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#1001 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:15 pm

District honors outstanding students at ICE Awards

IRVING, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - The 2005 Irving Celebration of Excellence (ICE) Awards were Thursday at Irving High School. Led by master of ceremonies Mike Castellucci, a.k.a. the "Why Guy" of WFAA ABC 8, the event honored Irving ISD students in six categories: Academics, Fine Arts, Athletics & Physical Education, Community Service/Citizenship, Special Campus/District, and Innovative Programs. An elementary, middle and high school winner was named in each group.

The Irving ISD Board of Trustees and Superintendent Jack Singley joined Mr. Castellucci onstage. Music was provided by the All-City Orchestra, directed by Alfred Green, the district's director of fine arts.

And the winners are:

Academics

•Britain Elementary School's Eric Sifuentes for Technology Olympics

•Bowie Middle School for "Buddy Reading with Britain"

•Nimitz High School for its Academic Decathlon Team, Texas Academic Decathlon Meet-Large Schools Division

Fine Arts

•Brown Elementary School for The Wizard of Oz, produced by the Gifted & Talented Drama Club

•Lamar Middle School for Into the Woods, Jr.

•Irving High School for Les Miserables, school edition, a districtwide performing arts production

Athletics & Physical Education*

•Lamar Middle School's Michael Anguiano

•Irving High School's varsity football team, the district, bi-district, area and regional champions

*There were no elementary school entries

Community Service/Citizenship

•Townley Elementary School for "Read for the Cure"

•Travis Middle School's sixth-grade yellow team for its Banner Exchange with Russian Middle School

•MacArthur High School's Student Council for "Mission Possible: Community Service"

Special Campus/District

•Keyes Elementary School for "A Work of Heart"

•Travis Middle School for its Black History Living Museum

•MacArthur High School for its Best of the Best Award, 21st Century Schools of Distinction

Innovative Programs

•Britain Elementary School for the Britain Globetrotters

•Bowie Middle School for "Java Makes Me Jump"

•MacArthur High School for its Student Leadership Forum
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#1002 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:17 pm

Dallas Repo Men Shot At While Chasing Would-Be Car Thieves

Repo Men Say Thieves Tried To Steal Tow Truck

DALLAS, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- Dallas police looking for four armed men who shot at two repo men chasing them.

The repo men said the foursome tried to steal their tow truck. The four men fled the scene in a van and the repo men gave chase.

While following the four, the repo men stayed on the phone with police during a chase that they say hit speeds over 100 MPH and erupted into gunplay.

The repo men said the other men didn't start shooting until they started chasing them

The chase ended at an apartment complex near the Dallas farmer's market where all four men bailed out of the van.

"We were chasing them all the way to here ... 'cause we caught them stealing our truck," said one of the repo men.

Dallas police seized the van that the four men left behind and hope to obtain evidence from the vehicle that will give police some clues about the men's identities.
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#1003 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:13 pm

Iraqi Drowning Trial Begins At Fort Hood

AUSTIN, Texas (KEYE CBS 42) - The court-martial of a platoon leader accused of ordering soldiers to force two Iraqis into a river began Monday at Fort Hood. First Lieutenant Jack Saville is charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making a false statement. Saville is accused of ordering troops to push two curfew violators into the Tigris River in early 2004, leading to the drowning of Zaidoun Hassoun. But defense lawyers say the Iraqi is still alive.

In January, Sergeant First Class Tracy Perkins was convicted of two counts of aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and assault consummated by battery. Perkins was sentenced to six months in military prison and was reduced by one rank to staff sergeant. Perkins and Saville are part of the Third Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Carson, Colorado, which is part of the Fort Hood-based Fourth Infantry.
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#1004 Postby TexasStooge » Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:15 pm

Teacher Charged With Sex Assault Of Child

CONROE, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - A first-grade teacher was arrested on an aggravated sexual assault of a child charge, Local 2 reported Monday.

Investigators said Jorge Landeros, a teacher at Anderson Elementary School, 1414 East Dallas, in the Conroe Independent School District, was arrested on Friday after a parent filed a complaint Wednesday.

Neither school officials nor Conroe police would tell Local 2 where the alleged assault occurred or the specifics.

Landeros was arrested off-campus.

He posted a 15,000 bond Sunday and was released from jail. Aggravated sexual assault of a child is a first-degree felony.

A letter was sent home with students Monday, but it did not mention the charge. The letter stated that Conroe ISD and the police department were investigating a complaint on a teacher.

Parents were upset at the news.

"My kids go to school at Anderson school and this is shocking because you don't want your kids to be in a school where there's a teacher who has these charges," said Yolanda Huerta, a parent. "It's just scary."

Landeros has been with Conroe ISD since August 2003.

