Daycare owner: Indecency accusations are 'false'
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
CRANDALL, Texas — Emotions are running high in the small town of Crandall after police accused the husband of a local daycare owner of indecency with a child at the center.
Little Red Wagon owner Linda Mayfield called the accusations lies. She held a meeting Tuesday to deny the allegations against husband Johnny Mayfield and assured parents he never did anything inappropriate with a child.
"I'm here tonight to let everyone know that they are 100 percent false," Mayfield said at the meeting.
The investigation started in January when a former employee of the daycare accused Mayfield of indecency with a 2-year-old girl.
According to the school's attorney, a state investigation cleared Mayfield of any wrongdoing. But the Crandall Police Department pursued charges and got an indictment on Thursday. However, no arrest has been made.
"Now if they really believed that somebody was molesting kids, don't you know that they would have him in jail?" said attorney John Weddle. "They haven't even issued an arrest warrant for him."
Weddle said the allegation is false and the officer that originally investigated the case was fired after a Texas Rangers investigation. The attorney has filed a federal lawsuit.
"Basically in the federal lawsuit we alleged that the city of Crandall was misusing its police authority for a political purpose," he said.
Most of the parents at the meeting defended the daycare owners and said cameras in the classroom help prevent any kind of misconduct.
"We look on the Internet everyday," said parent Bobby George. "We check on every room. We see our kid all day long."
Crandall, with a population of about 3,500, is located 20 miles east of Dallas in Kaufman County.
News from the Lone Star State
Moderator: S2k Moderators
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Students suspended after making paper gun
DESOTO, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Destiny Thomas, 11, and two other classmates were suspended from school because of a folded piece of paper that resembled a gun Monday.
The students were also told they would be placed in an alternative school for 30 days.
"I just thought they would tell us to throw it in the trash or just cut it up and don't make no more," Thomas said.
Destiny said she made the paper gun after a fellow classmate at Amber Terrace Intermediate School in Desoto showed her how to fold a computer paper. She said she had no intention of doing anything that would get her kicked out of school.
"I know not to bring a real gun, but I didn't think a paper gun would get you in trouble," Thomas said.
Desoto school officials said the student code of conduct clearly states no weapons or replica of weapons are allowed on campus.
And while Jim Thomas, Destiny's father, said he agreed his daughter shouldn't have made the paper gun, he said the punishment didn't fit the crime.
"No one was ever going to get shot with it," he said. "I understand they are trying to do their jobs, but I think this is just too severe."
The Desoto Independent School District reviewed the interpretation of the school's code of conduct later Tuesday and agreed to revoke the punishment given to Thomas and her two classmates. All three students will be allowed to return to their regular classes.
WFAA ABC 8
The three students were suspended after making the paper gun out of computer paper.
DESOTO, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Destiny Thomas, 11, and two other classmates were suspended from school because of a folded piece of paper that resembled a gun Monday.
The students were also told they would be placed in an alternative school for 30 days.
"I just thought they would tell us to throw it in the trash or just cut it up and don't make no more," Thomas said.
Destiny said she made the paper gun after a fellow classmate at Amber Terrace Intermediate School in Desoto showed her how to fold a computer paper. She said she had no intention of doing anything that would get her kicked out of school.
"I know not to bring a real gun, but I didn't think a paper gun would get you in trouble," Thomas said.
Desoto school officials said the student code of conduct clearly states no weapons or replica of weapons are allowed on campus.
And while Jim Thomas, Destiny's father, said he agreed his daughter shouldn't have made the paper gun, he said the punishment didn't fit the crime.
"No one was ever going to get shot with it," he said. "I understand they are trying to do their jobs, but I think this is just too severe."
The Desoto Independent School District reviewed the interpretation of the school's code of conduct later Tuesday and agreed to revoke the punishment given to Thomas and her two classmates. All three students will be allowed to return to their regular classes.
WFAA ABC 8
The three students were suspended after making the paper gun out of computer paper.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Voodoo may factor in probe into girl's death
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Voodoo may factor into the investigation in the death of a 17-year-old girl found inside a condominium near downtown.
The child's 35-year-old mother, Caroline Kiwanuka, is now being treated at Terrell State Hospital, a mental health facility.
The girl's body was found Tuesday morning in a unit at the Oak Bluff Condominiums in the 4500 block of Live Oak Street after neighbors had reported a bad odor.
Police said the victim was disabled, and had apparently been dead for a while.
Investigators are now looking into events involving her mother Kiwanuka prior to the discovery of the dead girl's body.
Police reports show officers were called to a Dallas Wal-Mart on Marsh Lane, which the mother worked at, for an October 5 incident believed to involve voodoo. Officers then transported the woman to Green Oaks Hospital in Dallas for observation.
The police report goes on to explain Kiwanuka would not talk, had a blank stare and made witchcraft gestures with her hands. She did not respond when police tried to talk to her.
Neighbors said the woman kept to herself and the girl was always inside. The manager said he was shocked when he got calls about the terrible odor.
"I never smell anything until this morning when we opened the door," he said. "When they got inside it looked like she had been there for awhile, maybe three days [or] maybe four days."
Dallas police are calling the death unexplained.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Voodoo may factor into the investigation in the death of a 17-year-old girl found inside a condominium near downtown.
The child's 35-year-old mother, Caroline Kiwanuka, is now being treated at Terrell State Hospital, a mental health facility.
The girl's body was found Tuesday morning in a unit at the Oak Bluff Condominiums in the 4500 block of Live Oak Street after neighbors had reported a bad odor.
Police said the victim was disabled, and had apparently been dead for a while.
Investigators are now looking into events involving her mother Kiwanuka prior to the discovery of the dead girl's body.
Police reports show officers were called to a Dallas Wal-Mart on Marsh Lane, which the mother worked at, for an October 5 incident believed to involve voodoo. Officers then transported the woman to Green Oaks Hospital in Dallas for observation.
The police report goes on to explain Kiwanuka would not talk, had a blank stare and made witchcraft gestures with her hands. She did not respond when police tried to talk to her.
Neighbors said the woman kept to herself and the girl was always inside. The manager said he was shocked when he got calls about the terrible odor.
"I never smell anything until this morning when we opened the door," he said. "When they got inside it looked like she had been there for awhile, maybe three days [or] maybe four days."
Dallas police are calling the death unexplained.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Mayor in lonely fight with Hunt
She blasts colleagues, staff; OK of land swap, tax break likely today
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - On the eve of two downtown redevelopment decisions standing to benefit one of her age-old foes, Mayor Laura Miller is her own army at war with Dallas' political world.
She's questioning City Manager Mary Suhm's business savvy and job security.
She's suggesting Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans should have been fired years ago.
She described some of her City Council colleagues' negotiating style as "icky."
And she's doing so in what appears to be a futile attempt to thwart billionaire oilman Ray Hunt's bid to secure a $6.3 million city tax abatement for a new downtown headquarters and to trade a parking lot he owns for the rights to Reunion Arena – which would be destined for demolition – so Dallas could help build a proposed downtown entertainment complex.
Ms. Miller says the deals stink and the city staff has no regard for saving taxpayer money, but she acknowledges both items will probably pass anyway. If Mr. Hunt moves his headquarters elsewhere, so be it, she said. And if Reunion Arena stays under city control, it could very well become a cash-cow casino someday if the Texas Legislature ever legalizes gambling, she added.
"We're the ones with the leverage," Ms. Miller said. "But this puts me in the position of standing up as an irritant ... the bomb-throwing maverick journalist I used to be. I'm in the same weak position I was back then."
It was as that journalist during the 1990s for the weekly Dallas Observer that Ms. Miller frequently lambasted Mr. Hunt as a greedy businessman who routinely duped council members into approving his land deals.
"The mayor has let her rage, her distaste for Ray Hunt, cloud her vision," council member Ed Oakley said. "We have a mayor who thinks she can make unilateral decisions that she cannot. This is not a monarchy."
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Hunt defends proposal
In a rare interview Tuesday, Mr. Hunt defended his company's plan as larger than any mayor or businessman.
"This is not about Ray Hunt. It's not about Hunt Oil Co. This is a much bigger – much bigger – issue," Mr. Hunt said. "It deals with how the city of Dallas is going to treat companies that have either been here for a long time or new companies that they hope to recruit here. And the first thing that a company that they hope to recruit here is going to do is to look and see how the city has treated the companies who are already here."
One of today's council votes would authorize the city staff to continue negotiations with Mr. Hunt to swap Hunt-owned Lot E, a parking lot near the Dallas Convention Center, for little-used Reunion Arena and the land immediately surrounding it.
The other would approve the $6.3 million tax abatement and all but guarantee Hunt would build its already-designed 15-story headquarters building on a plot of downtown land between St. Paul and Akard streets along Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
Most council members defend the city staff's months of negotiations leading up to these votes as thorough and fair. Both the city and Hunt will benefit from Hunt's headquarters remaining downtown and the creation of a 100,000-square-foot entertainment complex just north of Interstate 30, they say.
Several members also defended Ms. Suhm and Mr. Evans as excellent managers who understand the council majority's desire to aggressively retain downtown businesses while creating new business developments.
Ms. Miller disagreed, saying Ms. Suhm, while highly intelligent, "knows I'm very disappointed on how this was handled."
Asked if Ms. Suhm's job could be in jeopardy – voters on Nov. 8 will decide whether to allow Dallas' mayor to hire and fire the city manager beginning in 2007 – Ms. Miller replied vaguely.
"I don't know what's going to happen in November, and I don't know if I'll be re-elected mayor," she said. "I don't know what would happen after that."
As for Mr. Evans, she said he "should have been fired" several years ago for what she described as poor negotiating of a development deal north of downtown.
"My job is to build and rebuild the city faster and faster and faster," Mr. Evans said. "You can ask the rest of the council if I'm doing that."
Said Ms. Suhm: "Every day I just try to do the best job I can. I'm a hard taskmaster on myself. And I do believe in the work we're doing."
Real competition?
One reason some council members are backing the tax abatement is Irving's perceived desire to attract Hunt's headquarters building to its city.
Irving's level of interest in Hunt, according to recent communications among Irving, Dallas and Hunt officials, is mixed.
"The City of Irving welcomes the opportunity to work with Woodbine on an incentive proposal for a large corporate headquarters facility in the city," Irving Chief Financial Officer David Leininger wrote in August to John Scovell, president and chief executive officer of Hunt subsidiary Woodbine Development Corp.
Mr. Scovell said he inquired about corporate relocation incentives Irving offered "on behalf of a client" but did not specify until later that Hunt was the client.
"It is the City of Irving's objective to work closely with the firm to structure an incentive package that best meets their individual economic objectives," Mr. Leininger wrote. "The City of Irving, including its elected officials and staff, and the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce are all committed to working with the company to make their relocation to Irving successful."
In a letter Tuesday addressed to Ms. Miller, Irving Mayor Herbert Gears wrote that "no offer from Irving has been made" and no negotiations between Irving and Hunt are taking place.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gears maintained that Irving would work with Hunt if it is interested in relocating – but not at the expense of relations with Dallas or a huge tax abatement.
"We'd love to have them come to Irving," he said. "But we're not going to be the reason they leave Dallas."
Said Mr. Scovell, "I've been working with individuals on Irving's staff. I've never met the mayor. Don't know him."
Ms. Miller cited Mr. Gears' stance as another example of Dallas staff and her council colleagues pushing tax abatements when competition for Hunt isn't nearly as heated as Hunt makes it seem.
And if Hunt receives a tax abatement, the city will continue to give tax abatements to practically any company that wants one, thereby eroding Dallas' corporate tax base, Ms. Miller said.
Rasansky with Miller
As of Tuesday, council member Mitchell Rasansky was the body's lone official supporting Ms. Miller.
"Our economic development department has not done its homework," he said. "Why should we give one of the richest people in Dallas a tax break on choice property at the detriment of the citizens?"
Council member Linda Koop says she'll support the land swap vote but remains undecided on the tax abatement.
"I want to listen to the debate," she said, quickly adding that she's not interested in the personalities doing the debating. "For me, it's purely a business decision."
Staff writer Sudeep Reddy contributed to this report.
She blasts colleagues, staff; OK of land swap, tax break likely today
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - On the eve of two downtown redevelopment decisions standing to benefit one of her age-old foes, Mayor Laura Miller is her own army at war with Dallas' political world.
She's questioning City Manager Mary Suhm's business savvy and job security.
She's suggesting Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans should have been fired years ago.
She described some of her City Council colleagues' negotiating style as "icky."
And she's doing so in what appears to be a futile attempt to thwart billionaire oilman Ray Hunt's bid to secure a $6.3 million city tax abatement for a new downtown headquarters and to trade a parking lot he owns for the rights to Reunion Arena – which would be destined for demolition – so Dallas could help build a proposed downtown entertainment complex.
Ms. Miller says the deals stink and the city staff has no regard for saving taxpayer money, but she acknowledges both items will probably pass anyway. If Mr. Hunt moves his headquarters elsewhere, so be it, she said. And if Reunion Arena stays under city control, it could very well become a cash-cow casino someday if the Texas Legislature ever legalizes gambling, she added.
"We're the ones with the leverage," Ms. Miller said. "But this puts me in the position of standing up as an irritant ... the bomb-throwing maverick journalist I used to be. I'm in the same weak position I was back then."
It was as that journalist during the 1990s for the weekly Dallas Observer that Ms. Miller frequently lambasted Mr. Hunt as a greedy businessman who routinely duped council members into approving his land deals.
"The mayor has let her rage, her distaste for Ray Hunt, cloud her vision," council member Ed Oakley said. "We have a mayor who thinks she can make unilateral decisions that she cannot. This is not a monarchy."
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Hunt defends proposal
In a rare interview Tuesday, Mr. Hunt defended his company's plan as larger than any mayor or businessman.
"This is not about Ray Hunt. It's not about Hunt Oil Co. This is a much bigger – much bigger – issue," Mr. Hunt said. "It deals with how the city of Dallas is going to treat companies that have either been here for a long time or new companies that they hope to recruit here. And the first thing that a company that they hope to recruit here is going to do is to look and see how the city has treated the companies who are already here."
One of today's council votes would authorize the city staff to continue negotiations with Mr. Hunt to swap Hunt-owned Lot E, a parking lot near the Dallas Convention Center, for little-used Reunion Arena and the land immediately surrounding it.
