News from the Lone Star State

[TexasStooge]

Restaurant Robber Thwarted

DALLAS, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- Two men at a Dallas Mexican restaurant stopped a would-be robber who was armed with a handgun this weekend.

Investigators said the man who attempted the robbery demanded money from employees of the Pancho's Mexican Buffet restaurant on Wheatland Road in Dallas. Two men, including an off-duty police officer, managed to disarm the man.

After a brief foot chase, police arrested James Harrison at a nearby apartment complex. Police still are looking for a second person they say was involved with the crime.

[TexasStooge]

'We don't want the baby'

Mom abandons infant at Dallas fire station

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas Fire Station No. 24 got a surprise delivery Monday night: a two-week old baby.

Firefighter Brent Cox had just finished dinner when the routine was interrupted by a knock at the door around 7 p.m.

Standing before him was a woman and what appeared to be here teenage daughter. She was carrying a newborn child.

"They just said, 'We don't want the baby,' and they handed it over," Cox said.

The state's Baby Moses law lets a parent drop off an unwanted child under the age of 60 days at a fire station, police station, hospital or church without facing charges. Texas was the first state to pass such a law in 1999; most other states now have similar measures on the books.

This is only the second time in five years that a newborn has been abandoned at a Dallas fire station.

"There's this two-week-old, healthy child. The child wasn't crying or anything, appeared to have real good color," Cox said, adding that the woman with the baby appeared to be more relieved than angry or upset. She did not offer a name or any other information before leaving the fire station.

Cox immediately contacted Child Protective Services. The baby was taken to Children's Medical Center Dallas for observation.

"There's a lot of people out there that would love to have a baby, or are trying to have a baby," Cox said. "If these people didn't want this baby, then it's obviously going to go to a better home, so in that aspect it's pretty positive for the future of the child."

[TexasStooge]

Fort Worth police seek missing man, daughter

FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Fort Worth police are asking for the public's help in locating a missing man and his three-year-old daughter.

On Saturday night, Mark Meador told a roommate that he and his daughter, Olivia Wade, were headed to the store. He said they would be back in 15 minutes.

That was the last time they were seen.

Meador, 44, was driving a green, four-door 1994 Isuzu Rodeo with Texas license plate P51-TPX.

He was wearing black pants and a white long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve shirt with the words "Sport Clips" printed on it. Meador is 6 feet tall and weighs 240 pounds. He has green eyes and brown hair.

Police said Meador has a history of substance abuse.

Olivia was wearing dark gray pants and a pink shirt. She is 3'-6" tall, weighs 40 pounds and has blue eyes and blonde hair.

Police have not classified this as an Amber Alert case, but they do want to hear from anyone who has information about Meador and his daughter.

WFAA-TV contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Elderly woman missing, car found

CORSICANA, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - Authorities are searching for a 77-year-old woman whose car was found abandoned off a muddy road in Corsicana.

Foul play was not suspected.

Iris Owens has been missing since Tuesday, when search officials said she was apparently headed to Wal-Mart in Corsicana, about 14 miles from her home in the tiny town of Purdon.

Yesterday morning a farmer found her car on a road east of Interstate 45, about 10 miles from the Wal-Mart.

Earlier reports that a beer can was found in the car of the nondrinker can be explained by the fact that she sold aluminum cans and had a bag of cans in the back of the car, according to Navarro County Chief Deputy Mike Cox.

Cox said that her family indicates that she has some short-term memory problems.

[TexasStooge]

Police plan charges in FW bodies case

By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth police said this week they will likely charge the man who left three bodies rotting in the back of van.

As police prepare the case with plans for an "abuse of a corpse" charge, the family members of the men who died said they hope justice is served. In the meantime, they are forced to make burial arrangements for a second time, leading to a feeling of losing their loved ones all over again.

Cheryle Jacobs thought her father Thomas Shadowens was cremated in August 2000.

"The remains were in the urn - that's what we were led to believe," Jacobs said.

She keeps the urn at her home in Dallas. But his skeletal remains and those of two others were discovered in the back of a transportation van in Fort Worth last week.

"It's unbelievable," Jacobs said. "In fact, I'm still to a degree in denial, I guess because I don't believe it's happened. But the facts speak for themselves."

Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani identified Shadowens and the other two men, Lonnie Leffall and Odis Hughes.

Many thought 93-year-old Leffall was cremated and buried next to his wife Naomi at Skyvue Cemetary just outside of Mansfield.

"We don't know who is in there as far as the remains, because they bring them to us and we bury the ones they bring to us," said the cemetery's Claud Estes.

Hughes' aunt Ophelia Douglas said he was also supposedly buried in May 2000 after he died at age 56.

"Yes, yes," Douglas said. "He was supposed to be cremated."

