Hunt County District Attorney Duncan Thomas The strange capital murder case of Brandon Woodruff, accused of killing his parents in Royse City in October 2005, has taken another odd twist. A graduate of Rockwall High School, Woodruff, now 21, has been in the Hunt County jail almost two years, unable…
Back in February, Texas Syndicate member Ernesto Medrano and some 20 of his fellow gang members were in a Dallas federal courtroom receiving multi-year prison sentences for importing hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the U.S. — using military transport flights from Columbia to Ft. Bliss, Texas. But the convictions…
Floating around the legally minded blogs this week is this video, which is from a self-proclaimed redneck says he used to work as a correctional officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — and, no, I don’t think it’s Larry the Cable Guy. (Link props to The Backgate Website…
Operation Kindness Operation Kindness’ exec director Jonnie England with Mercy, shortly after the dog’s April 18 surgery Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore, Craig Watkins’ top assistant, took on her first jury trial in Dallas — not by going after a capital murderer, but by taking on a man dog-lovers would…
A man from Weatherford has filed suit today against Meditronic — “the global leader in medical technology [for] alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world” — claiming the damnedest thing: “body-snatching.” The full release is after the jump, but the opening paragraph is…
Former UTD electrical engineering student Syed Maaz Shah got more than six years in prison last week. On Friday, in a court ruling that went with little local notice, a federal judge sentenced a former student at the University of Texas at Dallas to six and a half years in…
Almost two years after this Texas Monthly story ran, Steven Phillips has been cleared of at least one sex crime for which was convicted in the early 1980s. This morning, you probably picked up your daily paper and saw the story about Steven Phillips, who was convicted of sexually assaulting…
Too liberal? Too soft? Craig Watkins would beg to differ. Late yesterday afternoon, I finally spoke with Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins about his comments in Thursday’s New York Times concerning Los Angeles’ — and, by extension, Dallas’ — failure to reduce gang-related crimes. Seems L.A.’s attempts at busting…
In The New York Times today is a piece about how Los Angeles’ attempt to crack down on gangs and gang-related crime just ain’t working. Turns out, that city’s myriad laws — among them, ones that “prohibit public gatherings of two or more people suspected of being gang members; establish…
This week, the so-called “Leprechaun Bandit,” 27-year-old Richard Earl Kemp of Fort Worth, pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of bank robbery. He faces up to 40 years in prison, where he’s sure to get plenty of ridicule from bank robbers who thought ahead and ended up with…
Since we’re all degenerate hippies — well, most of us — we’re known to thumb the occasional copy of In These Times, where this week there appears a story headlined “The Counterproductive War on Gangs.” Turns out, most of the info from the piece — which insists increased law enforcement…
As of today, Greg Wallis is suing everyone he believes responsible for his wrongful imprisonment. For the second time in two weeks, a Dallas County man exonerated with DNA evidence has filed a federal civil rights and malicious prosecution lawsuit. And this one has a couple of twists. Greg Wallis,…
Even The Dallas Morning News yesterday called for the governor to stop Thursday’s scheduled execution of Kenneth Foster. The September issue of Texas Monthly features a long story by Michael Hall on Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who is “rethinking the concept of guilt and innocence.” (The story deals,…
After we posted Avi Adelman’s much-commented-on short film yesterday, we got an e-mail from Allen Gwinn, who wanted to know whether we’d seen the video he posted to Dallas.org on Saturday. Not at the time, but we have now: It’s a clip from some surveillance footage provided by a woman…
If I was taking a poll right now for most bizarre story in Dallas in 2007, I would have to go with the tale of two Muslim women who keep drawing attention to themselves by acting as if they have jihad on their minds. It started after midnight on Monday…
Sandra Bridewell’s never been convicted of murder. But now she’s got federal forgery charges pending, which makes her like, what, Al Capone? It’s been, what, six days since our last item on the Black Widow; we’re due an update, right? Especially when it turns out to be this interesting: Yesterday,…
Emily Dowdy and her father Charlie, at home in Hillsboro Exactly two years ago in the paper version of Unfair Park, we wrote about Hillsboro native Emily Dowdy, a former University of Oklahoma student who, in May 1999, was driving a car that rammed into one driven by Ryan Brewer,…
Hell of a morning to wake and find this in the paper. Only thing I took out of The Dallas Morning News’ pieces on how Dallas isn’t really No. 1 in crime is because we report too many of ’em, because, see, “the data can’t account for the willingness of…
Dallas jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn says things ain’t looking good for Phil Spector, seen here back when people were far less creeped out by the musical genius. Dallas jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn, who has been following the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector for the Los Angeles Times, says…
At this very moment, closing arguments are being made in the case of Harold D. Burns v. Grand Prairie Ford. They’re taking place in Judge Carl Ginsberg’s courtroom, the 193rd Civil District Court at the George Allen. And what’s the case about? Well, you really oughta read the complaint for…
It’s a nightmare that has provided rich fodder for a host of myths, stories and movies (think Shawshank Redemption) — rotting in prison for a crime you did not commit. Which is why, a couple years ago, when Dallas Blues Society Records’ Chuck Nevitt saw a lawyer he knew on…
If you can do this in family court, more or less, why not for those awaiting jury duty? Just got another summons for jury duty, this time for Dallas Municipal Court. Alas, often summoned, never chosen. Seems no one likes my answers on juror questionnaires. But after writing about Judge…