The other would approve the $6.3 million tax abatement and all but guarantee Hunt would build its already-designed 15-story headquarters building on a plot of downtown land between St. Paul and Akard streets along Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
Most council members defend the city staff's months of negotiations leading up to these votes as thorough and fair. Both the city and Hunt will benefit from Hunt's headquarters remaining downtown and the creation of a 100,000-square-foot entertainment complex just north of Interstate 30, they say.
Several members also defended Ms. Suhm and Mr. Evans as excellent managers who understand the council majority's desire to aggressively retain downtown businesses while creating new business developments.
Ms. Miller disagreed, saying Ms. Suhm, while highly intelligent, "knows I'm very disappointed on how this was handled."
Asked if Ms. Suhm's job could be in jeopardy – voters on Nov. 8 will decide whether to allow Dallas' mayor to hire and fire the city manager beginning in 2007 – Ms. Miller replied vaguely.
"I don't know what's going to happen in November, and I don't know if I'll be re-elected mayor," she said. "I don't know what would happen after that."
As for Mr. Evans, she said he "should have been fired" several years ago for what she described as poor negotiating of a development deal north of downtown.
"My job is to build and rebuild the city faster and faster and faster," Mr. Evans said. "You can ask the rest of the council if I'm doing that."
Said Ms. Suhm: "Every day I just try to do the best job I can. I'm a hard taskmaster on myself. And I do believe in the work we're doing."
Real competition?
One reason some council members are backing the tax abatement is Irving's perceived desire to attract Hunt's headquarters building to its city.
Irving's level of interest in Hunt, according to recent communications among Irving, Dallas and Hunt officials, is mixed.
"The City of Irving welcomes the opportunity to work with Woodbine on an incentive proposal for a large corporate headquarters facility in the city," Irving Chief Financial Officer David Leininger wrote in August to John Scovell, president and chief executive officer of Hunt subsidiary Woodbine Development Corp.
Mr. Scovell said he inquired about corporate relocation incentives Irving offered "on behalf of a client" but did not specify until later that Hunt was the client.
"It is the City of Irving's objective to work closely with the firm to structure an incentive package that best meets their individual economic objectives," Mr. Leininger wrote. "The City of Irving, including its elected officials and staff, and the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce are all committed to working with the company to make their relocation to Irving successful."
In a letter Tuesday addressed to Ms. Miller, Irving Mayor Herbert Gears wrote that "no offer from Irving has been made" and no negotiations between Irving and Hunt are taking place.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gears maintained that Irving would work with Hunt if it is interested in relocating – but not at the expense of relations with Dallas or a huge tax abatement.
"We'd love to have them come to Irving," he said. "But we're not going to be the reason they leave Dallas."
Said Mr. Scovell, "I've been working with individuals on Irving's staff. I've never met the mayor. Don't know him."
Ms. Miller cited Mr. Gears' stance as another example of Dallas staff and her council colleagues pushing tax abatements when competition for Hunt isn't nearly as heated as Hunt makes it seem.
And if Hunt receives a tax abatement, the city will continue to give tax abatements to practically any company that wants one, thereby eroding Dallas' corporate tax base, Ms. Miller said.
Rasansky with Miller
As of Tuesday, council member Mitchell Rasansky was the body's lone official supporting Ms. Miller.
"Our economic development department has not done its homework," he said. "Why should we give one of the richest people in Dallas a tax break on choice property at the detriment of the citizens?"
Council member Linda Koop says she'll support the land swap vote but remains undecided on the tax abatement.
"I want to listen to the debate," she said, quickly adding that she's not interested in the personalities doing the debating. "For me, it's purely a business decision."
Staff writer Sudeep Reddy contributed to this report.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Miller for UD's bid on library
Dallas: Mayor criticized for throwing support to Irving campus
BY GROMER JEFFERS JR. AND HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller has written a letter supporting the University of Dallas' efforts to score the George W. Bush presidential library.
But the Catholic college is actually in Irving, so the mayor's stance drew fire Tuesday from Dallas City Council members and civic leaders, especially when a campus that is surrounded by Dallas – Southern Methodist University – is also in the running.
"I'm disturbed that the mayor would recommend the city of Irving and the University of Dallas," said Frank Roby, a Dallas insurance executive and board member of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce. "The proximity to the core of our city should be a driver."
The Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of the letter, which was sent Sept. 7 to UD President Frank Lazarus and signed by Ms. Miller and Steve Salazar, the Dallas council member who represents a district that borders Irving.
"The location possesses many significant advantages," the letter says. "At the University's request, we have toured the site, which is majestic."
UD officials have refused to release details of their proposal, and Dr. Lazarus declined to discuss the letter Tuesday.
Ms. Miller said she doesn't understand what the fuss is all about. She said Dallas owns part of the land in UD's proposal.
"We liked the site, and part of their proposal includes city of Dallas parkland," she said Tuesday. "They asked me to write a letter of support."
Ms. Miller said that after she saw the UD proposal, she told SMU President R. Gerald Turner that she liked it.
She said she would have written a similar letter for SMU had she been asked.
"They knew I was interested," she said. "I would have been happy to do so."
Ms. Miller said that ideally the library would be a partnership between the University of Dallas and SMU because "UD has the best site and SMU has the cachet and academic credentials."
The list of contenders for the Bush library shrank to four last week. Besides UD and SMU, the finalists are Baylor University in Waco and a coalition from West Texas that includes Texas Tech University.
Some Dallas leaders allege that Ms. Miller's support for UD is meant to spite a longtime rival, billionaire oilman Ray Hunt, who was instrumental in drafting SMU's proposal.
"It's one more slap at Ray Hunt," said council member Ed Oakley, who added that the mayor should not have endorsed a library site without the rest of the council.
Ms. Miller denied that her letter about the UD site resulted from a rivalry with Mr. Hunt.
She also said she did not know that Mr. Hunt was involved in drafting SMU's proposal.
The Dallas City Council is expected to debate two issues today involving Mr. Hunt, who's also a developer and SMU graduate. He's asking the council for $6.3 million in tax breaks for his company's new headquarters in downtown Dallas.
The council is also considering a land swap that could result in the demolition of Reunion Arena in 2008 to create a massive downtown entertainment complex and potentially attract horse racing and casino-style gambling. As part of the project, Dallas could swap city-owed Reunion Arena and its surrounding land to Mr. Hunt in exchange for part of a parking lot he owns.
Ms. Miller's staff said the mayor signed the letter weeks before details of Mr. Hunt's headquarters proposal or the land-swap idea were known. Ms. Miller opposes both proposals.
Other area officials were also concerned with Ms. Miller's endorsement.
"It's regrettable that the mayor would take a position this early," said Dallas lawyer Michael Boone, who is on SMU's board of trustees. "Why didn't she write one letter supporting all of the area schools?"
SMU officials, like their counterparts at UD, preferred to stay out of the debate.
"Consistent with our approach all along, which has been to be very low key about this project, we're not going to comment on who or who has not written letters on our behalf," said Patti LaSalle, an SMU spokeswoman. "We're going to rely on the merits of our proposal."
SMU has been considered the front-runner, largely because it claims first lady Laura Bush as an alumna and trustee. Baylor is also seen as a strong candidate because it's near the Bush ranch in Crawford. Those two campuses have made their intentions known for a few years; UD was more of a surprising latecomer.
The president and Mrs. Bush have the final word on the library's location, but they're aided by a committee led by Donald Evans, the former commerce secretary and Mr. Bush's longtime friend, and Marvin Bush, the president's youngest brother.
Dr. Lazarus said Tuesday that he doesn't know what effect, if any, Ms. Miller's letter had on the library search committee.
"The university is just really pleased with the kind of support that we got," he said.
Dallas: Mayor criticized for throwing support to Irving campus
BY GROMER JEFFERS JR. AND HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller has written a letter supporting the University of Dallas' efforts to score the George W. Bush presidential library.
But the Catholic college is actually in Irving, so the mayor's stance drew fire Tuesday from Dallas City Council members and civic leaders, especially when a campus that is surrounded by Dallas – Southern Methodist University – is also in the running.
"I'm disturbed that the mayor would recommend the city of Irving and the University of Dallas," said Frank Roby, a Dallas insurance executive and board member of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce. "The proximity to the core of our city should be a driver."
The Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of the letter, which was sent Sept. 7 to UD President Frank Lazarus and signed by Ms. Miller and Steve Salazar, the Dallas council member who represents a district that borders Irving.
"The location possesses many significant advantages," the letter says. "At the University's request, we have toured the site, which is majestic."
UD officials have refused to release details of their proposal, and Dr. Lazarus declined to discuss the letter Tuesday.
Ms. Miller said she doesn't understand what the fuss is all about. She said Dallas owns part of the land in UD's proposal.
"We liked the site, and part of their proposal includes city of Dallas parkland," she said Tuesday. "They asked me to write a letter of support."
Ms. Miller said that after she saw the UD proposal, she told SMU President R. Gerald Turner that she liked it.
She said she would have written a similar letter for SMU had she been asked.
"They knew I was interested," she said. "I would have been happy to do so."
Ms. Miller said that ideally the library would be a partnership between the University of Dallas and SMU because "UD has the best site and SMU has the cachet and academic credentials."
The list of contenders for the Bush library shrank to four last week. Besides UD and SMU, the finalists are Baylor University in Waco and a coalition from West Texas that includes Texas Tech University.
Some Dallas leaders allege that Ms. Miller's support for UD is meant to spite a longtime rival, billionaire oilman Ray Hunt, who was instrumental in drafting SMU's proposal.
"It's one more slap at Ray Hunt," said council member Ed Oakley, who added that the mayor should not have endorsed a library site without the rest of the council.
Ms. Miller denied that her letter about the UD site resulted from a rivalry with Mr. Hunt.
She also said she did not know that Mr. Hunt was involved in drafting SMU's proposal.
The Dallas City Council is expected to debate two issues today involving Mr. Hunt, who's also a developer and SMU graduate. He's asking the council for $6.3 million in tax breaks for his company's new headquarters in downtown Dallas.
The council is also considering a land swap that could result in the demolition of Reunion Arena in 2008 to create a massive downtown entertainment complex and potentially attract horse racing and casino-style gambling. As part of the project, Dallas could swap city-owed Reunion Arena and its surrounding land to Mr. Hunt in exchange for part of a parking lot he owns.
Ms. Miller's staff said the mayor signed the letter weeks before details of Mr. Hunt's headquarters proposal or the land-swap idea were known. Ms. Miller opposes both proposals.
Other area officials were also concerned with Ms. Miller's endorsement.
"It's regrettable that the mayor would take a position this early," said Dallas lawyer Michael Boone, who is on SMU's board of trustees. "Why didn't she write one letter supporting all of the area schools?"
SMU officials, like their counterparts at UD, preferred to stay out of the debate.
"Consistent with our approach all along, which has been to be very low key about this project, we're not going to comment on who or who has not written letters on our behalf," said Patti LaSalle, an SMU spokeswoman. "We're going to rely on the merits of our proposal."
SMU has been considered the front-runner, largely because it claims first lady Laura Bush as an alumna and trustee. Baylor is also seen as a strong candidate because it's near the Bush ranch in Crawford. Those two campuses have made their intentions known for a few years; UD was more of a surprising latecomer.
The president and Mrs. Bush have the final word on the library's location, but they're aided by a committee led by Donald Evans, the former commerce secretary and Mr. Bush's longtime friend, and Marvin Bush, the president's youngest brother.
Dr. Lazarus said Tuesday that he doesn't know what effect, if any, Ms. Miller's letter had on the library search committee.
"The university is just really pleased with the kind of support that we got," he said.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Fort Worth-bound flight crashes near Austin
By GEORGE KANUCK / KVUE ABC 24 in Austin
GEORGETOWN, Texas — The 60-year-old pilot of a FedEx cargo plane survived late Tuesday when his aircraft crashed into a house near Austin.
Mike McKenna of Cedar Creek was injured when the single-engine plane he was piloting went down in Georgetown, about 20 miles north of the state capital.
Police said McKenna reported losing power after takeoff from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport en route to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth.
McKenna tried to make an emergency landing at Georgetown Municipal Airport, but the plane apparently clipped a power line and flipped on a house shortly after 11 p.m.
The pilot was taken to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, where he was recovering fromn a broken arm Wednesday morning.
The one person inside the house at the time of the crash was not hurt.
Federal investigators launched an inquiry into the cause of the crash.
KVUE ABC 24 in Austin
The cargo plane landed on top of a house.
By GEORGE KANUCK / KVUE ABC 24 in Austin
GEORGETOWN, Texas — The 60-year-old pilot of a FedEx cargo plane survived late Tuesday when his aircraft crashed into a house near Austin.
Mike McKenna of Cedar Creek was injured when the single-engine plane he was piloting went down in Georgetown, about 20 miles north of the state capital.
Police said McKenna reported losing power after takeoff from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport en route to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth.
McKenna tried to make an emergency landing at Georgetown Municipal Airport, but the plane apparently clipped a power line and flipped on a house shortly after 11 p.m.
The pilot was taken to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, where he was recovering fromn a broken arm Wednesday morning.
The one person inside the house at the time of the crash was not hurt.
Federal investigators launched an inquiry into the cause of the crash.
KVUE ABC 24 in Austin
The cargo plane landed on top of a house.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Mayor in fight with Hunt
She blasts colleagues, staff; OK of land swap, tax break likely today
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - On the eve of two downtown redevelopment decisions standing to benefit one of her age-old foes, Mayor Laura Miller is her own army at war with Dallas' political world.
She's questioning City Manager Mary Suhm's business savvy and job security.
She's suggesting Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans should have been fired years ago.
She described some of her City Council colleagues' negotiating style as "icky."
And she's doing so in what appears to be a futile attempt to thwart billionaire oilman Ray Hunt's bid to secure a $6.3 million city tax abatement for a new downtown headquarters and to trade a parking lot he owns for the rights to Reunion Arena – which would be destined for demolition – so Dallas could help build a proposed downtown entertainment complex.
Ms. Miller says the deals stink and the city staff has no regard for saving taxpayer money, but she acknowledges both items will probably pass anyway. If Mr. Hunt moves his headquarters elsewhere, so be it, she said. And if Reunion Arena stays under city control, it could very well become a cash-cow casino someday if the Texas Legislature ever legalizes gambling, she added.
"We're the ones with the leverage," Ms. Miller said. "But this puts me in the position of standing up as an irritant ... the bomb-throwing maverick journalist I used to be. I'm in the same weak position I was back then."
It was as that journalist during the 1990s for the weekly Dallas Observer that Ms. Miller frequently lambasted Mr. Hunt as a greedy businessman who routinely duped council members into approving his land deals.