Williams Funeral Home took care of the arrangements for all three Fort Worth men. However, police said they will likely charge Donald Short for three counts of abuse of a corpse. Short owned North Star Transportation Services, and was responsible for delivering the bodies to the funeral home.

Police found them inside the van after it was repossessed from Short's Hurst home.

"I think he needs to be fully prosecuted ... to the fullest extent of the law," Jacobs said.

"I think that something should happen to the ones that left them in the van," Douglas said. "I think something should be done about it."

Donald Short is only talking through his attorney and did not return News 8's phone calls.

Abuse of a corpse is a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a one-year prison term and a $4,000 fine.

[TexasStooge]

Many don't want new downtown Fort Worth jail

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - Developers pouring millions of dollars into Fort Worth's rejuvenated riverfront are worried about one big unwanted project: a new jail.

If good fences make good neighbors, you'd think it couldn't get any better than the steel bars of the Tarrant County detention facility on Belknap Street in downtown Fort Worth. But the dazzling award-winning Radio Shack corporate campus just opened across the street, and plans are in the works for a San Antonio-style riverwalk with upscale waterfront living. The neighborhood is going upscale in a hurry, and to many the idea of building another jail nearby is criminal.

"It creates a black hole in the pedestrian urban environment we have here," said Andy Taft of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. "It adds nothing to the surroundings."

The merchants and landowners of downtown Fort Worth are pleading with Tarrant County officials to change plans to build a new jail in the middle of a central business district they consider a jewel.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson believes a new downtown lock-up would be cheaper to run and safer than transporting inmates from an outlying jail.

"If people will listen, I don't think it's as bad as people are saying," Anderson said. "There's about 2,000 jailbeds downtown right now. We're talking about adding 400 more."

Anderson would like a new jail next to the old jail. He figures it's not a desirable spot for a condominium development or fancy restaurant.

"You've got a block of real estate directly across the street from a jail holding 1,500 people," Anderson said.

Across town at the Petroleum Club, congresswoman Kay Granger wowed Fort Worth's wealthy and powerful with visions of riverfront development. So does she want a new downtown jail?

"I think we really need to think through things like that very carefully," Granger said.

Mayor Mike Moncrief isn't a big fan of the idea, either.

"If we can do it off-site, I'm more interested in looking in that direction," Moncrief said.

But Marvin Girouard, the affable Pier One CEO who put his company's new headquarters on the banks of the Trinity, figures the best idea will triumph, whatever it may be.

"Well, as our Muslim friends say, 'if it is to be it will be,'" Girouard said.

[TexasStooge]

Penny pinching is source of jail woes

County blames contractor, but years of records point to overstretched staffing

By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas County commissioners have made a whipping boy in the last week out of the University of Texas Medical Branch, blaming it for serious problems with health care in the county jail.

But myriad audits and budget requests over the years highlighted staffing problems long before UTMB came on the scene. And a comparison of the jail's staffing, funding and facility with those of other urban county jails in Texas shows that Dallas County's does indeed lag far behind in health care services.

UTMB's own assessment that the 146-member county jail medical team needs to grow by 53 positions – nearly 40 percent – rings true to health care advocates. They say commissioners' penny-pinching has driven the county's jail programs into the ground.

"We've always thought there needed to be substantially more money invested into the jail's health services," said David Kellogg, public policy director for the Mental Health Association of Greater Dallas. "It certainly has never been as high a priority for the commissioners as it should. They've not been willing to put up the appropriate money, and as a result there have been chronic problems."

Commission lays blame

That hasn't kept commissioners from blasting UTMB after a recent study detailed sweeping problems in the jail's health program, including problems that increase the medical risks to inmates.

The county contracted with UTMB in late 2002 to handle the jail's health services. Previously, the county itself handled jail health care.

Typical were the comments of Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who said last week: "UTMB has done a terrible job. They came to us and said they could improve care and save money, and they've done exactly the opposite."

Commissioner Mike Cantrell, while acknowledging the need for more staff, scoffed at UTMB's assessment in December that it needs 53 more positions.

"When they competed for the contract, they said they were proposing what they thought was adequate staffing based on accrediting bodies' recommendations," he said. "It's disingenuous for them to come in later and start saying they need more staff. That's an excuse. That should have been brought out a long time ago."

County commissioners have known for years about problems with the staffing levels in the jail's health programs.

In 1998, for instance, a report on the jail's psychiatric services said that the number of available nurses was inadequate and that some nurses would record administering medication that was never given, "perhaps because they are assigned too many tasks."

It also suggested increasing salary levels to help recruit and retain medical staff.