Local 2 worked on this story through their local newspaper partnership with Houston Community Newspapers and the Conroe Courier.
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#1005 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:26 am

Bishop posts $405,000 bail

By Anthony Spangler and Mark Agee, Star-Telegram Staff Writers

FORT WORTH, Texas - Authorities add a charge of drug possession to the sexual assault charges against a minister of an Arlington church.

Bishop Terry L. Hornbuckle's release from jail Monday on rape charges was delayed when authorities filed a felony drug possession case against him.

Sheriff's deputies found one to four grams of suspected methamphetamine inside Hornbuckle's vehicle when they arrested him Friday, court and jail officials said.

Authorities added a charge of possession of a controlled substance to Hornbuckle's four charges of sexual assault before releasing him Monday on $405,000 bail.

"He was in his street clothes and we were ready to turn him loose. Then we got word of the new charge," said Terry Grisham, a spokesman for the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.

Hornbuckle, 43, of Grapevine, spent the weekend in jail after being indicted and arrested on Friday in connection with alleged sexual assaults of three women who attended Agape Christian Fellowship in Arlington -- a church he started at a Dairy Queen in the mid-1980s.

Hornbuckle, who told jailers of his eagerness for freedom because of his son's birthday on Monday, was placed on electronic monitoring, Grisham said. Additionally, Hornbuckle is subject to periodic urine testing for alcohol and drugs and is prohibited from having contact with his accusers.

Hornbuckle has denied the allegations through statements released by a New York public relations firm.

The drug charge, which added $5,000 bail, is a third-degree felony punishable by up 10 years in prison. The sexual assault charges are first-degree felonies, which carry a maximum punishment of up to life in prison.

In December, three women filed personal-injury lawsuits against Hornbuckle, the 2,500-member Agape Christian Fellowship and eight church board members. The lawsuits, which do not specify monetary damages, accuse Hornbuckle of using his position in the church to gain the women's trust before sexually assaulting them. In two of the cases, the women claim to have been drugged before being assaulted.

Authorities have indicted one of the church board members named in the lawsuits, Lisa J. Mikals, on a charge of aggravated perjury in connection with her testimony in Hornbuckle's grand jury hearing.

Messages left at the church went unreturned Monday.

Messages left with several church elders also went unreturned.

Gregory Jones, Hornbuckle's attorney in the civil lawsuits, declined to comment when reached Monday. Court records indicate that Hornbuckle has not yet hired a criminal defense attorney.

In Hornbuckle's statement, released through the New York public relations firm 5W, he said: "I am completely innocent of the charges. ... These individuals wanted me to pay them millions of dollars in hush money, and as I refused, they are making outrageous, wrongful and malicious accusations."

A printed Internet version of Saturday's Star-Telegram article on Hornbuckle's arrest was placed inside mailboxes on several streets around the bishop's 2,570-square-foot home in Grapevine, neighbors said. The fliers also included his address.

"I can't believe someone would do that," said one woman who did not give her name. "He hasn't been found guilty."

Neighbor Rob Moore, who lives across the street from Hornbuckle, said the minister moved in two years ago and has always been a pleasant man.

"I hope he's innocent and I think he is," Moore said. "He's been a real kind neighbor and everybody likes him."

Staff Writer Darren Barbee Contributed to This Report.
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#1006 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:27 am

Berry St. face-lift date set

By Paul Bourgeois, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - The 2.5-mile project is scheduled to begin in July.

The long-talked-about and much-delayed redevelopment of Berry Street is set to begin in July.

The busy south-side thoroughfare could be tied up by detours and construction crews for most of a year, said Linda Clark, a member of the Berry Street Initiative, a grassroots organization formed in 1996 to improve the Berry Street corridor.

The plan includes repaving the street and putting in medians and turning lanes, wider bricked sidewalks, new streetlights, benches and signs.

The $4 million project is funded by state and federal grants as well as $1.5 million from city bonds approved by voters in 1998.

Sandra Dennehy, an architect who heads the initiative, said that the money is in hand and that her group and city officials are confident it will be enough for the job.

They are banking that the payoff will be a resurgence of Berry Street, a once-thriving shopping and dining area that has been in decline since the 1960s.

"It definitely will be worth it," Dennehy said. She said the goal isn't simply to make Berry Street more attractive to developers but also more attractive and safer for pedestrians.

Much of the street is a wide slab of pavement where speed is the norm and only brave pedestrians try to cross.

Christa Sharpe, the city's assistant director for transportation and public works, said that there still will be two lanes in each direction but that a major goal is to slow down traffic.

"The purpose is to really enhance pedestrian mobility as the street develops," Sharpe said.

The medians and new crosswalks, in particular, will make crossing easier for pedestrians.

The entire project covers 2.5 miles from University Drive east to Evans Avenue.

Most of the work is planned along the more commercially developed stretch from University Drive to Forest Park Boulevard.