"The mayor has let her rage, her distaste for Ray Hunt, cloud her vision," council member Ed Oakley said. "We have a mayor who thinks she can make unilateral decisions that she cannot. This is not a monarchy."
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Hunt defends proposal
In a rare interview Tuesday, Mr. Hunt defended his company's plan as larger than any mayor or businessman.
"This is not about Ray Hunt. It's not about Hunt Oil Co. This is a much bigger – much bigger – issue," Mr. Hunt said. "It deals with how the city of Dallas is going to treat companies that have either been here for a long time or new companies that they hope to recruit here. And the first thing that a company that they hope to recruit here is going to do is to look and see how the city has treated the companies who are already here."
One of today's council votes would authorize the city staff to continue negotiations with Mr. Hunt to swap Hunt-owned Lot E, a parking lot near the Dallas Convention Center, for little-used Reunion Arena and the land immediately surrounding it.
The other would approve the $6.3 million tax abatement and all but guarantee Hunt would build its already-designed 15-story headquarters building on a plot of downtown land between St. Paul and Akard streets along Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
Most council members defend the city staff's months of negotiations leading up to these votes as thorough and fair. Both the city and Hunt will benefit from Hunt's headquarters remaining downtown and the creation of a 100,000-square-foot entertainment complex just north of Interstate 30, they say.
Several members also defended Ms. Suhm and Mr. Evans as excellent managers who understand the council majority's desire to aggressively retain downtown businesses while creating new business developments.
Ms. Miller disagreed, saying Ms. Suhm, while highly intelligent, "knows I'm very disappointed on how this was handled."
Asked if Ms. Suhm's job could be in jeopardy – voters on Nov. 8 will decide whether to allow Dallas' mayor to hire and fire the city manager beginning in 2007 – Ms. Miller replied vaguely.
"I don't know what's going to happen in November, and I don't know if I'll be re-elected mayor," she said. "I don't know what would happen after that."
As for Mr. Evans, she said he "should have been fired" several years ago for what she described as poor negotiating of a development deal north of downtown.
"My job is to build and rebuild the city faster and faster and faster," Mr. Evans said. "You can ask the rest of the council if I'm doing that."
Said Ms. Suhm: "Every day I just try to do the best job I can. I'm a hard taskmaster on myself. And I do believe in the work we're doing."
Real competition?
One reason some council members are backing the tax abatement is Irving's perceived desire to attract Hunt's headquarters building to its city.
Irving's level of interest in Hunt, according to recent communications among Irving, Dallas and Hunt officials, is mixed.
"The City of Irving welcomes the opportunity to work with Woodbine on an incentive proposal for a large corporate headquarters facility in the city," Irving Chief Financial Officer David Leininger wrote in August to John Scovell, president and chief executive officer of Hunt subsidiary Woodbine Development Corp.
Mr. Scovell said he inquired about corporate relocation incentives Irving offered "on behalf of a client" but did not specify until later that Hunt was the client.
"It is the City of Irving's objective to work closely with the firm to structure an incentive package that best meets their individual economic objectives," Mr. Leininger wrote. "The City of Irving, including its elected officials and staff, and the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce are all committed to working with the company to make their relocation to Irving successful."
In a letter Tuesday addressed to Ms. Miller, Irving Mayor Herbert Gears wrote that "no offer from Irving has been made" and no negotiations between Irving and Hunt are taking place.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gears maintained that Irving would work with Hunt if it is interested in relocating – but not at the expense of relations with Dallas or a huge tax abatement.
"We'd love to have them come to Irving," he said. "But we're not going to be the reason they leave Dallas."
Said Mr. Scovell, "I've been working with individuals on Irving's staff. I've never met the mayor. Don't know him."
Ms. Miller cited Mr. Gears' stance as another example of Dallas staff and her council colleagues pushing tax abatements when competition for Hunt isn't nearly as heated as Hunt makes it seem.
And if Hunt receives a tax abatement, the city will continue to give tax abatements to practically any company that wants one, thereby eroding Dallas' corporate tax base, Ms. Miller said.
Rasansky with Miller
As of Tuesday, council member Mitchell Rasansky was the body's lone official supporting Ms. Miller.
"Our economic development department has not done its homework," he said. "Why should we give one of the richest people in Dallas a tax break on choice property at the detriment of the citizens?"
Council member Linda Koop says she'll support the land swap vote but remains undecided on the tax abatement.
"I want to listen to the debate," she said, quickly adding that she's not interested in the personalities doing the debating. "For me, it's purely a business decision."
Staff writer Sudeep Reddy contributed to this report.
She blasts colleagues, staff; OK of land swap, tax break likely today
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - On the eve of two downtown redevelopment decisions standing to benefit one of her age-old foes, Mayor Laura Miller is her own army at war with Dallas' political world.
She's questioning City Manager Mary Suhm's business savvy and job security.
She's suggesting Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans should have been fired years ago.
She described some of her City Council colleagues' negotiating style as "icky."
And she's doing so in what appears to be a futile attempt to thwart billionaire oilman Ray Hunt's bid to secure a $6.3 million city tax abatement for a new downtown headquarters and to trade a parking lot he owns for the rights to Reunion Arena – which would be destined for demolition – so Dallas could help build a proposed downtown entertainment complex.
Ms. Miller says the deals stink and the city staff has no regard for saving taxpayer money, but she acknowledges both items will probably pass anyway. If Mr. Hunt moves his headquarters elsewhere, so be it, she said. And if Reunion Arena stays under city control, it could very well become a cash-cow casino someday if the Texas Legislature ever legalizes gambling, she added.
"We're the ones with the leverage," Ms. Miller said. "But this puts me in the position of standing up as an irritant ... the bomb-throwing maverick journalist I used to be. I'm in the same weak position I was back then."
It was as that journalist during the 1990s for the weekly Dallas Observer that Ms. Miller frequently lambasted Mr. Hunt as a greedy businessman who routinely duped council members into approving his land deals.
"The mayor has let her rage, her distaste for Ray Hunt, cloud her vision," council member Ed Oakley said. "We have a mayor who thinks she can make unilateral decisions that she cannot. This is not a monarchy."
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Hunt defends proposal
In a rare interview Tuesday, Mr. Hunt defended his company's plan as larger than any mayor or businessman.
"This is not about Ray Hunt. It's not about Hunt Oil Co. This is a much bigger – much bigger – issue," Mr. Hunt said. "It deals with how the city of Dallas is going to treat companies that have either been here for a long time or new companies that they hope to recruit here. And the first thing that a company that they hope to recruit here is going to do is to look and see how the city has treated the companies who are already here."
One of today's council votes would authorize the city staff to continue negotiations with Mr. Hunt to swap Hunt-owned Lot E, a parking lot near the Dallas Convention Center, for little-used Reunion Arena and the land immediately surrounding it.
The other would approve the $6.3 million tax abatement and all but guarantee Hunt would build its already-designed 15-story headquarters building on a plot of downtown land between St. Paul and Akard streets along Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
Most council members defend the city staff's months of negotiations leading up to these votes as thorough and fair. Both the city and Hunt will benefit from Hunt's headquarters remaining downtown and the creation of a 100,000-square-foot entertainment complex just north of Interstate 30, they say.
Several members also defended Ms. Suhm and Mr. Evans as excellent managers who understand the council majority's desire to aggressively retain downtown businesses while creating new business developments.
Ms. Miller disagreed, saying Ms. Suhm, while highly intelligent, "knows I'm very disappointed on how this was handled."
Asked if Ms. Suhm's job could be in jeopardy – voters on Nov. 8 will decide whether to allow Dallas' mayor to hire and fire the city manager beginning in 2007 – Ms. Miller replied vaguely.
"I don't know what's going to happen in November, and I don't know if I'll be re-elected mayor," she said. "I don't know what would happen after that."
As for Mr. Evans, she said he "should have been fired" several years ago for what she described as poor negotiating of a development deal north of downtown.
"My job is to build and rebuild the city faster and faster and faster," Mr. Evans said. "You can ask the rest of the council if I'm doing that."
Said Ms. Suhm: "Every day I just try to do the best job I can. I'm a hard taskmaster on myself. And I do believe in the work we're doing."
Real competition?
One reason some council members are backing the tax abatement is Irving's perceived desire to attract Hunt's headquarters building to its city.
Irving's level of interest in Hunt, according to recent communications among Irving, Dallas and Hunt officials, is mixed.
"The City of Irving welcomes the opportunity to work with Woodbine on an incentive proposal for a large corporate headquarters facility in the city," Irving Chief Financial Officer David Leininger wrote in August to John Scovell, president and chief executive officer of Hunt subsidiary Woodbine Development Corp.
Mr. Scovell said he inquired about corporate relocation incentives Irving offered "on behalf of a client" but did not specify until later that Hunt was the client.
"It is the City of Irving's objective to work closely with the firm to structure an incentive package that best meets their individual economic objectives," Mr. Leininger wrote. "The City of Irving, including its elected officials and staff, and the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce are all committed to working with the company to make their relocation to Irving successful."
In a letter Tuesday addressed to Ms. Miller, Irving Mayor Herbert Gears wrote that "no offer from Irving has been made" and no negotiations between Irving and Hunt are taking place.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gears maintained that Irving would work with Hunt if it is interested in relocating – but not at the expense of relations with Dallas or a huge tax abatement.
"We'd love to have them come to Irving," he said. "But we're not going to be the reason they leave Dallas."
Said Mr. Scovell, "I've been working with individuals on Irving's staff. I've never met the mayor. Don't know him."
Ms. Miller cited Mr. Gears' stance as another example of Dallas staff and her council colleagues pushing tax abatements when competition for Hunt isn't nearly as heated as Hunt makes it seem.
And if Hunt receives a tax abatement, the city will continue to give tax abatements to practically any company that wants one, thereby eroding Dallas' corporate tax base, Ms. Miller said.
Rasansky with Miller
As of Tuesday, council member Mitchell Rasansky was the body's lone official supporting Ms. Miller.
"Our economic development department has not done its homework," he said. "Why should we give one of the richest people in Dallas a tax break on choice property at the detriment of the citizens?"
Council member Linda Koop says she'll support the land swap vote but remains undecided on the tax abatement.
"I want to listen to the debate," she said, quickly adding that she's not interested in the personalities doing the debating. "For me, it's purely a business decision."
Staff writer Sudeep Reddy contributed to this report.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Tax incentive proposal spurs debate
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - The Dallas City Council is debating a controversial set of tax incentives in their weekly meeting Wednesday.
The incentives are part of an effort to get Hunt Consolidated to build its headquarters in downtown Dallas. The company's headquarters would be located adjacent to Woodall Rodgers Freeway at Akard Street.
The incentives include a ten-year tax abatement valued at more than $6 million. To get that, the firm must maintain at least 500 jobs downtown.
The deal would also include Hunt's trade of a parking lot downtown for the rights to Reunion Arena, which would be destined for demolition so Dallas could help build a proposed entertainment complex on the site.
While a majority of the City Council favors the deal, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller has been outspoken in her criticism of the proposal.
Supporters contend that the tax incentives deal was created at the risk of losing the company to Irving. However, Miller got a call on Monday from Irving Mayor Herbert Gears saying that wasn't the case, and no offer has been made or put on the table.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
Hunt representative John Scovell said while Irving was considered, Dallas has always been the preferred choice.
"We've not gotten into the game of playing the ends against the middle," said Scovell. "That's not how we operate."
Those council members who support the deal say it's simply about keeping economic development in Dallas, and they wish the mayor was more receptive to that notion.
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Watch News 8 at 6:00PM CDT for Chris Heinbaugh's update on the council vote.
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - The Dallas City Council is debating a controversial set of tax incentives in their weekly meeting Wednesday.
The incentives are part of an effort to get Hunt Consolidated to build its headquarters in downtown Dallas. The company's headquarters would be located adjacent to Woodall Rodgers Freeway at Akard Street.
The incentives include a ten-year tax abatement valued at more than $6 million. To get that, the firm must maintain at least 500 jobs downtown.
The deal would also include Hunt's trade of a parking lot downtown for the rights to Reunion Arena, which would be destined for demolition so Dallas could help build a proposed entertainment complex on the site.
While a majority of the City Council favors the deal, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller has been outspoken in her criticism of the proposal.
Supporters contend that the tax incentives deal was created at the risk of losing the company to Irving. However, Miller got a call on Monday from Irving Mayor Herbert Gears saying that wasn't the case, and no offer has been made or put on the table.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
Hunt representative John Scovell said while Irving was considered, Dallas has always been the preferred choice.
"We've not gotten into the game of playing the ends against the middle," said Scovell. "That's not how we operate."
Those council members who support the deal say it's simply about keeping economic development in Dallas, and they wish the mayor was more receptive to that notion.
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Watch News 8 at 6:00PM CDT for Chris Heinbaugh's update on the council vote.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Council passes Hunt tax abatement
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - The Dallas City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass a controversial set of tax incentives in their weekly meeting Wednesday.
The incentives are part of an effort to get Hunt Consolidated to build its headquarters in downtown Dallas. The company's headquarters would be located adjacent to Woodall Rodgers Freeway at Akard Street.
The incentives include a ten-year tax abatement valued at more than $6 million. To get that, the firm must maintain at least 500 jobs downtown.
The 11-2-2 vote didn’t come before Mayor Laura Miller described the subsidy as a waste of taxpayer money – an assertion to which most of her council colleagues objected.
The deal also includes Hunt's trade of a parking lot downtown for the rights to Reunion Arena, which would be destined for demolition so Dallas could help build a proposed entertainment complex on the site.
Miller has been outspoken in her criticism of the proposal. Supporters contend that the tax incentives deal was created at the risk of losing the company to Irving. However, Miller got a call on Monday from Irving Mayor Herbert Gears saying that wasn't the case, and no offer has been made or put on the table.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
Hunt representative John Scovell said while Irving was considered, Dallas has always been the preferred choice.
"We've not gotten into the game of playing the ends against the middle," said Scovell. "That's not how we operate."
Those council members who support the deal say it's simply about keeping economic development in Dallas, and they wish the mayor was more receptive to that notion.
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Watch News 8 at Six for Chris Heinbaugh's update.
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - The Dallas City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass a controversial set of tax incentives in their weekly meeting Wednesday.
The incentives are part of an effort to get Hunt Consolidated to build its headquarters in downtown Dallas. The company's headquarters would be located adjacent to Woodall Rodgers Freeway at Akard Street.