A 2001 study of conditions in the county's George Allen Detention Center by the U.S. Department of Justice noted that intake health screening was conducted on only 10 percent to 20 percent of the incoming inmates, that health appraisals were not routinely performed and that "a sufficient number of qualified mental health professionals are not available to perform timely assessments." It noted that urgent suicide assessments were conducted by nurses because mental health staff was not always available.

Dallas commissioners have been proudly frugal over the years, managing to keep the tax rate virtually unchanged for nearly a decade. In fact, the tax rate is lower today than it was in 1996.

But others warn that the frugality has cost the county more in the long term. Buffeted by the recent jail health study and last week's failing grade from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, by week's end Dallas commissioners had started to voice a willingness to spend more on the jail's health care staffing and facilities, whether or not they retain UTMB.

The Bexar County jail in San Antonio may provide a valuable lesson. In the 1970s, it faced federal oversight after a class-action suit brought by inmates over poor jail conditions, including health care. The federal court prodded the county to action.

Today, Bexar spends $8.75 per inmate on health care each day – well above the $5.69 that Dallas County spends. Bexar's 185 medical staff members treat a 4,000-inmate jail population. Dallas County has 39 fewer health care positions and nearly 3,000 more inmates.

In the Houston area, Harris County, which also faced federal oversight after a 1970s case, improved its jail health staff as well.

Over the years, Dallas commissioners have provided more health care staff but not everything that health directors said they needed. For instance, in fiscal 2000, the commissioners approved 11 new nurse positions and a new physician position. But in 2001, they added three nurses, not the five requested, and one psychiatric nurse instead of the three requested.

Dallas jail officials and medical experts say that even if commissioners increased the jail's medical staff, only half the problem would be solved. The recent report on jail health care and state jail inspectors pointed out that there are too few guards available to escort nurses and medical staff when treating inmates and to escort inmates from cells to clinics or the infirmary for treatment.

Bowles' view

Jim Bowles, the former sheriff who left office Dec. 31, made requests year after year for more jail guard positions devoted specifically to escorting medical staff. But commissioners routinely turned down those requests.

And for the last two years, the Texas jail standards commission has flagged Dallas County for failing to maintain the state-mandated ratio of one jailer for every 48 inmates. The commission has noted that the violations stem in part from jailers leaving their floor to escort inmates for medical care.

Mr. Bowles said he could not fill vacancies because the county's salary scale for jail guards remained uncompetitive with other city and county jails in the region. UTMB has also found it hard to fill vacancies on the health care side because of a less competitive salary structure.

"I wasn't trying to dress my staff in tuxedos, and I wasn't trying to serve the inmates filet mignon," Mr. Bowles said in an interview last week. "But they are human beings, and our responsibility is to care for them in a humane way."

And while county commissioners said they could provide little oversight of the jail because they were not given regular access, Mr. Bowles refuted that claim.

"I begged them to come in and look at the jail," he said. "They said they didn't have time. But that is their biggest responsibility in running the county."

He said that when he asked for more staff, former Commissioner Jim Jackson once told him: "Sheriff, I can absorb a million-dollar lawsuit now and then a lot easier than I can your budget extravagancies."

Mr. Jackson, now a state representative, said he doesn't recall saying that. He also declined to comment on the commissioners' history of handling staffing and financing at the jail.

"That's the current commissioners' problem," he said.

In fact, the county does face a lawsuit, filed in December by the family of James Mims, a mentally ill former inmate. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges long-standing abuse and neglect in the jail, and that the mistreatment also led to the death of inmate Clarence Lee Grant Jr. in 2003. In addition to seeking monetary damages, the suit asks for a court injunction to prevent further abuse.

"Because of lawsuits, the county will end up spending more money than they would have if they had put adequate resources into the health programs in the first place," said Mr. Kellogg of the Mental Health Association of Greater Dallas.

Susan Hays, Dallas County Democratic Party chairwoman, said: "The Republicans want to starve things, and that doesn't save you money. It costs you money in the long run.

[TexasStooge]

Bus driver accused of stranding girl, 5

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - A school bus driver is being investigated after he was accused of forcing a 5-year-old girl off a bus more than a mile from her scheduled stop.

The driver, whose name was not released, is on paid administrative leave until further notice, said Deanne Hullender, a spokeswoman for Dallas County Schools, which operates buses for some area districts.

Jadian Anderson said her daughter, Syria, was left on St. Augustine Road in Pleasant Grove on Friday after the child complained to the bus driver that another student was hitting her.

"He did not leave her with another adult; he left her on the street," Ms. Anderson said. "He was very negligent, and he endangered my child."

After Syria, a student at Edward Titche Elementary School, had walked about half a mile north to Scyene Road, a crossing guard saw her and noticed that she was crying. The guard was trying to find out where she lived when one of Ms. Anderson's relatives, a cousin, drove by and saw Syria with the crossing guard. Ms. Anderson said her cousin took the girl home.