That segment will get the full treatment, including street reconstruction, widened brick sidewalks, landscaping and irrigation, medians, new crosswalks, lighting, furniture and "wayfinding"-- street signs with additional information.

The rest of the project will get new street lights, sidewalks, landscaping and street signs.
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#1007 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:28 am

Death sentence in 1987 killings is overturned

By Max B. Baker, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - A federal appeals court panel upholds a Kennedale man's conviction but finds fault in how the punishment was decided.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction but overturned the death sentence of James Eugene Bigby, a paranoid schizophrenic who drowned a 4-month-old in a sink and fatally shot the child's father.

Bigby was convicted and sentenced to death in March 1991, hours after Bigby grabbed a loaded gun from a drawer in state District Judge Don Leonard's bench, charged into Leonard's chambers and pointed the gun at the judge.

Leonard and a prosecutor wrestled the gun away from Bigby, and Leonard continued to preside over the case.

The New Orleans court ruled last week that instructions to the jury lacked "brevity and clarity" and that jurors were "shackled and confined" when considering whether Bigby's mental illness was a mitigating factor in assessing the death penalty.

"We find that Bigby has demonstrated that the contested jury instructions stripped the jury of a vehicle for expressing its reasoned moral response to the appropriateness of the death penalty," the judges wrote.

Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the state attorney general's office, said the court's ruling was being evaluated. State and Tarrant County prosecutors are consulting on whether to appeal, he said.

Chuck Mallin, Tarrant County assistant district attorney and head of the appellate division, said his office is preparing to revisit the case.

Although the court tossed out only Bigby's punishment, attempting to send him back to Death Row will basically reopen the case, Mallin said.

Danny Burns, Bigby's attorney, said he thought the court's decision gave him enough ammunition to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out Bigby's conviction.

"I think it's great. They have pretty much assured that Mr. Bigby will get another chance, that he should not die, and that is a substantial step," Burns said.

Bigby, a Kennedale auto mechanic, was convicted of fatally shooting Mike Trekell and drowning Trekell's 4-month-old son, Jayson, in a sink on Dec. 24, 1987. Bigby confessed to the slayings but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the case.

In 2003, a three-judge panel of the appeals court tossed out Bigby's death sentence, saying that the jury wasn't properly instructed to consider Bigby's paranoid schizophrenia -- which the panel said was an involuntary, permanent and severe mental condition that contributed to his criminal actions.

When the attorney general appealed, the case was heard again by a three-judge panel. This panel ruled last week that it was "highly improbable" that the jury would have reached another verdict in the guilt/innocence part of the trial. But the court again said that paranoid schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, and that Bigby has proved he had the illness at the time of the crimes.

Burns argued that Leonard should have turned the case over to another judge after Bigby attacked him. The appeals court declined to overturn the conviction because of that but wrote that Leonard erred in allowing testimony about the escape attempt to be heard.

Burns said he may use some of the court's comments about the failed escape in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

"It gives us more fodder for a Supreme Court petition," he said.
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#1008 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:30 am

Officials tentatively identify remains found in Fort Worth

FORT WORTH, Texas (Star-Telegram) - Police have tentatively identified skeletal remains found Friday by city employees looking for a water valve inside a deep vault west of the 2600 block of Interstate 35W north near Warfield Street and Cold Springs Road.

Homicide Detective Jose Hernandez said an identification card found with the bones indicates that the remains are those of a man in his 50s reported missing in 1991, but investigators are awaiting confirmation by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.

Hernandez said a preliminary examination by Dr. Dana Austin, a forensic anthropologist, did not suggest evidence of foul play but the investigation is continuing.
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#1009 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:31 am

Roosevelt Thompson Jr., 1952-2005

Talented singer became choir director at his church at 14

By Matt Frazier, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - Roosevelt Thompson Jr. was far too young to join the church choir when he first started tagging along with his older siblings to practice.

Then the music director at Pleasant Mount Gilead Baptist Church heard the 5-year-old sing -- and the rules changed.

The talented singer became choir director at the church at 14 and, over the next 40 years, went on to perform, direct or arrange music for some of the top area gospel choirs.

Mr. Thompson, 52, minister of music at Pleasant Mount Gilead and former minister of music at Como First Missionary Baptist churches, died Friday of pneumonia.

His music and his voice, family and friends say, will continue to influence generations to come.

"His voice was so uplifting that people were literally on their feet when he sang," said the Rev. Kenneth Jones Jr. of the Como First Baptist Church. "Even in death, his voice will continue to ring in this place."

Born in Hillsboro on Oct. 7, 1952 to Rubye and Roosevelt Thompson Sr., Mr. Thompson moved with his family to Fort Worth in 1957. He was a member of the last class to graduate from Como High School before it closed in 1971.

