News from the Lone Star State

[TexasStooge]

Arlington teen found dead in home

By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8

ARLINGTON, Texas - Arlington police want to know who killed a 15-year-old girl inside her home.

Ingrid Smith's stepfather found her body Tuesday afternoon at their house in the 700 block of Leeds Field Drive.

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Video: Yolanda Walker reports
Police said there didn't appear to be any forced entry, and the stepfather said the front door was locked when he arrived home.

"The death seems to be suspicious in nature," said Arlington police spokesperson Lt. Blake Miller.

Smith's stepfather Calvin arrived home from work around 2:00 p.m. and found the girl's body in the living room near the front door. He told News 8 she had a neck wound, and there appeared to be a struggle.

Neighbors who rushed to help said Smith was lying face-up with a pillow covering her head.

"It looked like she was trying to get out of that front door," said neighbor Donnie Huber.

Smith, a sophomore at Timberview High School in Mansfield who was on Spring Break this week, was known as a kind, yet quiet teenager . Those who knew her can hardly believe she's gone.

"It's crazy," said friend Nichole Piacentino.

"She was always smiling," friend Nathan Brown said.

Friends said the teen had run away a few months ago because of disagreements with her parents, but said other than that she was always upbeat. However, some of her friends and neighbors said they had noticed her hanging around with some questionable individuals.

At the crime scene, police spent the evening collecting bags of evidence from the home and canvassing the street. Smith's parents were taken to the police station to record statements.

In the meantime, as police investigate all possible leads, many are keeping the family close to their hearts, including members of the Prayer Tower Church of God in Christ, where the family attended.

"Anybody who can and will just pray for the family," said a friend.

[TexasStooge]

Woman details kidnap ordeal

By JEFF BRADY / WFAA ABC 8

DESOTO, Texas - A DeSoto woman who escaped from the trunk of a moving car in 2003 appeared in court Tuesday at the trial of one of her alleged kidnappers.

Nancy Barber, now 65, took the stand to relate her harrowing tale to jurors.

The defendant, Herschel Smith, 22, faces aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges in the case. Another defendant, Brandon Berdet, 20, will be tried separately.

Barber said the assailants broke into her DeSoto residence on October 10, 2003, forced her into the trunk of her Cadillac, and drove away.

She said she broke free from her kidnappers by popping the trunk open using an inside release and then leaping from the moving car.

Barber suffered a head injury and was extensively bruised.

The trial, at the Crowley Courts Building, is expected to last through the week.

[TexasStooge]

Therapy helping conjoined twin girls

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8

EXCLUSIVE

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas doctors still haven't decided if they can separate two Italian girls conjoined at the head, but an unusual therapy to help the one-year-old girls prepare for surgery has begun.

Tatiana and Anastasia Dogaru were a little crabby on a recent day in Dallas - to be expected from twins who badly want more independence from each other.

"A lot of what they're experiencing is frustration trying to move."

They are currently in CranioSacral Therapy (CST), which is designed to help them move and function better. The therapy involves gentle touches along the spinal column, from the cranium, or head, down to the sacrum, or tailbone.

"It's touching really anywhere on the body, but enhancing the flow of the cerebral spinal fluid within the central nervous system, getting that to run more efficiently," said physical therapist Sally Fryer. "It's kind of like getting your car engine to run better."

CranioSacral Therapy is used for a variety of disabilities. Because their awkward connection has prevented normal physical development, the girls can get very tense.

Relaxing their tissues not only helps improve movement, it also builds strength for possible separation surgery.

"So that afterwards there's some body memory there, so you can progress more easily through those stages," Fryer said.

Tatiana, the smaller of the two, was very weak when she started craniosacral therapy three months ago. Anastasia has basically been eating for two.

But even mother Claudia Dogaru said she's seen a difference.

"I was so skeptical," Dogaru said. "(But) I think they are more relaxed, they sleep better and Tatiana is eating better."

And, Tatiana is clearly growing. Her mother and doctors said they hope to see even better results in the future from this healing touch.

Doctors with the World Craniofacial Foundation said CranioSacral Therapy played a key role helping a pair of Egyptian twin boys recover from well-publicized separation surgery last year.

Doctors said strength is hugely important to the Dogaru twins, who have different medical issues that could make their separation even more complicated.