Ms. Hullender said that if the driver acted inappropriately, "We will take the proper action."

The driver also is employed by the Dallas Independent School District as a hall monitor.

DISD spokesman Donald Claxton said the district has also placed the employee on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

[TexasStooge]

Hit man to die tonight for Dallas slaying

He killed Richardson woman in '83 plot by scorned socialite wife

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

RICHARDSON, Texas - The 4-year-old boy walked into his mother's bedroom and found her naked and bound, gagged and dying from two gunshot wounds to her head.

She had been raped. Tissue paper was jammed down her throat. High levels of the tranquilizer Thorazine, doctors later discovered, coursed through her failing heart.

Richardson nurse Rozanne Gailiunas died two days later.

Barring court intervention, George A. "Andy" Hopper Jr. will himself die tonight in the Huntsville death chamber for killing Ms. Gailiunas.

The 1983 murder remains one of Texas' most macabre in a generation, orchestrated by Joy Davis Aylor, the scorned socialite wife of Dallas homebuilder Larry Aylor, with whom Ms. Gailiunas was having an affair.

The case was so bizarre that it took more than a decade to fully crack, spawning worldwide news coverage, true-crime novels and a TV miniseries.

"It was just such a Byzantine situation, so many people involved, so difficult to unwind," said Cedar Hill author Carlton Stowers, whose 1994 book Open Secrets: A True Story of Love, Jealousy and Murder chronicled the saga. "When police finally solved it, there was just a cast of characters involved that seemed to keep growing."

Mr. Hopper, who pocketed $1,500 for the hit job, in part to feed his drug habit, evaded police for more than five years. Dallas police eventually caught him in December 1988, after he had fled from the car dealership where he worked during a police interview.

In 1992, a jury of seven men and five women, which took six months to select, convicted Mr. Hopper of capital murder in the strangling and shooting of Ms. Gailiunas.

He was the fourth link in a murder conspiracy chain: Ms. Aylor hired William Wesley Garland, who hired Brian Lee Kreafle, who hired Mr. Hopper to commit the murder. Both Mr. Garland and Mr. Kreafle are serving 30-year jail sentences.

Ms. Aylor received a life sentence in 1994 for her role in the killing but will be eligible for parole at some point.

Like Mr. Hopper, she evaded authorities for months, jumping her $140,000 bail in 1990 on the eve of her murder trial, in which prosecutors said they'd seek the death penalty. She was also charged with the attempted murder-for-hire of her husband when arrested in 1989.

That decision to flee might have spared her Mr. Hopper's fate.

Hiding out in the south of France, Ms. Aylor lived a luxurious, if brief, life on the lam. French authorities captured her in 1991.

In jail, she attempted suicide but failed. For 2 ½ years she fought extradition to the United States, and French authorities wouldn't release her into U.S. custody unless prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty, which France outlaws. Ultimately, U.S. authorities relented, and Ms. Aylor returned to Dallas to face trial.

Given that Mr. Hopper is the only member of the conspiracy condemned to death, his case deserves scrutiny up to the moment he's strapped to a death gurney, said Abe Bonowitz, spokesman for Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

While there is no doubt Mr. Hopper's crime is gruesome, "it's the whole question of fairness," Mr. Bonowitz said. "You have a system that treats people differently."

Mr. Hopper has one appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Mr. Hopper's attorney could not be reached for comment.

"We will continue to wait," Mr. Strickland said. "Nothing prevents him from raising more claims. If he does, we'll be ready to respond."

If not, and courts do not issue stays, the execution will take place at some point after 6 p.m., said Mike Viesca, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

And even with Mr. Hopper's death, the case's closest observers will still be in search of an answer to the most basic question: Why?

"You look at this guy, and he's a nice-looking, clean-cut kid. He seemed to be an intelligent guy who fit into society," Mr. Stowers said. "You just wonder how in the world does someone get to the point where he was, why he carried things to such extremes. I don't even know if he knows."

[TexasStooge]

Public housing coming to Far N. Dallas

Legal battle over site in Far N. Dallas delayed development for 9 years

By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - The Dallas Housing Authority plans to move ahead with fiercely contested plans for public housing in Far North Dallas that have been delayed for nine years because of a lawsuit by homeowners who live near the proposed location.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans recently upheld a lower court ruling that approved the site at the southeast corner of Hillcrest Road and the Bush Turnpike in Collin County. Dallas housing officials said the decision allows the agency to start the project.

The local housing agency plans to file permits to start construction next week, said Ann Lott, Dallas Housing Authority president and CEO. She said she hopes that 40 of the 7,913 families the agency's waiting list for public housing could move in by summer 2006.