"He was the first black male to sing in the Texas Boys Choir," said Pleasant Mount choir member Lanette Jones, who considers Thompson her mentor. "He just put his all into it. When he was singing, you could just feel the heavens opening up."

Although he continued to study music past high school, most of his learning came through experience and his natural talent for music. Mr. Thompson served as musical minister for Pleasant Mount until 1999, when he moved over to Como for a new challenge. He returned to Pleasant Mount about two years ago.

He also was a member of several choirs, including the Fort Worth chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop Mass Choir, the D/FW Mass Choir, the KHVN (Heaven 970 AM) Mass Choir and the Mississippi Mass Choir.

"He always loved to sing church music. He didn't sing anything else," his sister Cecelia May said. "It was his passion."

Mr. Thompson is survived by his mother, Rubye O. Ray; sister, Cecelia M. May; daughters, Chrishanna M. Calloway and Kelly Marie Thompson; and a host of other relatives and friends. Funeral information

* Visitation is from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Home. A Memorial Wake will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Pleasant Mount Gilead Baptist Church.

* The funeral will be noon Wednesday at the church, with burial in Cedar Hill Memorial Park.
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#1010 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:09 am

stuff magnate arrested in Dallas

By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - He's considered the biggest pornography dealer in the country, and Monday federal authorities arrested him in Dallas on charges he sold obscene material and ran a criminal enterprise.

Edward Joseph Wedelstedt, the owner of Goalie Entertainment, was indicted on 23 counts of obscenity, racketeering and tax charges. Wedelstedt ran his stuff business out of Colorado, but operated stores in 18 states including Texas.

According to an indictment obtained by News 8 and The Dallas Morning News, Wedelstedt "allegedly conducted a criminal enterprise with the principal aim of distributing obscenity and mailing fraudulent sales taxes returns."

Pornography is big business in North Texas, though it's not illegal unless it's ruled obscene. Authorities said as part of the indictment, a grand jury viewed six videotapes and DVDs that jurors found to be obscene. They described it as hard-core pornography.

Assistant attorney general Christopher Wray said, "effective use of law enforcement's full arsenal is essential to stop purveyors of obscenity from distributing their offensive and degrading material."

Wedelstedt denies he sells anything obscene, and said he gives some of the money he makes to charity. In fact, he started his own charity called "Eddie's Kids", and according to his Web site he financially helps underprivileged and abused children.

Still, federal authorities said Wedelstedt is not a pillar of his community, but a pornographer who panders criminal material.
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#1011 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:11 am

4 shot, 3 dead near SMU

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Three men were killed and a fourth was seriously hurt early Tuesday when their vehicle came under fire near the Southern Methodist University campus.

Sgt. Larry Lewis, a homicide supervisor with the Dallas Police Department, said detectives had been working to unravel the case, but that University Park police would be taking over. Detectives from both departments were meeting Tuesday morning to go over notes and possible leads, he said.

A Dallas police officer who witnessed the gunfire around 2 a.m. said he saw a man with an assault rifle appear through the sunroof of a car and take aim at another car along the southbound service road of North Central Expressway at Mockingbird Lane.

The second car crashed next to the former Mrs. Baird's Bread factory and the officer stopped to help.

Three of the victims were dead at the scene; the fourth was rushed to Baylor University Medical center in critical condition.

The car with the gunman was described as a late-model white Jaguar. The driver is believed to have two accomplices with him, police said.

Police said the shootings might be related to an altercation a short time earlier at Jack's Pub & Volleyball Club in the 5500 block of Yale Boulevard. Detectives were questioning patrons of the bar.

Lewis said tips about the Jaguar were pouring in to Dallas police.

Dallas Morning News staff writer Jason Trahan contributed to this report.
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#1012 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:14 am

Arlington pastor faces new charges

By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8

ARLINGTON, Texas - New charges have been filed against a popular Arlington pastor arrested last week after he was accused of several sex assaults.

Agape Christian Fellowship's Bishop Terry Hornbuckle posted a $405,000 bond and left jail Monday afternoon flanked by crowd of reporters and photographers, but on the same day a charge of methamphetamine possession was added to the charges on which he was originally indicted.

Hornbuckle will be allowed to remain free on bond, but under county supervision.

"One of the conditions is that he must wear an ankle monitor," said Harry Grisham of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department. "The other conditions are no alcohol, no drugs and no firearms. He'll have to submit to a urinalysis with probation officers on a regular basis."

The original indictments said the 43-year old pastor, married with three children, sexually assaulted three of his members - one of them twice. Two of the alleged victims said Hornbuckle led them to a Euless apartment complex, fixed them drinks laced with date-rape drug GHB and then took advantage of them.

Police found several additional items in Hornbuckle's SUV following his arrest on Friday, including between one and four grams of methamphetamine, which led to the drug charges filed Monday.

Two meetings were held at the church Monday night to discuss its future. Church board member Charles Richardson read a statement.