The incentives include a ten-year tax abatement valued at more than $6 million. To get that, the firm must maintain at least 500 jobs downtown.
The 11-2-2 vote didn’t come before Mayor Laura Miller described the subsidy as a waste of taxpayer money – an assertion to which most of her council colleagues objected.
The deal also includes Hunt's trade of a parking lot downtown for the rights to Reunion Arena, which would be destined for demolition so Dallas could help build a proposed entertainment complex on the site.
Miller has been outspoken in her criticism of the proposal. Supporters contend that the tax incentives deal was created at the risk of losing the company to Irving. However, Miller got a call on Monday from Irving Mayor Herbert Gears saying that wasn't the case, and no offer has been made or put on the table.
"Ms. Miller, please rest assured that the City of Irving has no interest in 'cannibalizing' the business communities of our neighbors by using excessive tax breaks from our citizens," Mr. Gears wrote.
Hunt representative John Scovell said while Irving was considered, Dallas has always been the preferred choice.
"We've not gotten into the game of playing the ends against the middle," said Scovell. "That's not how we operate."
Those council members who support the deal say it's simply about keeping economic development in Dallas, and they wish the mayor was more receptive to that notion.
Said council member Bill Blaydes, "This is a controversy that one person seems to have. I'm just tired of losing businesses – Haggar, EDS, Perot, Mary Kay – to our neighbors."
Watch News 8 at Six for Chris Heinbaugh's update.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Hunt County couple found dead in home
GREENVILLE, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Authorities are investigating the deaths of a Hunt County couple who were found dead in their home late Tuesday night.
Chief Deputy Robert White of the Hood County Sheriff's office said the bodies of Dennis Woodruff, 43, and his wife Norma, 42, were discovered inside their residence on County Road 2648 just outside of Royse City. A neighbor had gone to check on the couple after being contacted by a relative who was unable to reach them by phone.
The pair had been moving into the home over the past several weeks from their home in nearby Heath. They were last seen on Sunday evening.
Justice of The Peace James "Sarge" Erwin said the victims displayed evidence of trauma, but he is awaiting a report from the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office to determine the cause of death.
The Hunt County Sheriff's office is investigating the deaths as suspected homicides.
Watch News 8 at 6:00PM CDT for more on this developing story.
GREENVILLE, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Authorities are investigating the deaths of a Hunt County couple who were found dead in their home late Tuesday night.
Chief Deputy Robert White of the Hood County Sheriff's office said the bodies of Dennis Woodruff, 43, and his wife Norma, 42, were discovered inside their residence on County Road 2648 just outside of Royse City. A neighbor had gone to check on the couple after being contacted by a relative who was unable to reach them by phone.
The pair had been moving into the home over the past several weeks from their home in nearby Heath. They were last seen on Sunday evening.
Justice of The Peace James "Sarge" Erwin said the victims displayed evidence of trauma, but he is awaiting a report from the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office to determine the cause of death.
The Hunt County Sheriff's office is investigating the deaths as suspected homicides.
Watch News 8 at 6:00PM CDT for more on this developing story.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Parker to hold Halloween sex offender lock-in
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8
WEATHERFORD, Texas - Parker County has taken unusual step to make sure sex offenders have no access to kids on Halloween night.
Mike Stack, probation director, said he fears a night filled with roaming kids could be a serious temptation for sex offenders, so nearly 50 probationers will be kept guarded Halloween night.
"We will have all our registered sex offenders that we supervise report to our office between 6 and 10 p.m.," Stack said.
So, while children walk the streets in search of candy and treats, the county will be keeping an eye on the parolees.
"Everyone will be isolated in one area so we can keep track of them," Stack said.
And for those offenders who don't show up, they will get a visit from someone in a familiar costume.
"We'll team a deputy and a probation officer and send them out to the residence," Stack said.
Stack said a handful of Texas counties have held Halloween lock-ins and community feedback has been positive.
Most Weatherford residents who voiced their opinions agreed.
Resident Troy Dickey said he figures his decorated yard full of surprises will draw 200 to 300 kids. He said Parker's plans help him feel those kids will be safer.
"They ought to be locked up," Dickey said. "That's good for everybody."
But not everyone agreed the lock-in is a reasonable plan to keep the streets safer for kids.
"Extreme is a good word," said one resident of the plan.
However, the probation director said the lock-in also protects sex offenders from any false accusations.
Officials said they will also check the homes of the parolee sex offenders on Halloween to make sure they have their lights out and no decorations to entice trick-or-treaters.
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8
WEATHERFORD, Texas - Parker County has taken unusual step to make sure sex offenders have no access to kids on Halloween night.
Mike Stack, probation director, said he fears a night filled with roaming kids could be a serious temptation for sex offenders, so nearly 50 probationers will be kept guarded Halloween night.
"We will have all our registered sex offenders that we supervise report to our office between 6 and 10 p.m.," Stack said.
So, while children walk the streets in search of candy and treats, the county will be keeping an eye on the parolees.
"Everyone will be isolated in one area so we can keep track of them," Stack said.
And for those offenders who don't show up, they will get a visit from someone in a familiar costume.
"We'll team a deputy and a probation officer and send them out to the residence," Stack said.
Stack said a handful of Texas counties have held Halloween lock-ins and community feedback has been positive.
Most Weatherford residents who voiced their opinions agreed.
Resident Troy Dickey said he figures his decorated yard full of surprises will draw 200 to 300 kids. He said Parker's plans help him feel those kids will be safer.
"They ought to be locked up," Dickey said. "That's good for everybody."
But not everyone agreed the lock-in is a reasonable plan to keep the streets safer for kids.
"Extreme is a good word," said one resident of the plan.
However, the probation director said the lock-in also protects sex offenders from any false accusations.
Officials said they will also check the homes of the parolee sex offenders on Halloween to make sure they have their lights out and no decorations to entice trick-or-treaters.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Man fights city for wheelchair accessible corners
By DON WALL / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Ever since Richard Macgowan dropped dangerously off a corner in his wheelchair, he has been in a battle against the city to make all corners wheelchair accessible.
Macgowan lives on Live Oak in East Dallas, and while maneuvering throughout the city has noticed many corners with drops too steep for wheelchair users. Those steep corners include the one he met before making calls to the City of Dallas for change.
"[I] jarred my teeth loose practically," Macgowan said of his attempt at easing off the high corner.
Macgowan weighs 410 after losing 80 pounds since January two years ago. However, for the past two years he's needed a wheelchair to get around because of an abdominal hernia and excessive weight.
His electric wheels maneuvers well until he gets to those corners that are not wheelchair accessible.
"It's got too big of a drop to where I can't get passed it too easily," he said of one such corner.
Macgowan said they just don't make wheelchairs that can handle the corners.
"For some reason, they just don't put shock absorbers on the wheelchairs," he said.
Richard Macgowan said he's called Dallas streets twice this year to see if there are any plans to make the corner at Live Oak and Carroll wheelchair accessible, but so far it hasn't been fixed.
And as it turned out, Dallas Public Works scheduled the work twice as the roads were repaired. However, another bigger project to install more barrier free ramps in the area put Macgowan's corner on hold.
"It did not fall through the cracks," said. "It may have caused somewhat of a delay, but it did not fall through the cracks. That project is still on the books and we still plan on getting it done as soon as we can."
However, there is still no set date for the project. Until then, M acgowan said his rides downtown will continue to be an adventure. An adventure Macgowan called dangerous at times.
"[Dangerous] because...I end up having to go into the street, which is usually busy all the time," he said. "Or [sometimes I] end up going through a jungle of weeds."
By DON WALL / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Ever since Richard Macgowan dropped dangerously off a corner in his wheelchair, he has been in a battle against the city to make all corners wheelchair accessible.
Macgowan lives on Live Oak in East Dallas, and while maneuvering throughout the city has noticed many corners with drops too steep for wheelchair users. Those steep corners include the one he met before making calls to the City of Dallas for change.
"[I] jarred my teeth loose practically," Macgowan said of his attempt at easing off the high corner.
Macgowan weighs 410 after losing 80 pounds since January two years ago. However, for the past two years he's needed a wheelchair to get around because of an abdominal hernia and excessive weight.
His electric wheels maneuvers well until he gets to those corners that are not wheelchair accessible.
"It's got too big of a drop to where I can't get passed it too easily," he said of one such corner.
Macgowan said they just don't make wheelchairs that can handle the corners.
"For some reason, they just don't put shock absorbers on the wheelchairs," he said.
Richard Macgowan said he's called Dallas streets twice this year to see if there are any plans to make the corner at Live Oak and Carroll wheelchair accessible, but so far it hasn't been fixed.
And as it turned out, Dallas Public Works scheduled the work twice as the roads were repaired. However, another bigger project to install more barrier free ramps in the area put Macgowan's corner on hold.
"It did not fall through the cracks," said. "It may have caused somewhat of a delay, but it did not fall through the cracks. That project is still on the books and we still plan on getting it done as soon as we can."
However, there is still no set date for the project. Until then, M acgowan said his rides downtown will continue to be an adventure. An adventure Macgowan called dangerous at times.
"[Dangerous] because...I end up having to go into the street, which is usually busy all the time," he said. "Or [sometimes I] end up going through a jungle of weeds."
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Rush for Tamiflu intensifies
By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8
Demand for the one medicine that is said to protect people from avian flu has jumped sevenfold since stories of a possible epidemic began surfacing last month.
U.S. drug stores have filled nearly 87,000 prescriptions for Tamiflu over the last eight weeks. Last year, pharmacists only filled about 13,000 during the same time.
Fears of "bird flu" have people flocking to doctors offices and pharmacies in North Texas demanding Tamiflu, but at least one medical professional believes a mad rush to snatch up available doses of the antiviral antibiotic could have negative consequences.
At Dr. Richard Honaker's Carrollton office, it's not just calls for appointments that have phones ringing regularly.
"They really want to know if they can get the prescription."
Tamiflu is the only thing so far that's been proven to work against avian flu. Even though the flu has not made it to America, doctors said demand is on the rise in North Texas.
Cheryl Utley wants some for her college-bound daughter.
"I thought maybe I should get a dose of it before she goes," Utley said.
At Pharmacy Compounding Specialties in Dallas, there is real concern this time that the run on Tamiflu will mean the medicine won't be around when the traditional flu hits. Honaker admits the pressure to prescribe is very high - and shares worry about the available supply.
"Im trying to discourage the stockpiling of Tamiflu," Honaker said. "After all, there's a limited supply. If there is an outbreak - let's say, for example, in Los Angeles - then we need the Tamiflu there and not in 100,000 cabinets in Dallas."
The clamor for Tamiflu is reminiscent of the run on Cipro, the antibiotic Americans stashed in the post 9/11 anthrax scares.
"In that case, they didn't need as much Cipro as they thought," said pharmacist Ron Barrett.
Traditional flu season starts any day now, and Tamiflu significantly reduces the severity and length of the sickness.
The run on the medication has become so severe that manufacturer Roche Laboratories is now warning people against buying it over the internet because of counterfeits.
By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8
Demand for the one medicine that is said to protect people from avian flu has jumped sevenfold since stories of a possible epidemic began surfacing last month.
U.S. drug stores have filled nearly 87,000 prescriptions for Tamiflu over the last eight weeks. Last year, pharmacists only filled about 13,000 during the same time.
Fears of "bird flu" have people flocking to doctors offices and pharmacies in North Texas demanding Tamiflu, but at least one medical professional believes a mad rush to snatch up available doses of the antiviral antibiotic could have negative consequences.
At Dr. Richard Honaker's Carrollton office, it's not just calls for appointments that have phones ringing regularly.
"They really want to know if they can get the prescription."
Tamiflu is the only thing so far that's been proven to work against avian flu. Even though the flu has not made it to America, doctors said demand is on the rise in North Texas.
Cheryl Utley wants some for her college-bound daughter.
"I thought maybe I should get a dose of it before she goes," Utley said.
At Pharmacy Compounding Specialties in Dallas, there is real concern this time that the run on Tamiflu will mean the medicine won't be around when the traditional flu hits. Honaker admits the pressure to prescribe is very high - and shares worry about the available supply.
"Im trying to discourage the stockpiling of Tamiflu," Honaker said. "After all, there's a limited supply. If there is an outbreak - let's say, for example, in Los Angeles - then we need the Tamiflu there and not in 100,000 cabinets in Dallas."
The clamor for Tamiflu is reminiscent of the run on Cipro, the antibiotic Americans stashed in the post 9/11 anthrax scares.
"In that case, they didn't need as much Cipro as they thought," said pharmacist Ron Barrett.
Traditional flu season starts any day now, and Tamiflu significantly reduces the severity and length of the sickness.
The run on the medication has become so severe that manufacturer Roche Laboratories is now warning people against buying it over the internet because of counterfeits.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Exclusive: CPS had file on disabled teenager
Agency had closed 2 cases on girl before she died
By REESE DUNKLIN, JASON TRAHAN and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - She was often seen wandering around in a heavy coat, be it on the sidewalk outside her worn-down apartment building on a humid summer day or inside a Wal-Mart in autumn.
The woman spooked neighbors and acquaintances when she mumbled to herself or cursed at them. Few knew she was the mother of a chronically ill teenage daughter who could not walk.
But Child Protective Services did.
CPS twice investigated whether the woman was getting her daughter proper medical attention during the last two years, an agency spokeswoman said. But workers, who were alerted that the woman could be mentally ill, reported that they could not substantiate the allegations and closed the cases.
On Wednesday, authorities were still trying to figure out how her 17-year-old bed-ridden daughter could have been left alone in the family's East Dallas apartment – possibly for as long as two weeks – after her mother had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital.
The girl's decomposing body was found in her bed Tuesday morning.
Cary Fain, founder of the Grace Miracle Works charity that aids the homeless and needy mothers and children, said he knew the mother and daughter and tried to get them help, even calling a CPS worker.
"I told her what was going on, that the woman was severely mentally ill and that she wasn't taking care of her" daughter, he said. "When I called back, nothing had been done."
Police and CPS officials say there were no signs of foul play or trauma inflicted on the girl, who could not walk and had used a wheelchair because of a spinal condition. The cause of death is pending until the Dallas County medical examiner's office completes an autopsy. Her identity has not been released.
Her mother remains at Terrell State Hospital, where she was taken after an evaluation at Green Oaks Behavioral Healthcare Services in Dallas on Oct. 5.
Police initially identified her as Caroline Kiwanuka, 35. But a woman by the same name, living in Arizona and located by The Dallas Morning News, said she discovered last December that her identity had been stolen and was being used by someone moving from state to state. Other officials said the mother had previously used the name Harriet Wamala; police are investigating.