"I think this is going to give them a tremendous opportunity to move into areas that previously they haven't had access to," Ms. Lott said. "It's going to be a wonderful place for families to live."

Michael Lynn – lawyer for homeowners in the Preston Highland and Highlands of McKamy neighborhoods – said homeowners could appeal the ruling. He disputed whether the appeals court decision means that the housing authority can start the process to build the housing. He said housing officials have not told him of the plans to start construction soon.

"They haven't said anything like that to me, and I will have to deal with it when I see the facts," Mr. Lynn said.

The housing authority bought the land in 1996 to fulfill a landmark court order to desegregate public housing.

A year earlier, U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer had ordered the housing agency to provide homes for 3,205 families in predominantly white areas of Dallas and its suburbs – 474 of them new homes.

Homeowners who lived close to the proposed sites sued to stop the construction, but Judge Buchmeyer ruled against them in 1997. The 5th Circuit struck down Judge Buchmeyer's order in 1999, ruling that race cannot be used as a factor in choosing sites. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of that decision in January 2000.

The housing authority reached a final settlement in that case in December.

The 40 town houses affected by the 5th Circuit's ruling last week are the last project needed to carry out Judge Buchmeyer's 1995 desegregation order.

Homeowners in the Hillcrest Road-area neighborhood had sought to stop the construction of the 40 town houses, arguing that the housing agency violated federal law by choosing the land because the Hillcrest Road-area neighborhood is predominantly white. The housing authority countered that the selection of the site was not based on race but met other criteria, such as a low concentration of poverty.

The decision by the 5th Circuit on the Hillcrest Road property means that 40 families will have the opportunity to live in a "good, safe" neighborhood with access to job and transportation, said Mike Daniel, a Dallas lawyer and longtime advocate for public housing residents.

An expert in housing discrimination and segregation law said the latest decision would be watched closely in other parts of the country that face ongoing desegregation lawsuits.

"What's important about this decision is this housing will get built, and there will be some racial and economic integration ... and people's lives are going to be improved," said Florence Roisman, a law professor at Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. Ms. Lott said the new town houses would blend in well with the surrounding neighborhood. Residents, who will be required to participate in a program to reach self-sufficiency, will pay a portion of their incomes in rent.

Through the years, the housing authority resisted several offers to buy the property and a proposed settlement with homeowners to abandon the project. Ms. Lott said her agency believed the land would be too valuable for the poor families who will live there.

"There was just no good reason to sell the property. It just wouldn't have been in the best interest of the 7,000 or so families who are waiting for public housing at any given time," Ms. Lott said. "To sell it would be to give up."

[rainstorm]

Hit man to die tonight for Dallas slaying

He killed Richardson woman in '83 plot by scorned socialite wife

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

RICHARDSON, Texas - The 4-year-old boy walked into his mother's bedroom and found her naked and bound, gagged and dying from two gunshot wounds to her head.

She had been raped. Tissue paper was jammed down her throat. High levels of the tranquilizer Thorazine, doctors later discovered, coursed through her failing heart.

Richardson nurse Rozanne Gailiunas died two days later.

Barring court intervention, George A. "Andy" Hopper Jr. will himself die tonight in the Huntsville death chamber for killing Ms. Gailiunas.

The 1983 murder remains one of Texas' most macabre in a generation, orchestrated by Joy Davis Aylor, the scorned socialite wife of Dallas homebuilder Larry Aylor, with whom Ms. Gailiunas was having an affair.

The case was so bizarre that it took more than a decade to fully crack, spawning worldwide news coverage, true-crime novels and a TV miniseries.

"It was just such a Byzantine situation, so many people involved, so difficult to unwind," said Cedar Hill author Carlton Stowers, whose 1994 book Open Secrets: A True Story of Love, Jealousy and Murder chronicled the saga. "When police finally solved it, there was just a cast of characters involved that seemed to keep growing."

Mr. Hopper, who pocketed $1,500 for the hit job, in part to feed his drug habit, evaded police for more than five years. Dallas police eventually caught him in December 1988, after he had fled from the car dealership where he worked during a police interview.

In 1992, a jury of seven men and five women, which took six months to select, convicted Mr. Hopper of capital murder in the strangling and shooting of Ms. Gailiunas.

He was the fourth link in a murder conspiracy chain: Ms. Aylor hired William Wesley Garland, who hired Brian Lee Kreafle, who hired Mr. Hopper to commit the murder. Both Mr. Garland and Mr. Kreafle are serving 30-year jail sentences.

Ms. Aylor received a life sentence in 1994 for her role in the killing but will be eligible for parole at some point.