"The work of Agape Christian Fellowship has not changed," Richardson said. "Lives are being touched, people are hearing the good news ... we are 100 percent committed to the work God is doing."

Hornbuckle issued a statement at the beginning of the investigation, saying "I am completely innocent of the charges I have been wrongfully accused of, and this is extortion plain and simple, which I won't surrender to. These individuals wanted me to pay them millions of dollars in hush money, and as I refused, they are making outrageous, wrongful and malicious accusations."
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#1013 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:15 am

Arrest in Irving tied to national gang

103 members of Central American gang arrested in U.S.

By ERNESTO LONDOÑO / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas - Immigration officials announced Monday a nationwide roundup of 103 members of a violent Central American gang, Mara Salvatrucha 13.

One of the people accused of being a gang member, Elmer Misale Benitez, 25, was arrested Saturday in Irving on administrative immigration charges, officials said.

Most of the arrests occurred in or around Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Baltimore; Newark, N.J.; and Miami.

"They're a vicious and intimidating presence in our streets and our communities," said Kenneth W. Cates, special agent in charge of the Dallas division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "This is a continuing operation here. We're in hot pursuit."

Agent Cates said law enforcement officials who monitor gang activity in North Texas estimate there are 90 MS-13 members in the Dallas area.

Mr. Benitez had been ordered deported in absentia by an immigration judge in 1994 and was later detained and released by immigration officials in 2001. Shortly afterward, he received a temporary visa for foreigners from countries that have suffered calamities. It has since been revoked.

Mr. Benitez had been convicted of two misdemeanors but is not known to have participated in violent crimes, Agent Cates said.

Other alleged gang members detained nationally in recent days have criminal histories. Some had been convicted of attempted murder, sodomy, assault, arson, weapons possession and drug charges, among other crimes.

Unlike other criminal street gangs, most MS-13 members are first-generation immigrants, say law enforcement officials who have studied the gang.

The arrests are the first round of an initiative dubbed Operation Community Shield, which seeks to dismantle violent gangs by taking advantage of the U.S. immigration agency's ability to enforce criminal and administrative immigration laws.

In a recent interview, Dallas police Sgt. Mark Langford, one of the supervisors of the department's gang unit, said MS-13 members have been active in the Dallas area since around 1996. However, he said, few recent violent crimes in the area have been linked to the group.

"Their reputation makes us pay more attention to this gang than we normally would another gang [based] on what they've done so far locally," Sgt. Langford said. "Our desire or goal would be that they don't get to the degree where they've gotten in other states."

Experts in gang activity say MS-13 members are highly organized and methodical. Most of their leaders are based in California, where the group originated in the late 1980s as disenfranchised parties of the armed conflict in Central America immigrated to the United States. They have been linked to gruesome crimes recently in the Washington, D.C., area and Charlotte, N.C.

Immigration officials deported several MS-13 members during the late 1990s. Many returned to the United States, though they've established active and deadly hubs in their native countries and Mexico.

Michael Garcia, assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said authorities in the United States will work closely with their counterparts south of the border when the gang members are removed.

"Exporting the gang problem is certainly not what we're going to do," Mr. Garcia said. "We share information. That's very important."

Staff writer Michelle Mittelstadt of the Washington Bureau contributed to this story.
Last edited by TexasStooge on Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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#1014 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:19 am

McKinney victim's family hopes to raise reward

By STEVE STOLER / WFAA ABC 8

MCKINNEY, Texas - A Collin County family still grieving a murdered McKinney North High School football player is using a popular online tool in an effort to help catch the killers.

The family of Matthew Self - murdered just over a year ago along with three other people - is willing to part with an item they affectionately call a symbol of his life.

Jacob Self still wears pain on his face, and Matthew's picture around his neck.

"It's really frustrating," Self said. "You can't come home and see him ... he's just never there."

Even more frustrating for the Self family is that no one has been charged with the murders, so they had a heart-to-heart talk to find ways to increase the $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

"I would give up anything I own or that I have," said Self's uncle Billy Vest. "It can be as dear to me as possible; it wouldn't matter as long as I can find out what happened and who did this."

So, they decided to go on auction Web site eBay and sell a pin family members received after donating their son's organs.

"It's a part of his life that he gave to someone else - his heart, his liver, his kidneys," said grandmother Pat Vest.

Vest considers the pin part of her grandson's legacy. Even so, she's willing to sell it if it helps solve the crime. Their asking price? $30,000.

"We feel that there's somebody out there who knows something, and we feel the bigger we can get the reward, the more likely we are to have them come forward to say something," Billy Vest said. "I'm willing to give it up to find the people that did this to him."