When the mother was taken into custody by Dallas police at a Wal-Mart on Marsh Lane where she worked, she did not tell officers her daughter was home alone. Officers were called to the store because, a police report says, she had been "walking around the store in a daze and scaring customers with her hand gestures, believed to be voodoo."
The investigating officer said she never told him that she had a daughter at home.
"There's certainly no way that the officer would have known of any kind of danger," in this case, said Senior Cpl. Max Geron, a Dallas police spokesman. He said people in custody would have to inform officers that they had a child in their care at home.
It wasn't until Monday – when a call came into a CPS office in Lewisville asking someone to check on the daughter – that authorities became aware she was abandoned and possibly in danger. Police and apartment workers were then notified, said Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman.
Officials at Terrell and Green Oaks declined to comment.
Interviews with people who came in contact with the girl and her mother provide a picture of a family with a mysterious background that bounced from place to place. The mother at times sought needed help, then quickly recoiled.
The accounts suggest that the mother's ability to care for her daughter was shaky and bring focus back to the work of CPS, the embattled state agency that legislators have blasted during the last year and targeted for overhaul.
In March 2003, the mother and daughter apparently arrived in the Dallas area. The girl was first enrolled at Rusk Middle School. She did not attend regular classes, though, because of her disabilities, according to a school official.
The family purported to be from Kenya or Uganda – though a year later, the girl's mother told someone else she had just come from Oklahoma – and was here so her daughter could get care from Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.
The girl could not sit up in her wheelchair because it was poorly designed, the school official said.
Administrators tried to help the girl's mother contact social organizations to get an electric wheelchair. The official did not know whether that happened.
"It was just one of those cases where you go home and cry because there's nothing you can do," the official said. "She was a sweet child. It's one of those things we couldn't do anything. We did everything we could."
The official was skeptical about the mother: "I never quite believed everything she said because the story never did stay the same."
Fred Reid, owner of All Pro Custom Design, said the mother did odd jobs at his store in fall 2003. She was protective of her daughter and didn't say much about her. He said she also told him she'd come to the area to get the daughter help "yet she wouldn't go" for it.
"It seemed like she was over here illegally or something," he said. "I got the impression that she thought if she would go to get help that they would take her."
In November 2003, CPS received the first report on the family, Ms. Gonzales said.
The case was investigated as medical neglect but was closed because "the information we received ruled out concerns," she said. Medical staff members were consulted, but Ms. Gonzales would not say who was contacted or whether the mother and girl were seen in person. She said such details of the case were confidential.
"I can tell you proper protocol was followed," she said.
Ms. Gonzales said workers did not offer to provide the mother assistance in caring for the girl through the agency's family-based safety services unit, as is often the case when children remain with their parents after investigations. The reason was that investigators had not verified that the mother was failing to get her daughter treatment and medication.
Ms. Gonzales also would not discuss whether CPS' sister agency, Adult Protective Services, was notified about the mother and her possible mental illness.
Mr. Fain, of Grace Miracle Works, said he didn't need much time to discern that the mother had problems. He said he tried, after meeting her in March 2004, to get her help but struggled because she thought "everyone was out to get her" and thought people were "spying on her."
"An amateur could have diagnosed her as paranoid schizophrenic," he said.
Mr. Fain said she told him when they first met that she had just left another shelter after staying there about a year. She'd moved from Oklahoma, she said, and had just lost a job.
The mother told Mr. Fain that doctors at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital had wanted to perform surgery on the girl's spine but that she wouldn't let them. He got the impression that the girl had been evaluated, but he never spoke with any hospital officials. The officials declined interview requests.
"She told me that Scottish Rite couldn't do the surgery because they were spying on her and bugging her phone," he said. "I told her that they could help her, but she backed off any conversation like that and was really suspicious."
Mr. Fain's group gave the mother $100, a bus pass and groceries and paid her rent for a couple of months at an apartment in the 4600 block of Junius Street. He first saw her daughter as he was helping move furniture into the family's apartment.
"She was really healthy, but the little girl needed surgery really bad," he said. "She did not look underfed, but she was just laying flat on the floor on her back, watching television."
"She had incredible eyes. When you looked into them, you thought you were looking into the light."
The girl's mother did have periods of lucidity but changed when the conversation turned to her daughter, Mr. Fain said.
"She could sit and you thought she was completely normal, until you talked to her for a while," he said. "When you explored things with her, like her daughter's health, then everybody was out to get her."
Mr. Fain said that for months, he tried to gain the woman's trust, but eventually he realized he couldn't overcome her illness.
"She attended church a few times here, but after a while, she wouldn't answer the door anymore," he said. "She was delusional. She was not under a doctor's care. She wouldn't agree to it. When she decided we were against her, I called CPS to try to get help from them."
Mr. Fain said he phoned CPS on July 28, 2004. He said he called back to check on CPS' progress, but "nothing had been done," he said.
"Usually they will call with interview questions to see what I know, and they never contacted me to ask me anything," he said.
Ms. Gonzales, the CPS spokeswoman, said the agency did receive a second complaint that month and classified it as medical neglect. The investigation stalled and was closed because, she said, workers reported that they could not locate the family. She said they had consulted with other public agencies, as well as the Dallas school district, during the search for an active family address.
Dallas ISD spokesman Donald Claxton said the girl had withdrawn from North Dallas High School earlier that year, in April.
The family eventually landed at the Oak Bluff Condominiums on Live Oak Street in Old East Dallas.
Gloria Herford, manager at the Burger King a block down the street, recalled that she often saw a woman who wore blue scrubs, a gray coat, what appeared to be a wig and glasses hanging around.
"She'd walk by, steady talking," she said. "I couldn't figure out who she was talking to."
The mother remained secretive with neighbors – so much so, Carol Williams said, that she didn't know the girl was living with her. Ms. Williams also had peculiar dealings with the woman, saying she would come and go at all hours and acted weird.
"She wore a coat and boots even when it was hot outside," said Ms. Williams, who lived there for about seven years before moving last week. "She walked up and down the street talking to herself and cussing. I tried to talk to her, but she acted like she didn't even see me."
Agency had closed 2 cases on girl before she died
By REESE DUNKLIN, JASON TRAHAN and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - She was often seen wandering around in a heavy coat, be it on the sidewalk outside her worn-down apartment building on a humid summer day or inside a Wal-Mart in autumn.
The woman spooked neighbors and acquaintances when she mumbled to herself or cursed at them. Few knew she was the mother of a chronically ill teenage daughter who could not walk.
But Child Protective Services did.
CPS twice investigated whether the woman was getting her daughter proper medical attention during the last two years, an agency spokeswoman said. But workers, who were alerted that the woman could be mentally ill, reported that they could not substantiate the allegations and closed the cases.
On Wednesday, authorities were still trying to figure out how her 17-year-old bed-ridden daughter could have been left alone in the family's East Dallas apartment – possibly for as long as two weeks – after her mother had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital.
The girl's decomposing body was found in her bed Tuesday morning.
Cary Fain, founder of the Grace Miracle Works charity that aids the homeless and needy mothers and children, said he knew the mother and daughter and tried to get them help, even calling a CPS worker.
"I told her what was going on, that the woman was severely mentally ill and that she wasn't taking care of her" daughter, he said. "When I called back, nothing had been done."
Police and CPS officials say there were no signs of foul play or trauma inflicted on the girl, who could not walk and had used a wheelchair because of a spinal condition. The cause of death is pending until the Dallas County medical examiner's office completes an autopsy. Her identity has not been released.
Her mother remains at Terrell State Hospital, where she was taken after an evaluation at Green Oaks Behavioral Healthcare Services in Dallas on Oct. 5.
Police initially identified her as Caroline Kiwanuka, 35. But a woman by the same name, living in Arizona and located by The Dallas Morning News, said she discovered last December that her identity had been stolen and was being used by someone moving from state to state. Other officials said the mother had previously used the name Harriet Wamala; police are investigating.
When the mother was taken into custody by Dallas police at a Wal-Mart on Marsh Lane where she worked, she did not tell officers her daughter was home alone. Officers were called to the store because, a police report says, she had been "walking around the store in a daze and scaring customers with her hand gestures, believed to be voodoo."
The investigating officer said she never told him that she had a daughter at home.
"There's certainly no way that the officer would have known of any kind of danger," in this case, said Senior Cpl. Max Geron, a Dallas police spokesman. He said people in custody would have to inform officers that they had a child in their care at home.
It wasn't until Monday – when a call came into a CPS office in Lewisville asking someone to check on the daughter – that authorities became aware she was abandoned and possibly in danger. Police and apartment workers were then notified, said Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman.
Officials at Terrell and Green Oaks declined to comment.
Interviews with people who came in contact with the girl and her mother provide a picture of a family with a mysterious background that bounced from place to place. The mother at times sought needed help, then quickly recoiled.
The accounts suggest that the mother's ability to care for her daughter was shaky and bring focus back to the work of CPS, the embattled state agency that legislators have blasted during the last year and targeted for overhaul.
In March 2003, the mother and daughter apparently arrived in the Dallas area. The girl was first enrolled at Rusk Middle School. She did not attend regular classes, though, because of her disabilities, according to a school official.
The family purported to be from Kenya or Uganda – though a year later, the girl's mother told someone else she had just come from Oklahoma – and was here so her daughter could get care from Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.
The girl could not sit up in her wheelchair because it was poorly designed, the school official said.
Administrators tried to help the girl's mother contact social organizations to get an electric wheelchair. The official did not know whether that happened.
"It was just one of those cases where you go home and cry because there's nothing you can do," the official said. "She was a sweet child. It's one of those things we couldn't do anything. We did everything we could."
The official was skeptical about the mother: "I never quite believed everything she said because the story never did stay the same."
Fred Reid, owner of All Pro Custom Design, said the mother did odd jobs at his store in fall 2003. She was protective of her daughter and didn't say much about her. He said she also told him she'd come to the area to get the daughter help "yet she wouldn't go" for it.
"It seemed like she was over here illegally or something," he said. "I got the impression that she thought if she would go to get help that they would take her."
In November 2003, CPS received the first report on the family, Ms. Gonzales said.
The case was investigated as medical neglect but was closed because "the information we received ruled out concerns," she said. Medical staff members were consulted, but Ms. Gonzales would not say who was contacted or whether the mother and girl were seen in person. She said such details of the case were confidential.
"I can tell you proper protocol was followed," she said.
Ms. Gonzales said workers did not offer to provide the mother assistance in caring for the girl through the agency's family-based safety services unit, as is often the case when children remain with their parents after investigations. The reason was that investigators had not verified that the mother was failing to get her daughter treatment and medication.
Ms. Gonzales also would not discuss whether CPS' sister agency, Adult Protective Services, was notified about the mother and her possible mental illness.
Mr. Fain, of Grace Miracle Works, said he didn't need much time to discern that the mother had problems. He said he tried, after meeting her in March 2004, to get her help but struggled because she thought "everyone was out to get her" and thought people were "spying on her."
"An amateur could have diagnosed her as paranoid schizophrenic," he said.
Mr. Fain said she told him when they first met that she had just left another shelter after staying there about a year. She'd moved from Oklahoma, she said, and had just lost a job.
The mother told Mr. Fain that doctors at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital had wanted to perform surgery on the girl's spine but that she wouldn't let them. He got the impression that the girl had been evaluated, but he never spoke with any hospital officials. The officials declined interview requests.
"She told me that Scottish Rite couldn't do the surgery because they were spying on her and bugging her phone," he said. "I told her that they could help her, but she backed off any conversation like that and was really suspicious."
Mr. Fain's group gave the mother $100, a bus pass and groceries and paid her rent for a couple of months at an apartment in the 4600 block of Junius Street. He first saw her daughter as he was helping move furniture into the family's apartment.
"She was really healthy, but the little girl needed surgery really bad," he said. "She did not look underfed, but she was just laying flat on the floor on her back, watching television."
"She had incredible eyes. When you looked into them, you thought you were looking into the light."
The girl's mother did have periods of lucidity but changed when the conversation turned to her daughter, Mr. Fain said.
"She could sit and you thought she was completely normal, until you talked to her for a while," he said. "When you explored things with her, like her daughter's health, then everybody was out to get her."
Mr. Fain said that for months, he tried to gain the woman's trust, but eventually he realized he couldn't overcome her illness.
"She attended church a few times here, but after a while, she wouldn't answer the door anymore," he said. "She was delusional. She was not under a doctor's care. She wouldn't agree to it. When she decided we were against her, I called CPS to try to get help from them."
Mr. Fain said he phoned CPS on July 28, 2004. He said he called back to check on CPS' progress, but "nothing had been done," he said.
"Usually they will call with interview questions to see what I know, and they never contacted me to ask me anything," he said.
Ms. Gonzales, the CPS spokeswoman, said the agency did receive a second complaint that month and classified it as medical neglect. The investigation stalled and was closed because, she said, workers reported that they could not locate the family. She said they had consulted with other public agencies, as well as the Dallas school district, during the search for an active family address.
Dallas ISD spokesman Donald Claxton said the girl had withdrawn from North Dallas High School earlier that year, in April.
The family eventually landed at the Oak Bluff Condominiums on Live Oak Street in Old East Dallas.
Gloria Herford, manager at the Burger King a block down the street, recalled that she often saw a woman who wore blue scrubs, a gray coat, what appeared to be a wig and glasses hanging around.
"She'd walk by, steady talking," she said. "I couldn't figure out who she was talking to."
The mother remained secretive with neighbors – so much so, Carol Williams said, that she didn't know the girl was living with her. Ms. Williams also had peculiar dealings with the woman, saying she would come and go at all hours and acted weird.
"She wore a coat and boots even when it was hot outside," said Ms. Williams, who lived there for about seven years before moving last week. "She walked up and down the street talking to herself and cussing. I tried to talk to her, but she acted like she didn't even see me."
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Miller rebuffed as Hunt wins tax break
Mayor lectures council, berates staff; she was 'over the edge,' Hill says
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller spent much of Wednesday criticizing staff members and real estate developers, decrying a tax abatement for billionaire oilman Ray Hunt's corporation as an insult to taxpayers and lecturing her City Council colleagues on why.
They would have none of it. And they weren't coy in telling her why.
"She probably went over the edge today. She probably crossed over, really kind of marginalized herself," Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill said of Ms. Miller at Wednesday's council meeting.
