After nearly a month of searching, Dallas police announced Thursday afternoon that they’d arrested Ray Charles Keys. Police say Keys, known as “Cowboy,” beat a man to death on Feb. 17 because he believed the victim assaulted a woman. On Thursday, police got the drop on Keys. After receiving a suspicious…
The most ominous thing for the defense after three full weeks of the federal prosecution of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price is the sheer volume of evidence. This week, the Department of Justice hammered the point home again and again. It’s a smorgasbord for the jury. If they don’t…
Dallas County’s worst mumps outbreak in years has picked up steam this week, as an additional 11 cases have been reported by Dallas County Health and Human Services, bringing the county’s 2017 total to 56. Of those 56 infections of the highly contagious virus, 42 have been reported at Cedar…
On Wednesday afternoon, the state Senate signed off on the bill that one of the region’s biggest anti-abortion organizations, Texas Right to Life, has identified as a key building block to ending legal abortion Texas. Senate Bill 415, which passed its initial Senate test with a 22-8 vote, would ban…
Had David Newsom known that Kathy Nealy was making payments to John Wiley Price, he told the jury Tuesday, he would’ve immediately terminated his employer’s relationship with her. It didn’t matter what the payments between Nealy and Price were for, said the ex-chief counsel of Ross Perot Jr.’s real estate…
Over vociferous objections from the chamber’s Democratic minority, the Texas Senate voted 21-10 late Tuesday afternoon in favor of state Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s so-called “bathroom bill.” The bill requires patrons of the state of Texas’ publicly owned facilities to use the bathroom designated for the sex listed on their birth…
On Monday the Texas Senate passed a series of bills meant to remedy the problems cops and their families faced during and after Michah Johnson’s July 7 ambush on Dallas police. The bills, all passed on the first voting day for the Texas Senate in 2017, will potentially provide every patrol…
Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is in trouble again after video surfaced Monday of his pawing and exposing a woman’s breast during Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dallas. There are two videos, both obtained by TMZ. One shows Elliott exposing a woman’s left breast after the woman points…
The president of the National Latino Law Enforcement Organizations’ greater Dallas chapter is on restricted Dallas Police Department duty as Mansfield ISD police investigate him for assault, DPD said late Sunday afternoon. Sgt. George Aranda, a 25-year DPD veteran, is assigned to DPD’s gang unit. He won’t be restored to full duty…
SMU’s men basketball team won Sunday. It wasn’t a surprise. The Mustangs’ win over Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference Tournament final is their 30th this year and 16th in a row. With the win, they are officially guaranteed a berth in the NCAA Tournament that was already a foregone…
For the jury, the media and anyone else interested in a resolution to Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s public corruption trial, this week was a good one. Federal prosecutors finally picked up their pace, running through a significant portion of their witnesses. The jury, unlike the previous week, remained…
For a while longer at least, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System board of directors is going to hold off the elephant in the room. On Thursday afternoon, by an 11-1 vote, the board agreed to continue restricting lump-sum withdrawals from deferred retirement option program (DROP) accounts. DROP accounts…
Despite a couple of bumps in the road, Christian Campbell gave federal prosecutors exactly what they wanted. Campbell, who was indicted with Price in 2014 but copped a plea a year later, admitted on the stand Wednesday what he’d admitted in federal court in 2015: He’d given cash to Kathy…
Wednesday afternoon, the reports dribbled in from all of the Cowboys’ beat reporters: Tony Romo, the team’s starting quarterback since November 2006, is going to be released. Today is the first day of the NFL’s league year. Romo’s demise was inevitable — the writing’s been on the wall since Dak…
No one has been sure what role the state legislature will play in any solution to fixing the trroibled Dallas Police and Fire Pension system. On Tuesday afternoon, state Rep. Dan Flynn, chairman of the Texas House Pensions Committee, introduced his bill to patch the system’s multi-billion-dollar hole. It includes an overhauled…
Three of Dallas’ police associations are claiming that Dallas Assistant Police Chief Christina Smith received special treatment when cops appeared at her Lakewood home in February. The Dallas Fraternal Order of Police, the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas and the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization also claim a follow-up investigation has only made…
Monday was supposed to be a good day for John Wiley Price’s federal prosecutors. After a week of largely exhausting financial and procedural testimony, they were finally going to connect jurors with one of the three women central to the indictment against Price. Karen Manning agreed to testify against Price…
Hakeem Griffin-White and Ashley Coleman are in Dallas County jail, Dallas police reported Monday, for allegedly murdering Drekeiston Alex last Thursday. The shooting was caught on a surveillance video. The pair allegedly discussed the crime on social media, and police found a deleted video in which the couple talked about shooting…
Saturday morning, North Texas finally got in on 2017’s angry congressional town hall action. Congressman Michael Burgess, who represents parts of Far North Dallas and bigger chunks of Collin and Denton counties, faced a vocal, often angry crowd in Marcus High School’s gymnasium in Flower Mound. Burgess, a Republican medical…
Finally, after almost a decade of investigation, nearly three years of trial delays and a week of jury selection and indictment reading, the United States of America v. John Wiley Price, et al. began in earnest last week with opening statements. The Observer was there, as we will be throughout…
Up until yesterday, the prosecutors in the corruption trial of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and his chief of staff, Dapheny Fain, controlled the narrative. But on Thursday afternoon, thanks to a strong cross-examination from attorneys Shirley Baccus-Lobel and Marlo Cadeddo, the defense team began to make their own headway. Their…
While he’s not out of the woods, Ken Paxton got some good news Thursday when U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil case against the Texas attorney general. All that separates Paxton from a clean legal slate now are two criminal trials, both based on charges…