The family believes the high bidder will likely be someone with a big heart who understands their pain.
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#1015 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:26 am

Officer's image focus of fake drugs trial

Opening remarks paint vastly different pictures

By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - To his team of prominent defense attorneys, former Dallas narcotics detective Mark Delapaz was a humble and hardworking street cop "running from pillar to post."

To prosecutors, the 10-year police veteran was a rogue officer who disregarded red flags and his superiors' warnings – a detective whose lies caused innocent people to be arrested.

On the opening day of his felony trial Monday, the two sides agreed only that the competing descriptions will be central to jurors hearing the case by the time the trial concludes.

In opening remarks, special prosecutor Dan Hagood spent 45 minutes rapidly detailing the charge that Mr. Delapaz lied to a judge in October 2001 in order to obtain a search warrant. Mr. Hagood used a slide presentation to highlight the detective's relationship with a "nest" of six crooked confidential informants responsible for a series of bogus arrests and drug seizures.

Mr. Hagood also told jurors that he would prove that Mr. Delapaz knew that the central informant in the cases – Enrique Alonso – was unreliable by the time Mr. Delapaz swore to a judge in a search warrant application that the man's information about drug dealing was always reliable.

"This is going to be indisputable from the witnesses brought before you," he told the jury.

Lead defense attorney Paul Coggins promised to show that Mr. Delapaz is an honest officer who was tricked like many others by his informants' complicated ruse.

The informants' scheme went unnoticed because Mr. Delapaz's fellow officers did not know how to properly use narcotics field-testing equipment that should have discovered the drugs were fake, he said.

"Mark Delapaz worked harder than anybody to get drugs off the street," he said. "He worked harder than anybody in September and October to get to the bottom of this mystery."

Mr. Coggins, who successfully defended Mr. Delapaz against federal civil rights charges in 2003, said the defense will also focus on proving a technical matter – that an informant other than Mr. Alonso was responsible for the October 2001 arrest warrant that is the subject of the indictment.

Mr. Hagood said he will show that Mr. Alonso was the main informant who introduced Mr. Delapaz to five others.

"He was involved in every one of these," Mr. Hagood said, presenting written reports made by Mr. Delapaz showing that Mr. Alonso had gotten paid for help making the arrests.

And the document that Mr. Delapaz is accused of lying about is a series of statements with "boiler-plate information" that was frequently duplicated and widely used by Dallas detectives to obtain warrants, Mr. Coggins said.

"They just duped and revised," Mr. Coggins said. "Mark Delapaz didn't draft this form. He doesn't even know where it came from. ... Duped and revised a thousand times."

The search warrant affidavit states that Mr. Delapaz worked with an informant that was reliable about drug activities in the past "on each and every occasion."

Three informants already have admitted to a complicated scheme to plant fake drugs on people. While Mr. Delapaz is not accused of taking part in the scheme to intentionally arrest innocent people, the third-degree felony indictment accuses of him of intentionally lying in court affidavits to obtain search warrants to make the arrests.

If convicted of the third-degree felony charge, Mr. Delapaz faces punishment ranging from probation to 10 years in prison. He has also been indicted on 13 other felony charges related to Mr. Hagood's yearlong probe of the fake-drug scandal.

ALSO ONLINE:
Fake Drugs, Real Lives: An interactive timeline featuring in-depth information, facts and figures from the scandal in the Dallas Police Dept.
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#1016 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:30 am

Apartment fire displaces 80

Management says Old East Dallas blaze started by cigarette

By JASON TRAHAN and APRIL KINSER / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Jessica Fraley woke up to people pounding on her door and screams Monday morning.

As a fire began to spread upstairs about 8:30 a.m., the 19-year-old mother grabbed her 1-year-old son, Christopher, and met other family members in the smoke-filled courtyard of the Carriage Hill Villas apartments in the 4900 block of Live Oak Street.

"After I got out, I heard firetrucks and screaming," Ms. Fraley said as she huddled with about 16 other families – about 80 people – displaced by the fire.

Dallas fire investigators did not immediately release the cause, but apartment management and residents said it started when a woman smoking in bed caught a mattress on fire.

High winds quickly spread the blaze. It took 80 firefighters about an hour to put it out. Smoke from the Old East Dallas fire was visible for miles.

A firefighter had to be treated when hot tar from the ruined roof dripped on his neck, but no other injuries were reported, officials said.

"Rescue was our No. 1 priority," said Lt. Joel Lavender, a Dallas fire spokesman. "When you start thinking about spring break, a lot of youngsters and children are out of school and at home."

Hector Castillo was able to save himself by scrambling from his apartment after smelling smoke, but he still lost much, including his birth certificate and other personal documents.

"We have nothing, just as we began [when we arrived in the United States], except now we are without clothes, which is worse," said Mr. Castillo, who moved from Mexico City.

Dawn Espinoza, 33, had lived in the complex for two months after moving from Indiana.

She learned about the blaze, which she said was in the apartment above hers, when firefighters banged on the door.