Over Ms. Miller's objections, the council passed, by an 11-2 vote, a $6.3 million tax abatement that all but assures Mr. Hunt will build a corporate headquarters building in downtown Dallas.
Mr. Hill later said that the mayor's dislike for Mr. Hunt helped fuel her fury. "You do not really have a mayor that you can work with in a nonintimidating way."
Said council member Ed Oakley to the mayor, "You think you can circumvent our authority and our powers. You can't."
John Scovell, president and chief executive officer of Woodbine Development Corp., a Hunt Consolidated subsidiary, reprimanded Ms. Miller for her attitude toward the city staff.
"Your staff is as good as it gets. OK? Do you understand that?" Mr. Scovell told her. "Instead of criticizing the staff and abusing this staff ... be grateful for what you have."
Ms. Miller, a longtime critic of Mr. Hunt's business practices, and council member Mitchell Rasansky voted against the tax abatement. Council member Gary Griffith was absent from the vote, and council member Linda Koop did not vote because of a declared conflict of interest.
Construction on the 15-story tower, to be built between Akard and St. Paul streets along Woodall Rodgers Freeway, will commence "within days," Mr. Scovell said.
"This is it. It's done. We're ready to build," Ms. Scovell said.
The Hunt headquarters would be among the first new office buildings constructed downtown in two decades. Mr. Hunt's headquarters now reside within 15 stories of the Fountain Place tower several blocks from the proposed construction site, and his lease on that property expires next year.
Talks on land swap
The council then authorized the city staff to continue negotiations with Hunt Consolidated that would swap city-owned Reunion Arena, which would be slated for demolition, for a parking lot near the Dallas Convention Center.
Dallas hopes to use the parking lot, known as Lot E, for sale or lease to development mogul Billy Bob Barnett, who has constructed facilities such as Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth, to build the proposed 100,000-square-foot Trinity Crossing Entertainment Complex downtown.
Ms. Miller and Mr. Rasansky also voted against the authorization. She explained she did so in part because she does not believe Hunt officials are willing to renegotiate a 1974 "master agreement" with the city governing the use of Reunion Arena and the nearby Reunion and Union Station developments.
Some of the leases, such as the company's $100-per-year lease from Dallas of Union Station's upper floors, and various property use restrictions contained in the master agreement limit Dallas' ability to fully realize the area's potential, Ms. Miller said. Hunt built Reunion Tower and the Hyatt Regency Dallas on adjoining land.
Mr. Scovell said he prefers not to renegotiate the agreement – "it was a win-win for both us and the city," he said – but is willing to discuss "anything in the agreement, any time, any place, with anybody."
Ms. Miller said the city would be well advised not to turn Reunion Arena over to Mr. Hunt. She contended it could be used for a casino – developers interested in the facility for such a use have approached her, she said – and generate considerable money for the city. Reunion Arena also sits near the Trinity River, which the city plans to develop into a recreational and ecological centerpiece for downtown.
She expressed concern that the city still owes a reported $19 million of debt on Reunion Arena's construction, arguing that Mr. Hunt, if he takes ownership of it, should help pay down that debt.
Using maps, charts and a laser pointer, Ms. Miller stood before the council during both the tax-abatement and land-swap discussions, explaining her concerns about both.
During the tax-abatement debate, she told her colleagues that a supposed tax-incentive offer to Hunt Consolidated from Irving, contained in a letter from the city's chief financial officer, is nothing of the sort. It's a vaguely worded form letter, containing no specific dollar amounts, that Dallas staff members were giving far too much credence and shouldn't be a basis for Dallas offering the company a tax abatement, she said.
"This was a stick-up game with a toy gun because the Irving offer didn't exist," Ms. Miller said. "Everybody is going to want an abatement. We're headed for a major financial problem. Where do we draw the line on money?"
She called to the audience for Mr. Hunt himself to answer her questions, but he was not present. Mr. Scovell stepped to the lectern in Mr. Hunt's place.
"You're focusing on something that's irrelevant," Mr. Scovell said. "This is not about Irving vs. Dallas."
Issue of trust
Ms. Miller later accused Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans of offering Hunt Consolidated a tax abatement when he promised her that he would not. The city cannot afford them, she said.
"I don't know how we develop the ninth-largest city in America without trust," Ms. Miller told Mr. Evans. "You don't do what you say you'd do. It's very, very troubling, and very subjective and very unfair."
Mr. Evans argued that the tax-abatement offer was justified because "things changed. There was another offer from Irving." He said the Irving letter to Hunt officials was worded in exactly the same way such offers from the city of Dallas are phrased.
"We had to act," Mr. Evans said.
Council member Bill Blaydes described the mayor's presentation as "an interesting experience."
"I've been lectured before," he said, "and I was taken aback by the mayor's comments."
"We do not want the mayor running good companies out of the city. We already lost the Dallas Cowboys," council member James Fantroy said. "And if we want to berate staff, we should call an executive session. It's unprofessional. It's inappropriate" to do so in public.
Longtime critic
Ms. Miller, as a Dallas Observer columnist and a politician, has long criticized Mr. Hunt as a greedy businessman looking for public money wherever he can get it. Council members say the mayor has let her personal animosity toward him cloud her judgment.
"It seems like this was the opening of the Miller vs. Hunt trial," council member Ron Natinsky said.
Ms. Miller denied that her personal feelings toward Mr. Hunt factored into her opinions Wednesday.
"It doesn't at all, and I know that it's an easy way to divert people's attention away from the facts," the mayor said. "I'm very consistent about my discomfort for this stream of giveaways at Dallas City Hall. Today is a classic example of us needlessly and excitedly giving away millions of tax dollars simply because we are asked."
Mr. Rasansky said Ms. Miller perhaps should have saved her opinions of city staff members for private meetings. But council members should have restrained themselves, too.
"To do laundry in front of everyone is wrong," Mr. Rasansky said. "But Laura, she's elected by the whole city. She's thinking of the city as a whole."
Mayor lectures council, berates staff; she was 'over the edge,' Hill says
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas Mayor Laura Miller spent much of Wednesday criticizing staff members and real estate developers, decrying a tax abatement for billionaire oilman Ray Hunt's corporation as an insult to taxpayers and lecturing her City Council colleagues on why.
They would have none of it. And they weren't coy in telling her why.
"She probably went over the edge today. She probably crossed over, really kind of marginalized herself," Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill said of Ms. Miller at Wednesday's council meeting.
Over Ms. Miller's objections, the council passed, by an 11-2 vote, a $6.3 million tax abatement that all but assures Mr. Hunt will build a corporate headquarters building in downtown Dallas.
Mr. Hill later said that the mayor's dislike for Mr. Hunt helped fuel her fury. "You do not really have a mayor that you can work with in a nonintimidating way."
Said council member Ed Oakley to the mayor, "You think you can circumvent our authority and our powers. You can't."
John Scovell, president and chief executive officer of Woodbine Development Corp., a Hunt Consolidated subsidiary, reprimanded Ms. Miller for her attitude toward the city staff.
"Your staff is as good as it gets. OK? Do you understand that?" Mr. Scovell told her. "Instead of criticizing the staff and abusing this staff ... be grateful for what you have."
Ms. Miller, a longtime critic of Mr. Hunt's business practices, and council member Mitchell Rasansky voted against the tax abatement. Council member Gary Griffith was absent from the vote, and council member Linda Koop did not vote because of a declared conflict of interest.
Construction on the 15-story tower, to be built between Akard and St. Paul streets along Woodall Rodgers Freeway, will commence "within days," Mr. Scovell said.
"This is it. It's done. We're ready to build," Ms. Scovell said.
The Hunt headquarters would be among the first new office buildings constructed downtown in two decades. Mr. Hunt's headquarters now reside within 15 stories of the Fountain Place tower several blocks from the proposed construction site, and his lease on that property expires next year.
Talks on land swap
The council then authorized the city staff to continue negotiations with Hunt Consolidated that would swap city-owned Reunion Arena, which would be slated for demolition, for a parking lot near the Dallas Convention Center.
Dallas hopes to use the parking lot, known as Lot E, for sale or lease to development mogul Billy Bob Barnett, who has constructed facilities such as Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth, to build the proposed 100,000-square-foot Trinity Crossing Entertainment Complex downtown.
Ms. Miller and Mr. Rasansky also voted against the authorization. She explained she did so in part because she does not believe Hunt officials are willing to renegotiate a 1974 "master agreement" with the city governing the use of Reunion Arena and the nearby Reunion and Union Station developments.
Some of the leases, such as the company's $100-per-year lease from Dallas of Union Station's upper floors, and various property use restrictions contained in the master agreement limit Dallas' ability to fully realize the area's potential, Ms. Miller said. Hunt built Reunion Tower and the Hyatt Regency Dallas on adjoining land.
Mr. Scovell said he prefers not to renegotiate the agreement – "it was a win-win for both us and the city," he said – but is willing to discuss "anything in the agreement, any time, any place, with anybody."
Ms. Miller said the city would be well advised not to turn Reunion Arena over to Mr. Hunt. She contended it could be used for a casino – developers interested in the facility for such a use have approached her, she said – and generate considerable money for the city. Reunion Arena also sits near the Trinity River, which the city plans to develop into a recreational and ecological centerpiece for downtown.
She expressed concern that the city still owes a reported $19 million of debt on Reunion Arena's construction, arguing that Mr. Hunt, if he takes ownership of it, should help pay down that debt.
Using maps, charts and a laser pointer, Ms. Miller stood before the council during both the tax-abatement and land-swap discussions, explaining her concerns about both.
During the tax-abatement debate, she told her colleagues that a supposed tax-incentive offer to Hunt Consolidated from Irving, contained in a letter from the city's chief financial officer, is nothing of the sort. It's a vaguely worded form letter, containing no specific dollar amounts, that Dallas staff members were giving far too much credence and shouldn't be a basis for Dallas offering the company a tax abatement, she said.
"This was a stick-up game with a toy gun because the Irving offer didn't exist," Ms. Miller said. "Everybody is going to want an abatement. We're headed for a major financial problem. Where do we draw the line on money?"
She called to the audience for Mr. Hunt himself to answer her questions, but he was not present. Mr. Scovell stepped to the lectern in Mr. Hunt's place.
"You're focusing on something that's irrelevant," Mr. Scovell said. "This is not about Irving vs. Dallas."
Issue of trust
Ms. Miller later accused Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans of offering Hunt Consolidated a tax abatement when he promised her that he would not. The city cannot afford them, she said.
"I don't know how we develop the ninth-largest city in America without trust," Ms. Miller told Mr. Evans. "You don't do what you say you'd do. It's very, very troubling, and very subjective and very unfair."
Mr. Evans argued that the tax-abatement offer was justified because "things changed. There was another offer from Irving." He said the Irving letter to Hunt officials was worded in exactly the same way such offers from the city of Dallas are phrased.
"We had to act," Mr. Evans said.
Council member Bill Blaydes described the mayor's presentation as "an interesting experience."
"I've been lectured before," he said, "and I was taken aback by the mayor's comments."
"We do not want the mayor running good companies out of the city. We already lost the Dallas Cowboys," council member James Fantroy said. "And if we want to berate staff, we should call an executive session. It's unprofessional. It's inappropriate" to do so in public.
Longtime critic
Ms. Miller, as a Dallas Observer columnist and a politician, has long criticized Mr. Hunt as a greedy businessman looking for public money wherever he can get it. Council members say the mayor has let her personal animosity toward him cloud her judgment.
"It seems like this was the opening of the Miller vs. Hunt trial," council member Ron Natinsky said.
Ms. Miller denied that her personal feelings toward Mr. Hunt factored into her opinions Wednesday.
"It doesn't at all, and I know that it's an easy way to divert people's attention away from the facts," the mayor said. "I'm very consistent about my discomfort for this stream of giveaways at Dallas City Hall. Today is a classic example of us needlessly and excitedly giving away millions of tax dollars simply because we are asked."
Mr. Rasansky said Ms. Miller perhaps should have saved her opinions of city staff members for private meetings. But council members should have restrained themselves, too.
"To do laundry in front of everyone is wrong," Mr. Rasansky said. "But Laura, she's elected by the whole city. She's thinking of the city as a whole."
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Exclusive: Judge defends attorney-like actions
Alvarez did research, vowed to help abuser
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - A defiant judge said Wednesday that he did nothing wrong by performing defense attorney-like research during a recent trial and, after a jury convicted the defendant of child abuse, pledging to help her avoid prison.
"I did the work that I would have expected the defense attorney to do," state District Judge Manny Alvarez told The Dallas Morning News. "I did more research [than the lawyer] ... I don't apologize for that."
The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct could discipline him because, among other things, he didn't tell prosecutors about the research. It included Internet reading and a call to a former college roommate who's a Florida pediatrician – and who told The News that the judge didn't give him important information about the victim's injuries.
The judicial commission's executive director, Seana Willing, said she wasn't familiar with Judge Alvarez's actions but generally advises jurists to avoid the "inherent evil" of private communications about a case.
The goal, she said, is "to prevent a judge from making a decision" unless both sides in litigation know its basis and have had a chance to be heard. Potential punishments range from a private admonition to a public trial and removal from office.
Judge Alvarez said he came to believe that baby sitter Maria Hurtado might be innocent after reading online about a medical diagnosis cited in the case and consulting ex-roommate Dr. Alex Perez.
After jurors in his court convicted Ms. Hurtado two weeks ago and sentenced her to eight years in prison, he told them they had made a mistake because the prosecution and defense failed to present necessary testimony. He added that he would "fix it" by freeing the defendant without cash bail until he could arrange for a new trial and said the illegal immigrant might return to her native Mexico.
Prosecutors later learned from jurors what Judge Alvarez had said and protested in court, leading him to remove himself from the case Tuesday.
Dr. Perez said Judge Alvarez didn't tell him that Dallas doctors had diagnosed that 6-month-old Heaven Preciado had suffered from shaken baby syndrome, based in part on heavy bleeding in both eyes.
"That's shaken baby," the physician said. "That's key. He didn't mention that to me."
Judge Alvarez initially gave this version of his conversation with Dr. Perez: "I said, 'What would you expect to see if ... [Ms. Hurtado] shook her in the manner that they said?' He said, 'I would expect to see broken ribs, bruises on the chest and arms.' "
In a subsequent interview, the judge said he got this information from the pediatrician's wife, who is a lawyer and a nurse. He said his consultations with Dr. Perez occurred earlier in the trial, when he didn't know about the possible significance of bloody eyes.
Dr. Perez, who is assistant pediatric medical director at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, told The News what experts at Children's Medical Center Dallas told jurors: that broken bones and bruises don't always occur when infants suffer abusive shaking.