Like Mr. Hopper, she evaded authorities for months, jumping her $140,000 bail in 1990 on the eve of her murder trial, in which prosecutors said they'd seek the death penalty. She was also charged with the attempted murder-for-hire of her husband when arrested in 1989.

That decision to flee might have spared her Mr. Hopper's fate.

Hiding out in the south of France, Ms. Aylor lived a luxurious, if brief, life on the lam. French authorities captured her in 1991.

In jail, she attempted suicide but failed. For 2 ½ years she fought extradition to the United States, and French authorities wouldn't release her into U.S. custody unless prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty, which France outlaws. Ultimately, U.S. authorities relented, and Ms. Aylor returned to Dallas to face trial.

Given that Mr. Hopper is the only member of the conspiracy condemned to death, his case deserves scrutiny up to the moment he's strapped to a death gurney, said Abe Bonowitz, spokesman for Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

While there is no doubt Mr. Hopper's crime is gruesome, "it's the whole question of fairness," Mr. Bonowitz said. "You have a system that treats people differently."

Mr. Hopper has one appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Mr. Hopper's attorney could not be reached for comment.

"We will continue to wait," Mr. Strickland said. "Nothing prevents him from raising more claims. If he does, we'll be ready to respond."

If not, and courts do not issue stays, the execution will take place at some point after 6 p.m., said Mike Viesca, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

And even with Mr. Hopper's death, the case's closest observers will still be in search of an answer to the most basic question: Why?

"You look at this guy, and he's a nice-looking, clean-cut kid. He seemed to be an intelligent guy who fit into society," Mr. Stowers said. "You just wonder how in the world does someone get to the point where he was, why he carried things to such extremes. I don't even know if he knows."

too bad his death wont be as brutal as hers

[TexasStooge]

City is facing budget shortfall

By Anna M. Tinsley, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - The city could face a nearly $15 million shortfall -- despite rising property and sales tax collections -- partly because of increasing health care costs, employee raises and inflation.

And other proposed initiatives, such as storm water improvements and homeland security, could tack millions of dollars more onto that shortfall.

Budget writers said they hope the city's financial picture will improve.

"This is just a starting point for us," said Budget Director Bridgette Garrett, who on Tuesday gave City Council members the first look at next year's potential revenues and expenses. "We always start with a gap. This is preliminary."

The city manager's formal budget proposal will go to the council in August and be up for a vote in September.

The problem is that two-thirds of the current budget is already earmarked for police, firefighting, transportation and debt services.

Budget writers say promised raises for police, fire and other employees -- along with group health costs, four-person staffing on fire trucks, inflation and bond project costs -- turn what would have been a $10 million surplus into a $4 million shortfall.

Then add a 4 percent raise for other city employees, and $2 million to start paying for a new accounting computer system, and the deficit jumps to $14.6 million, Garrett said.

"We've got some significant budget challenges ahead," Mayor Mike Moncrief said.

This comes despite a lower unemployment rate, now at 6.6 percent, an anticipated increase in sales tax revenue and strong home construction.

Moncrief and others say tough choices could lie ahead as roads are crumbling around the city and the storm-water system is slowly failing. Officials also want to continue revitalizing the central city, improving services for the homeless, addressing a lack of parking and improving park maintenance.

There also are proposals for improvements such as a commuter rail system, possibly reduced federal funds and the possibility of having to increase ambulance authority subsidies, budget writers said.

Some city departments are already projected to be over budget, including more than $500,000 for the Municipal Court, $436,000 for the parks department, $280,000 for code compliance and $261,000 for the Police Department.

The budget discussion came soon after Police Chief Ralph Mendoza appeared before the council and said he wants more patrol officers, detectives and supervisors to hold the crime rate down.

Last year, the council approved a $774.5 million budget, which kept the city tax rate -- one of the highest among large cities in Texas -- at 86.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

The council reduced the tax rate seven consecutive years after it peaked in 1994-95 at 97.35 cents per $100.

Calculations show that a 1-cent increase in the city's property tax rate would generate an additional $2.4 million. A half-cent increase would bring in an additional $1.2 million, and a quarter-cent would generate nearly $625,000.

Staff Writer Bill Teeter Contributed to This Report.

• Estimated cost rises 21 percent for Trinity River Vision project. 14B

[TexasStooge]

Teen who killed infant is ordered to adult prison

By Domingo Ramirez Jr., Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - A Grapevine teen convicted of killing a baby in 2003 Tuesday was ordered to a Texas adult prison after she misbehaved too many times in youth facilities.

State District Judge Jean Boyd approved the transfer for Jennifer Henson, 18.

During a one-day hearing, a Texas Youth Commission official presented stacks of records indicating that Henson has been disruptive in her 14 months in state juvenile facilities.