"When I got out, the smoke was just so bad," she said. "I don't know where I'm going to go. My furniture, everything was there. It's all that I had."

Ms. Espinoza and several other residents reported that they did not hear smoke alarms. Lt. Lavender said residents gave mixed reports about whether the detectors sounded, but all apartments had one.

After investigators began to pick through the remnants, Red Cross volunteers handed out teddy bears to the kids and Gatorade to weary and worried adults.

They also interviewed the newly homeless in an attempt to find places for them to stay. By Monday evening, officials said, all but three families had found shelter.

"In the coming days, we'll have to look where these folks are going to live long term," said Anita Foster, a local Red Cross spokeswoman. "We've got quite a bit of work to do ahead."

Ms. Fraley, who planned to stay with her mother Monday night, had only one concern before she was able to survey the smoky, water-logged mess that used to be her apartment.

"I want that very first picture," she said, referring to the memento of her son. "That's all I want to get."

Al Día staff writer Ignacio Laguarda contributed to this report.

How to Help:

A local Red Cross disaster relief fund is set up for victims of area fires. Make contributions to the American Red Cross Local Disaster Relief Fund reached online at http://www.redcrossdallas.org. Credit card donations by phone are accepted at 214-678-4800.
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#1017 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:33 am

Lubbock officials probe teen HIV reports

LUBBOCK, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - Health investigators in Lubbock on Monday continued to check into reports that a junior high girl infected with HIV had sex with other students.

Information gathered through Monday indicated the sex between the infected student and at least one partner was protected, said Tommy Camden, director of the Lubbock Health Department.

The student knew of the infection, he said.

Camden declined to give the student's age or gender. Lubbock television station KAMC-TV reported that the infected student is a 14-year-old girl.

Camden said it is not known whether the student's subsequent sexual encounters with other partners were protected.

He said the number of people who engaged in sexual relations with the infected student or other partners had not been determined, but he said the circle was small.

The Lubbock Board of Health announced the investigation at its meeting late last week and urged parents to talk to their children about consequences in having sex, Camden said.

The health department is waiving HIV testing and exam fees for students during the investigation.
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#1018 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:42 am

Third suspect in bank heist arrested

Man facing charges in alleged Takeover Bandits spree

By MATT STILES / The Dallas Morning News

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The third man accused of escaping a Richardson bank robbery last year by spraying automatic gunfire at several police vehicles and carjacking motorists has been arrested in Mexico.

Ramon Gavina made an appearance Monday in a Brownsville federal court. He was arrested over the weekend about 20 miles from the Texas border, the FBI said Monday.

"The Mexican authorities were very helpful," said FBI Special Agent Lori Bailey, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Dallas office.

Mr. Gavina, 22, and his brother, Roberto, 24, are charged in federal court in the Nov. 4 carjacking that led to a high-speed chase across Collin and Dallas counties. The carjacking followed the robbery of a bank on Greenville Avenue in Richardson. The brothers and another man, Guadalupe Fajardo, face charges in that crime.

The three men – who also face state aggravated robbery and attempted capital murder of a public servant charges – are suspected members of the Takeover Bandits, a gang of robbers who have eluded authorities for years. The gang is suspected in as many as 60 armed robberies, including more than six bank heists since 2002.

The FBI – which has worked the case with the help of Richardson and Plano police – first named Ramon Gavina on Jan. 21, when agents shot and wounded his brother in Mesquite while trying to serve an arrest warrant. The younger Mr. Gavina had been a fugitive ever since.

"We're very pleased to see that the third suspect is in custody," said Sgt. Kevin Perlich, a Richardson police spokesman. "We're hopeful that a successful prosecution will follow."
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#1019 Postby TexasStooge » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:44 am

Area hiring expected to stay stout

But survey's outlook for Dallas trails state, national projections

By STEVE QUINN / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Hiring in the Dallas area should remain relatively strong in the second quarter, according to a survey of employers to be released today.

Twenty-four percent of Dallas-area employers surveyed plan to hire, and 4 percent plan to cut jobs, according to staffing firm Manpower Inc.'s Employment Outlook Survey.

The forecast trails the national and statewide projections in Manpower's survey.

Nationally, 30 percent of 16,000 employers nationwide reported hiring plans compared with 31 percent in Texas.

The forecast is slightly behind last year's second-quarter survey, in which 26 percent of Dallas-area employers planned to hire.

"Slow and steady is what we are looking at, because this still represents growth," said Cheryl Lacy, Dallas-area manager for Manpower.

Some of the most promising job prospects are in construction, nondurable goods manufacturing, transportation, utilities, wholesale, retail trade and public administration, Manpower said.

Employers in durable goods manufacturing, financial services and real estate gave mixed responses.