Indeed, Heaven did not have those injuries; she suffered closed-head trauma that left her blind and dependent on a feeding tube.
A Dallas police report says Ms. Hurtado, 26, initially admitted shaking the baby when she wouldn't stop crying. She later maintained that she shook Heaven only in trying desperately to revive her after the girl, for no apparent reason, suffered a seizure, her eyes rolling back in her head and her lips turning blue.
Judge Alvarez said he consulted Dr. Perez because he didn't understand the medical terminology used in court testimony and in online material.
"I make no apologies for that," he said. "I'd be foolish to sit there and listen and not understand."
When The News asked to review his research, the judge said he hadn't taken notes or made printouts.
"I just pulled them off the Internet. The first four pages [of a Google search] will tell you there are defenses to shaken baby. It took me three minutes to get it."
What he read, he said, led him to believe that the defendant's ultimate explanation was "very feasible," especially because the baby had an extremely high fever a few weeks before suffering the brain damage.
Judge Alvarez said he misspoke when talking to the jury.
"It was a poor choice of words, to use 'fix' instead of 'remedy,' " he said. "If I'm guilty of poor choice of words, fine. But my intent has never changed."
That intent, he said, is a fair trial for Ms. Hurtado. And to that end, "I didn't want to get off this case."
But he said his lawyer gave him this advice: "You are involved. You're passionately involved. I don't think you've done anything wrong, but maybe it's gotten to the point now that it looks bad."
Judge Alvarez added: "I don't want to give the impression that now I'm the voice of the defense. I'm really still in the middle."
But given that "I've told everyone what I needed to say," he said, he has decided to "let the facts stand for themselves. Let another judge come in and decide."
Judge Alvarez, a former defense attorney, said he had represented people accused of child abuse.
"I wasn't God's gift to the defense bar," he said. But "I know how I would have tried" the Hurtado case.
John Read, who was Ms. Hurtado's attorney, has said that he and prosecutors did excellent work on the case. The judge, he said, "is so full of [expletive]."
Asked whether he wished he could have taken Mr. Read's place, Judge Alvarez responded: "Every trial that I hear, I kind of wish I was back. I miss it. That's what I did forever" – a reference, he explained, to his defense work and a prior stint in the Dallas County district attorney's office.
He also said: "I love what I do now. I wouldn't do anything else."
In removing himself from the Hurtado case on Tuesday, Judge Alvarez accused prosecutors of violating various rules for lawyers and "attempting to manufacture an appearance of impropriety" by him.
District Attorney Bill Hill, the judge said Wednesday, "is questioning my integrity. That's a joke. In light of all that's gone on [with the fake-drug scandal], he's questioning me?
"That's what [expletive] me off, when they questioned my integrity, that I've got some reason to fix this case. I don't know these people," he said, referring to Ms. Hurtado and her supporters.
Mr. Hill's spokeswoman, Rachel Horton, said her office has done nothing wrong.
"We are not questioning the judge's integrity," she said. "We have simply filed motions based on what we know the facts and the law to be."
Alvarez did research, vowed to help abuser
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - A defiant judge said Wednesday that he did nothing wrong by performing defense attorney-like research during a recent trial and, after a jury convicted the defendant of child abuse, pledging to help her avoid prison.
"I did the work that I would have expected the defense attorney to do," state District Judge Manny Alvarez told The Dallas Morning News. "I did more research [than the lawyer] ... I don't apologize for that."
The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct could discipline him because, among other things, he didn't tell prosecutors about the research. It included Internet reading and a call to a former college roommate who's a Florida pediatrician – and who told The News that the judge didn't give him important information about the victim's injuries.
The judicial commission's executive director, Seana Willing, said she wasn't familiar with Judge Alvarez's actions but generally advises jurists to avoid the "inherent evil" of private communications about a case.
The goal, she said, is "to prevent a judge from making a decision" unless both sides in litigation know its basis and have had a chance to be heard. Potential punishments range from a private admonition to a public trial and removal from office.
Judge Alvarez said he came to believe that baby sitter Maria Hurtado might be innocent after reading online about a medical diagnosis cited in the case and consulting ex-roommate Dr. Alex Perez.
After jurors in his court convicted Ms. Hurtado two weeks ago and sentenced her to eight years in prison, he told them they had made a mistake because the prosecution and defense failed to present necessary testimony. He added that he would "fix it" by freeing the defendant without cash bail until he could arrange for a new trial and said the illegal immigrant might return to her native Mexico.
Prosecutors later learned from jurors what Judge Alvarez had said and protested in court, leading him to remove himself from the case Tuesday.
Dr. Perez said Judge Alvarez didn't tell him that Dallas doctors had diagnosed that 6-month-old Heaven Preciado had suffered from shaken baby syndrome, based in part on heavy bleeding in both eyes.
"That's shaken baby," the physician said. "That's key. He didn't mention that to me."
Judge Alvarez initially gave this version of his conversation with Dr. Perez: "I said, 'What would you expect to see if ... [Ms. Hurtado] shook her in the manner that they said?' He said, 'I would expect to see broken ribs, bruises on the chest and arms.' "
In a subsequent interview, the judge said he got this information from the pediatrician's wife, who is a lawyer and a nurse. He said his consultations with Dr. Perez occurred earlier in the trial, when he didn't know about the possible significance of bloody eyes.
Dr. Perez, who is assistant pediatric medical director at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, told The News what experts at Children's Medical Center Dallas told jurors: that broken bones and bruises don't always occur when infants suffer abusive shaking.
Indeed, Heaven did not have those injuries; she suffered closed-head trauma that left her blind and dependent on a feeding tube.
A Dallas police report says Ms. Hurtado, 26, initially admitted shaking the baby when she wouldn't stop crying. She later maintained that she shook Heaven only in trying desperately to revive her after the girl, for no apparent reason, suffered a seizure, her eyes rolling back in her head and her lips turning blue.
Judge Alvarez said he consulted Dr. Perez because he didn't understand the medical terminology used in court testimony and in online material.
"I make no apologies for that," he said. "I'd be foolish to sit there and listen and not understand."
When The News asked to review his research, the judge said he hadn't taken notes or made printouts.
"I just pulled them off the Internet. The first four pages [of a Google search] will tell you there are defenses to shaken baby. It took me three minutes to get it."
What he read, he said, led him to believe that the defendant's ultimate explanation was "very feasible," especially because the baby had an extremely high fever a few weeks before suffering the brain damage.
Judge Alvarez said he misspoke when talking to the jury.
"It was a poor choice of words, to use 'fix' instead of 'remedy,' " he said. "If I'm guilty of poor choice of words, fine. But my intent has never changed."
That intent, he said, is a fair trial for Ms. Hurtado. And to that end, "I didn't want to get off this case."
But he said his lawyer gave him this advice: "You are involved. You're passionately involved. I don't think you've done anything wrong, but maybe it's gotten to the point now that it looks bad."
Judge Alvarez added: "I don't want to give the impression that now I'm the voice of the defense. I'm really still in the middle."
But given that "I've told everyone what I needed to say," he said, he has decided to "let the facts stand for themselves. Let another judge come in and decide."
Judge Alvarez, a former defense attorney, said he had represented people accused of child abuse.
"I wasn't God's gift to the defense bar," he said. But "I know how I would have tried" the Hurtado case.
John Read, who was Ms. Hurtado's attorney, has said that he and prosecutors did excellent work on the case. The judge, he said, "is so full of [expletive]."
Asked whether he wished he could have taken Mr. Read's place, Judge Alvarez responded: "Every trial that I hear, I kind of wish I was back. I miss it. That's what I did forever" – a reference, he explained, to his defense work and a prior stint in the Dallas County district attorney's office.
He also said: "I love what I do now. I wouldn't do anything else."
In removing himself from the Hurtado case on Tuesday, Judge Alvarez accused prosecutors of violating various rules for lawyers and "attempting to manufacture an appearance of impropriety" by him.
District Attorney Bill Hill, the judge said Wednesday, "is questioning my integrity. That's a joke. In light of all that's gone on [with the fake-drug scandal], he's questioning me?
"That's what [expletive] me off, when they questioned my integrity, that I've got some reason to fix this case. I don't know these people," he said, referring to Ms. Hurtado and her supporters.
Mr. Hill's spokeswoman, Rachel Horton, said her office has done nothing wrong.
"We are not questioning the judge's integrity," she said. "We have simply filed motions based on what we know the facts and the law to be."
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Roads renamed, but history retained
Grand Prairie: Officials, residents hope new labels resolve confusion
By KATHY A. GOOLSBY / The Dallas Morning News
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Dr. Daniel W. Gilbert and Rose Lee Seaton can rest in peace.
On Tuesday, Grand Prairie's City Council approved new names for Gilbert and Seaton Roads that will continue to preserve the memories of Dr. Gilbert and Mrs. Seaton, two city pioneers.
Last month, residents of Bear Creek Community in north Grand Prairie met with city officials after learning of plans to eliminate the name Seaton Road and rename most of Gilbert Road.
It was a matter of safety, city officials said.
Emergency personnel sometimes mistake Seaton Road in north Grand Prairie with Seeton Road on the south side, said Kevin Lasher, the city's chief planner.
There also is confusion regarding Gilbert Road, which runs south out of Irving, becomes East Gilbert Road in Grand Prairie, changes names three times as it circles the neighborhood, then drops south to Shady Grove Road.
But for residents, it was a matter of history.
"They thought enough of him to name a road for him and put it all the way through to Shady Grove," said Dr. Gilbert's grandson, Dr. Clay Gilbert of Irving.
He said his grandfather, a white doctor, provided care for black residents from 1884 until his death in 1930.
Mrs. Seaton also played an important role in the community, said her grandsons, Grand Prairie resident Harvey Pipkins, 68, and his brother, Maurice Pipkins, 64, of Irving. She donated land for the road that bears her name, and also for a nearby church.
After listening to residents' concerns, city officials agreed to change Seaton Road to Rosa Lee Seaton Road. That was later tweaked to Rose Lee Seaton Road to match the name on the land deed provided by her grandsons.
Fixing the Gilbert Road problem proved more challenging because of its continuation into Irving. The solution was to drop East Gilbert Road's directional designation so that it becomes Gilbert Road to match its name in Irving.
South, West and North Gilbert roads, which form a "C," will be renamed Gilbert Circle. The road running south from the "C" will be South Gilbert Road.
Changing the three Gilbert roads to Gilbert Circle will necessitate address changes for the homes, but residents said that's a small price to pay.
"As long as they don't mess with our foundation, and Gilbert Road is our foundation, that's fine," said Mary Morton, who has lived on Gilbert Road in Irving since 1946.
Dr. Clay Gilbert said he is happy with the city's decision.
"I think my grandfather would be awfully pleased at the resolution of this problem," he said.
The new street names will become effective once the addresses are changed. That will take about a month, Mr. Lasher said. The cost to replace street signs will be about $250 per intersection.
Mr. Lasher said the U.S. Postal Service would deliver mail marked with the old addresses for 12 months after the changes are made.
Grand Prairie: Officials, residents hope new labels resolve confusion
By KATHY A. GOOLSBY / The Dallas Morning News
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Dr. Daniel W. Gilbert and Rose Lee Seaton can rest in peace.
On Tuesday, Grand Prairie's City Council approved new names for Gilbert and Seaton Roads that will continue to preserve the memories of Dr. Gilbert and Mrs. Seaton, two city pioneers.
Last month, residents of Bear Creek Community in north Grand Prairie met with city officials after learning of plans to eliminate the name Seaton Road and rename most of Gilbert Road.
It was a matter of safety, city officials said.
Emergency personnel sometimes mistake Seaton Road in north Grand Prairie with Seeton Road on the south side, said Kevin Lasher, the city's chief planner.
There also is confusion regarding Gilbert Road, which runs south out of Irving, becomes East Gilbert Road in Grand Prairie, changes names three times as it circles the neighborhood, then drops south to Shady Grove Road.
But for residents, it was a matter of history.
"They thought enough of him to name a road for him and put it all the way through to Shady Grove," said Dr. Gilbert's grandson, Dr. Clay Gilbert of Irving.
He said his grandfather, a white doctor, provided care for black residents from 1884 until his death in 1930.
Mrs. Seaton also played an important role in the community, said her grandsons, Grand Prairie resident Harvey Pipkins, 68, and his brother, Maurice Pipkins, 64, of Irving. She donated land for the road that bears her name, and also for a nearby church.
After listening to residents' concerns, city officials agreed to change Seaton Road to Rosa Lee Seaton Road. That was later tweaked to Rose Lee Seaton Road to match the name on the land deed provided by her grandsons.
Fixing the Gilbert Road problem proved more challenging because of its continuation into Irving. The solution was to drop East Gilbert Road's directional designation so that it becomes Gilbert Road to match its name in Irving.
South, West and North Gilbert roads, which form a "C," will be renamed Gilbert Circle. The road running south from the "C" will be South Gilbert Road.
Changing the three Gilbert roads to Gilbert Circle will necessitate address changes for the homes, but residents said that's a small price to pay.
"As long as they don't mess with our foundation, and Gilbert Road is our foundation, that's fine," said Mary Morton, who has lived on Gilbert Road in Irving since 1946.
Dr. Clay Gilbert said he is happy with the city's decision.
"I think my grandfather would be awfully pleased at the resolution of this problem," he said.
The new street names will become effective once the addresses are changed. That will take about a month, Mr. Lasher said. The cost to replace street signs will be about $250 per intersection.
Mr. Lasher said the U.S. Postal Service would deliver mail marked with the old addresses for 12 months after the changes are made.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Irving ISD falling short on testing goals
But district making strides on AP efforts, minority hiring
By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - The Irving school district is struggling to meet goals set for student achievement on assessment tests, according to a progress report recently presented to trustees.
But the district is making gains in the number of students taking Advanced Placement and college admissions tests and in hiring minorities.
The board recently received an update on objectives set by the district improvement committee. The committee includes parents, staff and students.
"We are concerned improvements are coming slowly," said Whit Johnstone, division director of planning, evaluation and research. "We have some high hills to climb."
The committee also has set its sights high.
"They are pretty lofty," said committee chairman Bob Harper, whose daughter attends Nimitz High School.
On state assessment tests, the goal is a passing rate of 90 percent of all students and subgroups.
On the exit-level TAKS tests last school year, the lowest percentage of students meeting standards was 75 on math, and the highest was 91 on social studies.