"She's a chronic disruption, she continually violates rules, and she's failed to progress on her treatment," said Leonard Cucolo, a youth-commission court liaison who testified Tuesday before Boyd.

In November 2003, Henson pleaded guilty to the juvenile equivalent of capital murder for killing a 3-week-old baby at a North Richland Hills church. She was sentenced to 10 years in juvenile and adult prisons.

State officials testified Tuesday that Henson has had 323 incidents of misconduct. She was assigned to a security unit 71 times for misbehavior, according to youth-commission records.

And Henson has shown little or no progress in her academics, behavior and rehabilitation, records showed.

Those records were entered into evidence Tuesday as youth-commission officials attempted to transfer Henson to a Texas adult prison to serve the rest of her 10-year sentence. The youth commission can hold juveniles until they turn 21.

Mark Daniel of Fort Worth, Henson's attorney, said his client is too immature for an adult prison and that at times she was not given medication for her attention disorder.

Daniel pointed out that Henson's adoptive parents, Jeff and Terri Henson, have visited their daughter every weekend since she had been sentenced. The couple and other relatives were in the courtroom Tuesday.

Jennifer Henson, who was handcuffed and in ankle shackles, hugged her parents during a break in testimony Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday afternoon after Trenton's mother, Cassy Robbins, testified about her son.

"I had put up for adoption to give him a better future," Cassy Robbins testified. "I'm here to remind the court that he never got that chance."

Trenton Robbins died Aug. 16, 2003, the day he was to be adopted.

An autopsy by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office showed that he had head injuries consistent with a high-speed automobile accident or a fall of at least 50 feet.

Trenton was injured at Legacy Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, where his foster mother, Terri Henson, worked part time.

Jennifer Henson, then 16, was alone with the baby in a lounge while Terri Henson worked in a nearby office, church officials have said.

A church official called 911 after the baby was found on the floor, not breathing, according to North Richland Hills police.

[TexasStooge]

Cancer clinic still open despite lawsuits

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Overdose is a word nobody wants to hear.

But what if a clinic gives you too much of a drug that's supposed to cure you? That's what happened to two people, months apart, at a North Texas cancer clinic.

A Dallas jury delivered a record verdict in the case, but the doctor is still in business.

Bill Jameson was an 82-year-old grandfather known to most as "Daddy Bill". He was a veteran, and a cancer patient.

Jameson was getting controlled poison, otherwise known as chemotherapy, to control his cancer. But as News 8 reported nearly two years ago, he died after receiving twice his normal chemo dose at Hope Oncology Clinic.

Maureen LuPlace, who once worked at the clinic, saw it coming.

"I remember being in my house, I think it was, and I was with my family at dinner - and I knew that would happen," LuPlace said.

While Daddy Bill trusted in Hope Oncology, testimony in a landmark lawsuit paints its three locations as places where money, incompetence and chaos ruled.

- The chief administrator admitted to stealing drugs from the clinic, and records show she lost her nursing license in 1988 for using them.

- The chemotherapy nurse who treated Jameson got just two days of training in a hotel room to do her job.

- And doctor Volker Gressler, who owned the clinic, was driven by money - at least that's what a jury decided in awarding a $600 million verdict against Gressler.

"Dr. Gressler didn't show up for trial," LuPlace said. "Dr. Gressler only came for an hour in the whole case."

Attorney Mike Sawicki estimates one Hope Clinic grossed $1 million a week. But after Maureen LuPlace warned Gressler about his inexperienced nurse, he fired her.

"He ignored risks that he'd been fully aware of, that he'd been warned about, that he knew could be severe, knowing that those could cause patient harm," Sawicki said.

And less than four months after Bill Jamison died from too much chemo, patient Mark Courtney also received an overdose. He lived, but still suffers. His case was settled out of court.

A complaint against Dr. Gressler was filed with the Texas Board of Medical Examiners, which polices doctors in Texas. The board won't confirm or deny whether it's investigating. He remains in practice.

[TexasStooge]

Grade school burns in Malakoff

MALAKOFF, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Fire swept through an elementary school in Malakoff early Wednesday.

The first alarm at Malakoff Elementary School sounded about 3:30 a.m., and firefighters battled the flames into the morning hours.

School officials said they did not know what started the fire. There were no reports of injuries.

Classes at the school, which serves about 500 students, were canceled on Wednesday.

Malakoff is a community of 2,000 in Henderson County located 60 miles southeast of Dallas.

WFAA-TV contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Unanswered questions in van corpses case

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas — Tarrant County officials say they have been unable to determine why a mortuary van operator failed to have three corpses cremated as scheduled in 2000.

The decomposed remains of the three men—Otis Hughes, 56; Thomas Shadowens, 89; and Lonnie Leffall, 93—were discovered last week inside a repossessed van in Hurst. They had been dead for almost five years.