"I wouldn't say anything is holding us back," Ms. Lacy said. "[Employers] are placing staff orders for special needs, rather than in the past when they were anticipating growth."

Economist Ray Perryman, president and chief executive of the Perryman Group, a Waco economic research and consulting firm, says Manpower's surveys typically are strong indicators of what's ahead, but forecasting four months out isn't always easy.

"When you ask somebody what they are doing through June at the end of February, a lot of times they don't know," he said.

Mr. Perryman says rising oil prices, which once meant good economic times for Texas, could slow hiring.

"There is some benefit to parts of Texas, but on balance, we are importing more oil by a wide margin," he said.

Other variables are trade deficits and the value of the dollar.

"There is a perpetual concern that the deficits are growing, and this causes concerns in some people's minds," he said. "But it would still take a major trigger, like something in the Middle East, to cause a big change."

Mr. Perryman said he was pleased with last week's Texas Workforce Commission report that said Texas employers added 21,900 jobs in January.

Late last year, Mr. Perryman predicted Texas would add about 180,000 jobs in 2005, but if January's numbers remain consistent, the figure would exceed 250,000

"There is momentum," he said, "but I don't think we'll do it every month."
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#1020 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Mar 16, 2005 10:11 am

Police probe shooting; victims mourned

By REBECCA LOPEZ and BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Police are questioning three individuals in connection with a University Park shooting Tuesday morning that left three men dead and seriously wounded another.

Authorities did not release further information about those individuals, but did say a tip led them to a southeast Dallas home where they also found a white Jaguar that was allegedly involved in the shooting. Police said the car pulled alongside another vehicle on the southbound Central Expressway service road near Mockingbird Lane and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing Eddie Pech, 36, and cousins Bernardo Andrade, 21, and Favio Andrade, 19. A fourth victim remained in critical condition at Baylor University Medical Center late Tuesday.

"The shooter was standing through the moon roof of the Jaguar that they were operating, and he was shooting from the vehicle," said University Park police spokesman Leon Holman. "You had a moving vehicle and a moving target."

Dallas police Officer Chris Gibson and his partner witnessed the shooting. They were transporting a prisoner in a squad car at the corner of Mockingbird Lane and the Central Expressway service road, arriving at the intersection just in time to see the gunman take aim.

"We heard like a loud bang or a boom—more or less—and we kind of startled a little bit," Gibson said in an exclusive interview with WFAA-TV. "That's when the light turned green and then immediately that's when we saw the guy right in front of us."

Gibson said he and his partner chose to help the shooting victims rather than chasing the gunman. The 8-year veteran said he had never seen such a grim crime scene.

The suspects' vehicle apparently did not belong to the residents of the home where it was found, but neighbors said it was often parked there.

Police believe the shooting likely stemmed from an altercation earlier in the evening at Jack's Pub and Volleyball Club in the 5500 block of Yale Boulevard. According to an employee who spoke to The Dallas Morning News, the suspects and victims got into a fight after bumping into each other at the club.

"Last night at Jack's Pub, certain patrons engaged in aggressive behavior," Holman said. "The off-duty police officers and security employed to handle these situations requested the participants to this altercation leave Jack's Pub."

This isn't the first time the establishment has been involved in a major incident. Just last week, police had to fire a Taser as a warning to break up a fight during an event at the club.

The three men who died all worked in food service, where the faces can change as often the menu. But the faces of Pech and the Andrade cousins made an impression on people all over Dallas who encountered them often.

Favio Andrade came to Eatzi's Italian Market when he was 16 as part of a high school work-study program. For four years, his smiling face was a fixture in the chef's case and cashier line.

Soraya Diaz knew him since their days as students at North Dallas High School, and said it just felt empty all day Tuesday at the Oak Lawn food emporium.

"We're getting food together, anything else that we can help with," said market manager Elis Droubi. "It's a tough loss. He was close to me."

Counselors worked through the busy market day to help close friends with their sudden loss.

The circle of shock is wide. At the Premier Athletic Club, where Bernardo Andrade's mother works in housekeeping, her friends collected money for the family left behind: twin baby girls and a high school sweetheart who quickly went from newlywed to widow.

"Her daughters will never know their father, ever, because of this senseless tragedy," said personal trainer Jean Allen.

Gordo's Restaurant on Lovers Lane closed at lunch to honor Pech, the chef who had worked his way up from dishwasher.

"He was like one of my kids," said Gordo's owner George Bakhshmanbi. "I've got a kid his age."

When he came home, Pech would cook and take food to his neighbors.

"He was generous to everybody," said neighbor and friend Felix Aragon. "Why does God have to take somebody like that so soon?"

Pech brought a pizza to the home the day before he died. Tuesday, the delivery became a living memorial to a selfless friend.

"Everybody here knew him as a conscientious and God-fearing person," Aragon said. "It really hurt me, and I'm still hurting."
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