There were disparities between fifth-grade English and Spanish test-takers. While 83 percent of students taking the math portion in English passed, only 51 percent of those taking it in Spanish passed. In science, 44 percent of those tested in English passed; only 14 percent of those who took it in Spanish passed.
"One of the areas the school district continues to struggle with is students that come in limited in English and trying to get them to compete on these tests," Mr. Harper said.
Another goal is for the district to achieve an exemplary rating from the state and to have each campus rated higher than academically acceptable. The district was rated acceptable this year.
Elliott Elementary was rated unacceptable because of science performance of Hispanic and poor students.
For college admissions tests, the goal is 70 percent participation, with 40 percent of students scoring at least 1110 on the SAT and 24 on the ACT.
Participation increased last year to 60 percent. About 20 percent of students met scoring goals for both tests. The average SAT verbal score dropped from 494 to 481 and SAT math from 496 to 486. ACT reading was 19.6 and math 19.7
Another goal is to increase scores of three or higher on Advanced Placement exams by five percent at each high school. Three is typically the minimum score to receive college credit.
About 27.8 percent of students met that bar in 2005, down from 31.5 percent the previous school year. The number of students taking tests increased to 980 from 856. Minority participation increased to 58 percent of AP students.
The lowest number of students achieved a three or higher at The Academy, with 15 percent and the highest at Nimitz, with 43.6 percent.
"Requiring all AP students to take the exams helps us see if the classes are meeting the needs of students," Mr. Johnstone said.
Another goal is to retain 90 percent of professional and paraprofessional staff each year. The turnover rate for teachers remained at 19.6 percent last year, the same as the year before.
The district also aims to increase minority professional staff by 3 percent each year. In 2005, 34.2 percent of new hires were minorities, an increase from 30.8 percent the year before.
But district making strides on AP efforts, minority hiring
By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - The Irving school district is struggling to meet goals set for student achievement on assessment tests, according to a progress report recently presented to trustees.
But the district is making gains in the number of students taking Advanced Placement and college admissions tests and in hiring minorities.
The board recently received an update on objectives set by the district improvement committee. The committee includes parents, staff and students.
"We are concerned improvements are coming slowly," said Whit Johnstone, division director of planning, evaluation and research. "We have some high hills to climb."
The committee also has set its sights high.
"They are pretty lofty," said committee chairman Bob Harper, whose daughter attends Nimitz High School.
On state assessment tests, the goal is a passing rate of 90 percent of all students and subgroups.
On the exit-level TAKS tests last school year, the lowest percentage of students meeting standards was 75 on math, and the highest was 91 on social studies.
There were disparities between fifth-grade English and Spanish test-takers. While 83 percent of students taking the math portion in English passed, only 51 percent of those taking it in Spanish passed. In science, 44 percent of those tested in English passed; only 14 percent of those who took it in Spanish passed.
"One of the areas the school district continues to struggle with is students that come in limited in English and trying to get them to compete on these tests," Mr. Harper said.
Another goal is for the district to achieve an exemplary rating from the state and to have each campus rated higher than academically acceptable. The district was rated acceptable this year.
Elliott Elementary was rated unacceptable because of science performance of Hispanic and poor students.
For college admissions tests, the goal is 70 percent participation, with 40 percent of students scoring at least 1110 on the SAT and 24 on the ACT.
Participation increased last year to 60 percent. About 20 percent of students met scoring goals for both tests. The average SAT verbal score dropped from 494 to 481 and SAT math from 496 to 486. ACT reading was 19.6 and math 19.7
Another goal is to increase scores of three or higher on Advanced Placement exams by five percent at each high school. Three is typically the minimum score to receive college credit.
About 27.8 percent of students met that bar in 2005, down from 31.5 percent the previous school year. The number of students taking tests increased to 980 from 856. Minority participation increased to 58 percent of AP students.
The lowest number of students achieved a three or higher at The Academy, with 15 percent and the highest at Nimitz, with 43.6 percent.
"Requiring all AP students to take the exams helps us see if the classes are meeting the needs of students," Mr. Johnstone said.
Another goal is to retain 90 percent of professional and paraprofessional staff each year. The turnover rate for teachers remained at 19.6 percent last year, the same as the year before.
The district also aims to increase minority professional staff by 3 percent each year. In 2005, 34.2 percent of new hires were minorities, an increase from 30.8 percent the year before.
0 likes
-
TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Nanny charged with capital murder
McKinney: Case against woman 'absurd,' family tells newspaper in Peru
By JENNIFER EMILY and TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
McKINNEY, Texas – McKinney police Wednesday charged a nanny with capital murder in the death of a 14-month-old in her care.
Kyle Lazarchik died over the weekend after a severe brain injury that police said occurred while he was in the care of Ada Betty Cuadros Fernandez, 27. Police said she told them repeatedly that the baby hit his head on a doorframe as she carried him.
Records show doctors told police that Kyle's injuries were comparable to a fall from a six-story building or a major car crash.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez, who cared for Kyle and his twin for about a year, has declined to comment from jail. Kyle's family could not be reached for comment.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez's family told Ojo, a newspaper in Peru, that there is no way the nanny would purposely hurt a child in her care. She loves kids, which is why she chose to become a nanny while living in Texas, family members said.
"It's absurd to say that my wife killed a child. Her employers trusted her to such a degree that last week they threw a surprise birthday party for her," Ms. Cuadros Fernandez's husband, Rafael Meléndez, said in an interview with Ojo. "My wife called me a few hours after everything happened. ... She was really nervous, and she told me what happened. She said the boy fell. She didn't hurt him at any moment."
Luz Fernandez and Victor Cuadros told Ojo that their daughter said the baby was hurt accidentally and that police were pressuring her to confess to a murder she didn't commit.
"This situation is extremely painful. It's like part of my life is escaping from my hands," Luz Fernandez said.
Court records obtained Wednesday show police took several items from the house during their investigation, including a DNA swab of the laundry room sink.
McKinney police Capt. Randy Roland, who oversees criminal investigations, declined to say why investigators took the swab other than to say, "I'm sure it was something curious."
Police said that Kyle's injuries were internal and that he did not have cuts or scrapes on his head. Police said Ms. Cuadros Fernandez told them that after Kyle hit his head, he threw up blood and food he had just eaten and began convulsing.
Other items police took from the home include bibs, a pillow and pillowcase from the living room floor, pajamas and socks in the laundry room sink, $712 belonging to Ms. Cuadros Fernandez, the contents of a vacuum bag, the lint and dryer sheets from the dryer, and two crib mattresses.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez had been charged with felony injury to a child. She remains at the Collin County Jail in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Eduardo Rivoldi of the Peruvian Consulate in Houston said he talked to Ms. Cuadros Fernandez, a native of Peru, after her arrest last week. He said he offered legal advice and a list of local lawyers for her family to consider hiring.
Mr. Rivoldi said that only in extreme circumstances would the Peruvian government become involved in a criminal case on foreign soil. "And this one does not meet that criteria," he said.
Peru does not use the death penalty in its criminal justice system. In Texas, capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison.
"We are only trying to advise and ... be very respectful of the legal system here in Texas," Mr. Rivoldi said.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez would have to face a detention hearing before being freed from jail on bail because authorities fear she could flee the country, Capt. Roland said.
Laurie Ewing, Ms. Cuadros Fernandez's attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Stella M. Chávez and Al Día staff writer Anabel Márquez contributed to this report.
McKinney: Case against woman 'absurd,' family tells newspaper in Peru
By JENNIFER EMILY and TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
McKINNEY, Texas – McKinney police Wednesday charged a nanny with capital murder in the death of a 14-month-old in her care.
Kyle Lazarchik died over the weekend after a severe brain injury that police said occurred while he was in the care of Ada Betty Cuadros Fernandez, 27. Police said she told them repeatedly that the baby hit his head on a doorframe as she carried him.
Records show doctors told police that Kyle's injuries were comparable to a fall from a six-story building or a major car crash.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez, who cared for Kyle and his twin for about a year, has declined to comment from jail. Kyle's family could not be reached for comment.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez's family told Ojo, a newspaper in Peru, that there is no way the nanny would purposely hurt a child in her care. She loves kids, which is why she chose to become a nanny while living in Texas, family members said.
"It's absurd to say that my wife killed a child. Her employers trusted her to such a degree that last week they threw a surprise birthday party for her," Ms. Cuadros Fernandez's husband, Rafael Meléndez, said in an interview with Ojo. "My wife called me a few hours after everything happened. ... She was really nervous, and she told me what happened. She said the boy fell. She didn't hurt him at any moment."
Luz Fernandez and Victor Cuadros told Ojo that their daughter said the baby was hurt accidentally and that police were pressuring her to confess to a murder she didn't commit.
"This situation is extremely painful. It's like part of my life is escaping from my hands," Luz Fernandez said.
Court records obtained Wednesday show police took several items from the house during their investigation, including a DNA swab of the laundry room sink.
McKinney police Capt. Randy Roland, who oversees criminal investigations, declined to say why investigators took the swab other than to say, "I'm sure it was something curious."
Police said that Kyle's injuries were internal and that he did not have cuts or scrapes on his head. Police said Ms. Cuadros Fernandez told them that after Kyle hit his head, he threw up blood and food he had just eaten and began convulsing.
Other items police took from the home include bibs, a pillow and pillowcase from the living room floor, pajamas and socks in the laundry room sink, $712 belonging to Ms. Cuadros Fernandez, the contents of a vacuum bag, the lint and dryer sheets from the dryer, and two crib mattresses.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez had been charged with felony injury to a child. She remains at the Collin County Jail in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Eduardo Rivoldi of the Peruvian Consulate in Houston said he talked to Ms. Cuadros Fernandez, a native of Peru, after her arrest last week. He said he offered legal advice and a list of local lawyers for her family to consider hiring.
Mr. Rivoldi said that only in extreme circumstances would the Peruvian government become involved in a criminal case on foreign soil. "And this one does not meet that criteria," he said.
Peru does not use the death penalty in its criminal justice system. In Texas, capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison.
"We are only trying to advise and ... be very respectful of the legal system here in Texas," Mr. Rivoldi said.
Ms. Cuadros Fernandez would have to face a detention hearing before being freed from jail on bail because authorities fear she could flee the country, Capt. Roland said.
Laurie Ewing, Ms. Cuadros Fernandez's attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Stella M. Chávez and Al Día staff writer Anabel Márquez contributed to this report.
0 likes
TOM DELAY
CNN wrote:Smiling DeLay turns himself in for booking
(CNN) -- Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader who faces conspiracy and money laundering charges, turned himself in Thursday in Houston, one day after an arrest warrant was issued for him.
DeLay walked into the bonding department of the Harris County Sheriff's Office shortly after noon and was fingerprinted, photographed and released after posting $10,000 bond, sheriff's spokeswoman Lisa Martinez said.
DeLay's district office is in Sugar Land, a Houston suburb.
Outside the building, DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin blasted prosecutor Ronnie Earle, accusing him of singling out the Texas Republican for political retribution and planning to use DeLay's mug shot in Democratic mailings.
"He's got what he wanted. There's no reason for this. It was pure retaliation on the part of Ronnie Earle," DeGuerin said, holding up DeLay's mug shot. "There he is. Take a good look at him."
He also said the defense team "will expose his prosecution for what he is."(Watch: Report on DeLay being booked -- 2:03)
In his mug shot, a smiling DeLay is wearing a coat and tie. The photograph doesn't have numbers below his face like many mug shots because the county no longer uses such a system, Martinez said.
The booking happened a day after a state court issued an arrest warrant for him, ahead of his first scheduled court appearance Friday in Austin.
DeLay was indicted October 3 and an arrest warrant was issued Wednesday.
On September 28, a grand jury indicted Delay and associates John Colyandro and Jim Ellis on a conspiracy charge on allegations they steered $190,000 in corporate donations to state legislative candidates in 2002 and disguised the source by sending the money through national Republican campaign committees. Texas law prohibits corporate donations to political campaigns.
DeLay has accused Austin prosecutor Ronnie Earle, the Travis County district attorney, of launching a partisan vendetta against him. He showed his frustration Wednesday, telling CNN, "We all know what this is about. The quicker it's over the better."
There was no immediate official comment from the congressman's lawyers. But in a written statement, Earle's office said, "We believe that Congressman DeLay should be treated like everyone else."
Jeffrey Toobin, senior legal analyst for CNN, said he didn't see the issuance of the arrest warrant necessarily as a personal attack. When a warrant is issued in Texas after an indictment, "it is usually, but not always, a formality," Toobin told CNN's Lou Dobbs.
However, in many white-collar cases, Toobin said, the defense attorney and the prosecutor work out a surrender time for the defendant without a warrant being issued.
"That's kind of the civilized way to do it," he said. But there is nothing civil about the conflict between Earle and DeLay, "And this arrest warrant is further proof of that," Toobin said.
In addition, said Toobin, the fingerprinting and mug shot also will be embarrassing.
DeLay already has subpoenaed Earle, claiming prosecutorial misconduct in the case, and a hearing will be held on the legitimacy of the prosecution. Earle issued a subpoena last week for DeLay's phone records.
Because of his felony indictment, House GOP rules required DeLay to step down as majority leader, the No. 2 position in the House hierarchy. He was replaced by Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri.
After DeLay's defense raised questions about whether the conspiracy charge applied to the state election code back in 2002, Earle went to a second grand jury to instead seek a money-laundering charge against the three.
That grand jury refused to indict DeLay. But a third grand jury returned an indictment October 3, charging DeLay, Colyandro and Ellis with money-laundering and conspiracy.
Before DeLay's indictment on felony charges, according to DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, his client turned down an offer from the Texas prosecutor to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, which would have allowed him to remain as House majority leader.
The offer was revealed Monday in a letter from DeGuerin to Earle among a new batch of motions filed in the case. DeGuerin wrote that both Colyandro and Ellis have told prosecutors that DeLay "played no part in the transactions described in the indictment."
In motions filed Monday, DeGuerin requested a speedy trial and asked that DeLay be tried separately from Colyandro and Ellis because they want to pursue appeals of issues in the case that would delay the proceedings.
DeGuerin also filed motions to quash both of the criminal charges against DeLay on a laundry list of legal grounds.
Among the arguments raised by DeLay's defense was that the charges should have been brought in DeLay's home county rather than in Travis County, which includes the state capital, Austin.
In his letter to Earle, DeGuerin charged that Earle "contrived" to bring the indictment in Travis County because the district attorney in Fort Bend County "would reject the case."
0 likes
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests