Says Hughes, sure, he could believe his 31-year-old daughter would want to kill him. But his 56-year-old wife? “No way.” Why…
The Associated Press reports this morning that a man has been arrested in the death of Marlon Alfaro, the 23-year-old from Irving who was beaten and run over in a Lower Greenville Avenue club’s parking lot on January 25. Dallas police and a certain Barking Dog had speculated in a…
So, back to Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller. But only because there’s breaking news this afternoon: The Austin American-Statesman’s gotten hold of a notice of formal proceedings from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which says that “Judge Keller’s willful and persistent failure to follow CCA’s Execution-Day procedures…
It’s only been two days, but, sure, why not — back to Judge Sharon Keller, who Fort Worth Democratic State Rep. Lon Burnam wants impeached for refusing to stick around a few extra minutes for a Death Row inmate’s last-minute appeal back in September 2007. She’s worth a mention this…
In January 2008, Matt Pulle profiled Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller, the former Dallas County prosecutor and hamburger heiress who attracted national attention in September 2007 when she closed up shop and went home promptly at 5 p.m. even as condemned inmate Michael Richard’s attorneys were on…
The press release showed up a tad late in the in-box for us to make a 10 a.m. press conference in Arlington. Nonetheless, this heads-up. Local law-enforcement agencies are announcing the kick-off to the Third Annual Great Texas Warrant Roundup, which is “designed to target thousands of defendants with traffic,…
Good Morning America this morning ran a lengthy story about a woman, shown but not identified, who believes that 25 years after she was beaten and raped at knifepoint in her family’s home, the Dallas Police Department has solved the crime. The attack occurred when she was 12, but last…
Two Dallas police officers testified they felt pushed to make at least two DWI arrests per night, but stopped short of saying the department has a quota system, according to court documents obtained by Unfair Park.”It’s not necessarily a quota,” Officer Robert Wilcox told a Dallas jury on January 13…
