Earlier this week, federal authorities were in a Dallas courtroom laying out the case against 19-year-old Jordanian Hosam Maher Smadi, arrested two weeks ago for allegedly trying to blow up Fountain Place in downtown Dallas. We didn’t know when Smadi would again appear in court, but moments ago the U.S…
At approximately 10:40 this morning, a packed courtroom on the 15th floor of the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse filled with friends and family of the co-defendants, members of the media and lawyers sits abuzz with anticipation. This is it. Finally. U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn enters and announces…
Moments ago, U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez ruled that there’s probable cause to try 19-year-old Jordanian Hosam Maher Smadi for allegedly trying to blow up Fountain Place in downtown Dallas almost two weeks ago. Smadi, slight and impassive in his orange jumpsuit, was solemn as he listened to an Arabic…
Sam’s on his way to the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse, where, at around 10:30 a.m., we’ll find out what says the jury in the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial. Which means those of you who selected “October 1 through October 7” in our contest are one step…
Much like Wednesday afternoon, I got another itch to sit in during the day’s last couple hours of jury deliberations in the City Hall corruption case, but I was quickly disappointed upon seeing Don and Sheila Hill in the lobby of the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse. Turns out…
Phillip David Wainscott, who’s been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1995, says Dallas County is interfering with his ability to make a living — and by Dallas County, he really means Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price in his position as a member of the county’s Bail Bond…
On a whim, I headed over to the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse yesterday afternoon for the day’s last two hours of jury deliberations in the City Hall corruption case. Sure, the odds of catching a verdict while I was there were slim, but I thought I might get…
This just in from the Dallas Police Department:The Dallas Police Department has discovered an apparent theft of 38 cases of ammunition from storage bunkers at the Firearms Training Center located at 3200 Mountain Creek Parkway. The theft occurred within the last 30 days and involves ammunition for both rifles and…
Anyone who thought Dallas County Republicans would go quietly into the night just because they got their asses handed to them on the courthouse steps in the 2006 election romp is seriously mistaken. Proof comes in the form of Phillip Linder, who must not have gotten the memo that Dallas…
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi’s probable cause hearing is a week from today in U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez’s court, during which time the Jordanian government wants to be filled in and kept in the loop. But over the weekend, the 19-year-old arrested Thursday for plotting to blow up Fountain Place…
Megan just returned from the outskirts of a crowded courtroom for the arraignment of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, the 19-year-old arrested and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi asked for an Arabic translator, but one wasn’t available. The public defender assigned to Smadi, Richard Anderson,…
Speaking of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and thwarted plans …Yesterday, the Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma announced that three men, all previously convicted felons, will serve a combined 37 years in prison for having guns and ammo and much, much more in their rental car…
This just in from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, via press release:James T. Jacks, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Office of the FBI, announced today that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, has been arrested and…
After presenting the city council’s Public Safety Committee with the latest crime statistics showing nearly an 11 percent decrease in overall crime from last year, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle this morning addressed the elephant in the room: the police department’s methodology of reporting crimes. Earlier this month, The Dallas…
Kim’s at the city council’s Public Safety Committee meeting this morning; she’s got a few crime-stat questions for Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, who brought with him to City Hall the latest crime report. Till she returns, these are the latest figures according to the DPD…
It’s cute when it happens in the movies and stars, oh, Andie McDowell and Gérard Depardieu or Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. But when you screw around with immigration documents and arrange for foreign nationals to marry U.S. citizens for permanent residence or citizenship, well, that’s a federal offense that…
Earlier this month, Steve Thompson and Tanya Eiserer took a long, hard look at how the Dallas Police Department reports car burglaries and thefts — or, rather, how the DPD doesn’t report some car burglaries and thefts. The reason: the so-called Auto Theft Affidavit, which was introduced in June 2007…
After 13 weeks and 45 trial days, jurors begin deliberations this afternoon in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial, determining the fates of former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, his wife Sheila, former plan commissioner D’Angelo Lee, community activist Darren Reagan and car dealer Rickey Robertson. I’m glad the end…
Much thanks to the many Friends of Unfair Park who’ve sent along the Associated Press’s EXCLUSIVE! report concerning the degree to which the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission investigates, um, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Because, sure, it’s one thing to discipline a few agents in a highly publicized raid-gone-wrong. But…
Steven Phillips served 24 years in prison after having been convicted in 1982 of sexual assault and robbery — a crime for which he was exonerated in 2008, after DNA evidence revealed he was not, in fact, the perpetrator. As the Associated Press noted earlier this month, the Dallas resident…
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana continued her disjointed closing argument in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial this morning, focusing on the prosecution’s belief that former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and others masked the alleged bribe payments from affordable-housing developer Brian Potashnik. Saldana asked: What kind of legitimate business…
Here we sit, waiting for closing arguments to begin in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial in federal court. Judge Barbara Lynn is listening to the lawyers on both sides as they tell her what instructions they think she should or should not give the jury after the closing arguments,…