Tarrant County Medical Examiner Dr. Nizam Peerwani updated reporters Tuesday about the case. He said van operator Donald Short rented garage space behind a funeral home on Henderson Street, and also leased space in a large cooler. It's believed Short kept the bodies there until he lost his lease in 2002.

Funeral director Monte Brown said Short did reliable work, and no one noticed the bodies.

"I did not know the bodies were here," Brown said. "Being a mortuary service, they were bringing bodies in and out all the time."

Peerwani said after Short removed the bodies, it remains unclear what happened to them between that time and their discovery in the van last week.

Short was supposed to have taken the corpses to a crematorium and then returned to the funeral home with the ashes. Peerwani said Short did return with something, but not with the remains of the deceased.

"As to why he did not cremate the bodies, I'm not really very sure why he didn't do that," Peerwani said.

"The explanation that he gave us was that the cremation permits had expired, and he didn't want to refile," Peerwani said. "He didn't know what to do with the bodies, so he was just keeping the bodies."

The medical examiner said that reasoning made no sense to him, since cremation permits do not expire.

Fort Worth police have indicated that they intend to charge Short with abuse of a corpse, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a one-year prison term and a $4,000 fine.

[TexasStooge]

911 officials investigate incident

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

IRVING, Texas - At the Dallas 911 call center, 144 operators answer four million emergencies a year.

But one call has become the priority during a weekly meeting with call takers.

"Good afternoon everybody," a supervisor told 911 call-takers. "As you all know, we had an incident occur not too long ago regarding road rage."

Brian Hedenberg dialed 911 from his cell phone last Wednesday when an enraged driver tried to run him off Highway 114.

An Irving dispatcher transferred the call when the chase entered Dallas city limits.

"You haven't advised him to pull over in your city so that he can make a report with your officer? It's not a road rage for Dallas," said the Dallas dispatcher.

Irving's dispatcher replied, "Are you not willing to help this gentleman?"

The Dallas 911 operator refused to transfer the call to police dispatchers. Hedenberg hung up as the two argued.

The assistant chief for 911 in Dallas said the operator did not follow procedure.

"I think the biggest emphasis we place on any type of transfer call, that if it's something that is in Dallas, take that call," said Dallas Fire-Rescue assistant chief Ronald Gamez.

Supervisors are now meeting with all 911 call-takers to make sure they don't make the same mistake, because even one bad call could mean tragedy.

"We just need to be aware: when we receive a call like that, we need to take action," Gamez said.

Internal affairs is now investigating the refused call. The operator could face disciplinary action.

[TexasStooge]

Pilot makes emergency landing in Arlington park

ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A pilot had to make an emergency landing at an Arlington park Tuesday night after running out of fuel.

Dennis Fluke was just two miles from Arlington Municipal Airport when he had to make the split-second decision to land his Cessna at Vandergriff Park in the 2900 block of Center Street.

Fluke was coming from Alvord, where he had been working on a farm he owns there. He said he ran into trouble around 8:30 p.m. while in flight.

"The engine sputtered, and I couldn't make it to the highway or the airport," Fluke said. "I knew this was an open field, so after the engine quit on me I had to glide in."

This is the first time Fluke has had to make an emergency landing in his 26 years of flying. No one was injured.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said Fluke will have to tow his plane to the airport nearby.

[TexasStooge]

2-year-old survives on syrup, onions

HOUSTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - A 2-year-old boy survived for up to two days on pancake syrup and onions after his caretaker died in their home, police said.

The boy was found on Monday after a relative of 64-year-old Gladie Mae Johnson became concerned because she hadn't heard from her.

When the relative knocked on the door of Johnson's home, she heard knocking back from inside. She entered through an unlocked back door and found the boy and Johnson's body.

Johnson was last seen alive on Friday and may have died on Saturday, Houston Police Department Sgt. Paul Motard said. She apparently died of natural causes.

Investigators found an open and nearly empty container of pancake syrup on the floor. Some onions also were found lying near Johnson's body.

Johnson was a friend of the boy's family and had been caring for him since last year, when his mother went to prison, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Estella Olguin said.

[TexasStooge]

Missing man, daughter found in Dallas

FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A Fort Worth man and his 3-year-old daughter missing since Saturday night were found Tuesday in a parking lot near NorthPark Center in Dallas, police said.

Neither appeared to be injured, and Dallas police investigators were interviewing them to determine what happened. since the weekend.

Mark Meador, 44, told a roommate that he and his daughter, 3-year-old Olivia Wade, were going to the store about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and would be back in 15 minutes. They did not return.

An Amber Alert was not issued for the missing child since the circumstances surrounding the disappearance did not meet stringent criteria, Fort Worth police Lt. Mark Krey said.