Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category

Christian Phillips, 18, has finally been released after being held in the Lake Worth jail for almost 3 days.

The poor kid was simply doing community service by delivering cookies to police departments when the Barney’s at Lake Worth took him into custody because they suspected he had laced the cookies with marijuana and LSD.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office tested the cookies and proclaimed they were safe to be dunked in milk.

Phillips was released tonite.

This situation just goes to prove my point that if you need a criminal defense attorney you probably aren’t in a position to be shopping for one. Have one lined up in advance with his/her number on speed dial on your phone.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, more than 52,000 people in the state who have submitted an application for a first-time concealed handgun license or renewal since the beginning of the year. This is an almost 5 percent increase over the first six months of 2007.

The crunch – which some say is spurred by concerns about rising crime, the state’s new castle law and uncertainty about future gun laws – has created a ballooning backlog of applications for the department and angered gun proponents.

On average, new applicants are waiting between 80 and 90 days for their licenses; renewals are taking about 70 to 80 days to process. By law, new applications should take no more than 60 days and renewals 45 days to process unless a required background check raises any flags.

The DPS is paying overtime and has hired an additional 11 temporary employees to help expedite processing. The department says it will be playing a game of catch-up for the foreseeable future.

Last September, many instructors noticed their classes filling once the state’s castle and traveling laws took effect last September.

The castle law authorizes residents to use deadly force to protect their property in some situations without requiring them to retreat first. The traveling law allows those without a license to ride with a gun in their vehicle.

Many students are saying that crime is in places that it wasn’t before and they feel it’s creeping closer to their doorsteps. Other applicants are afraid of anti-gun laws that could come on the heels of the upcoming presidential election.

While Republican candidate John McCain supports gun rights, Democratic candidate Barack Obama favors individuals’ right to bear arms but also a government’s right to regulate them.

But a Supreme Court decision last month that struck down a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., could potentially loosen restrictions.

Gun safety advocates say the court’s decision shouldn’t be a free pass to rewrite gun laws.

Under current law, Texas allows private businesses to ban weapons, and guns are prohibited in certain places, such as government buildings and college campuses.

Gun advocates hope those with concealed-weapon licenses eventually will be given the right to carry their guns on campuses and to secure areas at their workplaces.

Additionally, a petition seeking to change the concealed-carry law to open-carry has picked up some steam in recent weeks, with almost 18,000 people having electronically signed it.

Today in a Dallas court, Patrick Waller was freed after spending 15 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Even though Waller has requested DNA testing of his evidence since 2001, the Dallas DA’s office opposed it until the current DA, Craig Watkins, took office.

While many people, locally and nationwide, are aghast at the amount of people being released from prison due to wrongful conviction in Dallas, they are overlooking a critical component:

Dallas is not the norm when it comes to preserving evidence. Dallas has made it a policy to preserve evidence going back decades and most other counties do NOT. So rather than chastising Dallas for an “wild west mentality” of applying the law, they should be given equal thanks that the county DID preserve the evidence.

It’s truly horrifying to think of how many people are sitting in prison cells around the country that will never have the opportunity to prove their innocence because the evidence wasn’t kept.

Now, if Dallas County will just do the right thing when it comes to Darlie Routier, that would be beneficial. Did Darlie kill her children? Without being there, who is to say but why are the courts so afraid to allow ALL the evidence be DNA tested rather than just the select items they’ve given the green light to.

The courts need to allow all of Routier’s evidence be DNA tested and if it comes back that she did it, so be it and keep her on Death Row. But if it clears her, let her out immediately so that she can have a chance to spend time with her youngest who was an infant at the time of the crime and is now a 12-year old.

The Dallas County Commissioners have issued a warning to Sheriff Lupe Valdez: stop all plans for documentary filming in the jail or face a legal injunction.

The Commissioners unanimously agreed to issue a temporary restraining order against the Sheriff and The Discovery Channel. The cable operation planned to film a documentary on the operation of the county jail.

At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, the sheriff stated that she conferred with her legal advisors and that the shooting was green lighted. She signed a contract without the approval of the Commissoners Court and, according to state law, she is within her rights to do so since the taping would not intefere with the public or the running of jail business.

Valdez has been under a firestorm of criticism regarding her running of the jails and she felt that Discovery’s shooting would help document the improvements that have happened on her watch. And to note, this is her first term and she’s Dallas’s first woman / lesbian sheriff who was elected under the landslide of Democratic appointees in the last elections.

Dallas County already faces legal fights regarding the condition of the jail and treatment of inmates. They have prohibited access to other entities and apparently had no knowledge of the documentary plans.

On 30 August 2007, the following posting was made regarding the need for us in the Dallas motorcycling community to stay on top of this situation (and any others that endanger bikers).

http://dallas.ismyhome.com/news/thank-you-good-samaritans/

Thank you to Mr. Richard Fenn who was one of the persons involved with the citizen’s apprehension of drunkard Chet Wallace who ran over biker Nicholas Cleborne. Richard alerted us this morning that Wallace’s trial is this Friday:

Chet Wallace goes to trial on April 25th @ 9:00 A.M.
Judicial District Court 204th of Dallas County
Frank Crowley Courts Bldg.
133 N. Industrial
Dallas TX 75207

We will keep you up to date as details come in.

After more than 40 years, new documents are beginning to see the light of day in the President John F. Kennedy assassination.

Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins said that the documents were brought to his attention soon after taking office last year. He also stated that every DA since Henry Wade (of Roe v. Wade fame) has known of the documents and chosen to keep quiet about them.

Watkins said that after discussions with his staff, they felt the citizens of Dallas County deserved to know about the documents and make their own decisions - if nothing else, some of the content is bound to fan the conspiracy flames.

The DA’s office is in talks with the Sixth Floor Museum about the future of the items.

Amongst brass knuckles, gun holsters and a $1 million dollar movie contract for Henry Wade, there is a transcript that supposedly documents a conversation between Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby and alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. An excerpt is below:

Oswald: You said the boys in Chicago want to get rid of the Attorney General.

Ruby: Yes, but it can’t be done … it would get the Feds into everything.

Oswald: There is a way to get rid of him without killing him.

Ruby: How’s that?

Oswald: I can shoot his brother.

Ruby: You mean the President?

Oswald: Yes, the President.

Ruby: But that wouldn’t be patriotic.

Oswald: What’s the difference between shooting the Governor and in shooting the President?

Ruby: It would get the FBI into it.

Oswald: I can still do it, all I need is my rifle and a tall building; but it will take time, maybe six months to find the right place; but I’ll have to have some money to live on while I do the planning.”

Some half-wit broken into a car and stole the crown of a Greek Orthodox Bishop along with his New Testament and other personal belongings.

If you know the twit that stole the Bishop’s belongings, please call your local law enforcement or Greek Orthodox diocese.