[TexasStooge]

In Carroll, drug school for parents

Kids' extracurriculars tied to substance-abuse seminars for adults

By LAURIE FOX / The Dallas Morning News

SOUTHLAKE, Texas – Parents in Carroll schools must head back to the classroom to learn about teen substance abuse if their children want to play football or sing in the choir.

Starting next school year, parents of students in sports and other extracurricular activities in grades seven through 12 must attend a new substance abuse education seminar. Carroll Senior High School principal Danny Presley pitched the idea to a receptive school board Monday.

"Our kids know that drugs and alcohol are dangerous, but they make choices to use them anyway," Dr. Presley said. "The kids know what's going on. They know who's drinking, who's doing pot. It's the parents we've got to educate. There has to be accountability on all fronts." Officials with the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Association of School Boards said they have not heard of another Texas school district making such a requirement.

Dr. Presley said about 80 percent of Carroll's secondary school students participate in extracurricular activities.

Recent surveys have shown an increase in substance abuse among Carroll students.The plan also comes after The Dallas Morning News reported last month that nine Colleyville Heritage High athletes, seven of them football players, admitted that they had used steroids during the previous school year.

Heritage football players told their coach, Chris Cunningham, that they shared a common dealer with at least one Carroll football player. Carroll school district officials said they have no evidence that a former Carroll football player used the drugs.The school board embraced Dr. Presley's proposal and asked him to develop more details.

Carroll Superintendent Gary Mathews said that the requirement would be included in the student handbook.

"This has students going to Mom and Dad saying, 'You have to take this class,' " he said. "That turns things on its ear in a good way."

Frank Colosi, a spokesman for the Fort Worth chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he didn't think the Carroll plan would infringe on parents' and students' rights but said the idea "may be irrational."

"Studies have shown that students in extracurriculars are less prone to drug use," he said. "Doing anything that would discourage students from taking part in extracurriculars is perverse."

He added that the requirement does assume that "parents need parenting classes."

The hourlong seminars would cover substance abuse trends, warning signs, prevention and the district's substance abuse policies.

City and school district officials created the Drug and Alcohol Awareness Committee several years ago to call attention to teen drug and alcohol use. Organizers say they are troubled by an apparent disconnect between what teens say they're doing and what parents believe.

In a survey of Carroll parents conducted last fall, more than 80 percent of parents reported that their children did not drink beer, wine or liquor. Ninety-five percent of parents said their children didn't use marijuana.

Carroll students, meanwhile, reported an increase in the number using drugs and alcohol over the previous year, with 68 percent of juniors and 77 percent of seniors reporting that they'd drank alcohol. About a third of the juniors said they had tried marijuana.

Martha Looft is the parent-teacher-student organization representative for Carroll High. She said that most parents can spare an hour of their time for their children.

"If one parent in 100 reaches a student and makes a difference in a split second of a judgment, then it's a success," she said.

Charles Breithaupt, athletic director for the University Interscholastic League, applauded the Carroll effort.

"They're moving in a direction that holds people's feet to the fire," Dr. Breithaupt said. "We all have a common goal: what is best for athletes and all students in extracurriculars. They're saying to parents that they're the first step in this."

[TexasStooge]

Hospital ends life support of baby

1st U.S. case of its kind is against mom's wish, in accordance with law

By BRUCE NICHOLS / The Dallas Morning News

HOUSTON, Texas – In what medical ethicists say is a first in the United States, a hospital acting under state law, with the concurrence of a judge, disconnected a critically ill baby from life support Tuesday over his mother's objections.

The baby, Sun Hudson, who'd been on a mechanical ventilator since his birth Sept. 25, died quickly afterward, his mother said.

"I held him ... I talked to him. I told him I love him," said the child's mother, Wanda Hudson. Then doctors took the mechanical breathing tube out, the child took a couple of breaths, struggled briefly in her arms and it was over, Ms. Hudson said.

She never shed a tear and explained why she wasn't showing emotion. "I was prepared for this," she said.

Doctors did not join her in meeting reporters, but Texas Children's Hospital issued a statement that it was "deeply saddened." The baby died of the effects of thanatophoric dysplasia, a form of dwarfism that impairs lung and chest cavity development and is "a lethal and incurable genetic deformity."

The death ended a court battle that began in mid-November when Ms. Hudson, a 33-year-old unemployed dental assistant, opposed doctors when they decided continuing life support was futile, unethical and medically inappropriate. Probate Judge William McCulloch cleared the way for removal of mechanical ventilation from the baby Monday.

There have been other cases elsewhere in which courts intervened, but the Hudson case was the first to reach the end stage, said Dr. John Paris, a bioethicist at Boston College.

"It's a first in the United States," he said. "It's not a first in the world. There was a similar case in England."

The hospital acted under a Texas law passed in 1999 that allows attending physicians, in consultation with a hospital bioethics committee, to discontinue life support when a patient's condition is hopeless. The law gives a parent or guardian 10 days to find another hospital or institution. After that, the hospital is free to act.

Texas Children's officials, and Ms. Hudson's lawyer, Mario Caballero, called dozens of institutions and none was willing to take the child, officials said.

Ending life support

With modern technology keeping more and more people alive who would have died in the past, the question of whether to end artificial life support increasingly arises, said Joan Krause, an expert on health care law at the University of Houston.

But parents and guardians usually go along with doctors' decisions. "The vast majority of cases end quietly," she said.

In the Hudson case, the hospital encouraged the mother to go to court and agreed to pay her lawyer after concern arose about her mental state. She said "the sun that shines in the sky," not a man, fathered her child and would decide its fate. She repeated her belief Tuesday.

Push came to shove Nov. 18, when the hospital's bioethics committee endorsed the recommendation of attending physician Peter Hainey to end life support. The hospital agreed to several extensions of the 10 days to seek alternative care but in January began pushing for a resolution.

Judge McCulloch in February lifted a restraining order barring the hospital from removing life support, but the 1st Court of Appeals stayed his order then sent the case back for correction of a procedural error. When that was done, the judge renewed his order, and Ms. Hudson's lawyer did not pursue his appeal further.

Mr. Caballero said he was a solo practitioner without the resources to go forward.

"I only have two arms and two legs," he said. He expressed disappointment that groups interested in right-to-life issues did not come forward to help him.

First state with law

The law under which the hospital acted was a compromise passed with the participation from the right-to-life lobby, Ms. Krause said. Their main focus has been opposing an artificial end to life through abortion, not an end to artificial support for life, although they've intervened in some cases, analysts said.

Texas was the first state to enact such a law, followed by California, Dr. Paris said.

"Texas is way ahead of everybody else," he said. "Judges don't want to issue these rulings. They want somebody else to do it."

The Texas law has not been tested before the highest courts.

Judge McCulloch took pains at a hearing to explain that he wasn't ordering the hospital to end life support, merely ruling that under the law, the hospital had done its duty, acted properly and was free to remove mechanical ventilation.

Ms. Hudson said her son had grown to more than 17 pounds while on life support, and that he "opened his eyes, moved his tongue" and moved around when she held him at the end.

"That was not the body," she said, expressing faith that she would see her son again. "As long as the sun's shining in the sky, my son's still here."

Hospital officials disputed her account, saying the baby has always been sedated and unresponsive.

Ms. Hudson said she'd made no funeral plans and would not attend if one were held. She said her parents, who did not talk to the news media and disapproved "of my talking about the sun," might be present.

Ms. Hudson said she's not angry but wants an autopsy and warned, "This is not over." She did not clarify what she meant. She complained that Texas Children's officials briefly put her in a psychiatric unit. Hospital officials denied it.

Ms. Hudson's lawyer, Mr. Caballero, is also involved in another Houston case, that of 68-year-old Spiro Nikolouzos, a retired electrical engineer. St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital wants to remove him from life support, but the patient's wife, Jannette, has gone to court to force continued care.

[TexasStooge]

Glenn Miller Orchestra jazzes up Carpenter Hall

IRVING, Texas (Irving Rambler) - A crowd of 700 music lovers filled every seat in Carpenter Performance Hall as the Glenn Miller Orchestra performed on March 6.

Five saxophone players, four trumpeters, four trombonists, three percussionists and two vocalists under the direction of Larry O’Brien make up the relatively small orchestra. Small though they may be, the orchestra had no trouble making themselves heard. During the performance, the orchestra played a unique mix of jazz, swing and big band music from the 1930’s and 40’s. The afternoon’s performance included the sweet, smooth sounds of Little Brown Jug, Moonlight Serenade, and Pennsylvania 6-5000, among others.

Mr. Miller began his famous band in March 1938. He disbanded the popular musical organization in 1942 when he volunteered for the Army. While in the Army, he served by entertaining troops with the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band.

On December 15, 1944, Major Miller’s plane disappeared and was never found. One year later, the Army declared Mr. Miller officially dead. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was established by the Miller estate in 1956 to carry on Mr. Miller’s music and the legacy of his band.

[TexasStooge]

Keep Irving Beautiful invites community members to join the Great American Cleanup

IRVING, Texas (Irving Rambler) - Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB) officially kicked off their participation in the Great American Cleanup (GAC) by receiving a proclamation during the City Council meeting on March 3.

The Great American Cleanup is the nations largest community improvement project. During the GAC, hundreds of local Keep America Affiliates such as Keep Irving Beautiful, (KIB) will host various projects geared toward improving their communities. The GAC begins March 1 and continues through May 3.

KIB projects will focus on community beautification, litter and debris reclamation, recycling, graffiti abatement and highlighting tree, shrub and flower plantings. In an effort to encourage community members to participate in GAC, KIB will also conduct community attitude surveys, provide community education and host litter free events. The city’s programs will reach out to and partner with neighborhoods, churches, local government, schools, businesses and non-profits.

The Great American Cleanup will provide Irving residents with an opportunity to become involved with many community improvement projects over the three- month period. Residents are encouraged to volunteer for the KIB programs by going to http://www.keepirvingbeautiful.org.

[TexasStooge]

Descendent of Alamo fighter dies

James Bailey | 1942-2005

By Mitch Mitchell, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas -- James "Jimmy" Stephen Bailey, 62, was described as a Renaissance man by his friends.

He was also said to be a "hoot" to be around.

Mr. Bailey, the storyteller, ham-radio operator, collector of Texas history and physicist who modeled his own line of Cowboy clothes, died on Saturday.

Born on Oct. 3, 1942, Mr. Bailey was a descendent of Alamo defender Peter James Bailey, who was born in 1812 in Kentucky and graduated from Transylvania University with a law degree in 1834, according to the Handbook of Texas.

In January 1836, Peter Bailey came to Texas and enrolled in the Texas army, then perished with Davy Crockett in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. Bailey County in the Panhandle was named in his honor, according to the Texas Handbook.

James Bailey made returning Texas artifacts and documents to the state his mission, said Chuck Turner, Bailey's friend for 35 years. Mr. Bailey wanted Texans to have an opportunity to examine and enjoy their own history without having to go outside the state, Turner said.

Mr. Bailey wanted to leave a legacy of value, and he had great fun collecting and sharing what he found, said Sharron Turner, Chuck Turner's wife.

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum has agreed to exhibit Mr. Bailey's copy of the Mexican Law of 1830, which forbade any more Anglo immigration into Texas, said Tom Wancho, an exhibits planner with the Bullock Museum.

The document, one of only a handful in existence, showed Mexico's fear that discontent in Texas was growing. Mr. Bailey's holdings include many historic documents dating to the Texas Republic, Wancho said.

Other items from Mr. Bailey's collection include a Republic of Texas $8 pay voucher to Private Jonathan Shell for guarding Santa Anna issued in July 1836 and an 1837 letter from Philip Dimitt to his New Orleans banker. Dimitt was a high-profile figure in the Texas fight for independence.

Ancient coins in the collection include a 600 B.C. silver coin from Greece, a coin from 4 B.C. bearing an image of Herod the Great and a 31 A.D. coin that pictures Pontius Pilate.

"It seems strange," Wancho said. "I just talked with him a couple of weeks ago. The good thing about him was that he was willing to share his collection with us, and through us, with the public."

Mr. Bailey was one of those people who could figure out how to do something better, faster and cheaper than anyone else could, said David Kellogg, a friend and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

"He didn't pursue anything halfway," Kellogg said. "When he went into it, it was a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week thing."

Mr. Bailey's career specialty was radar systems, and he helped design the radar for the Air Force's F-16 and the electronic battle management concepts for the Navy's A-12 Advanced Tactical Fighter, as well as the F-111 analog computer systems.

"He was an antenna expert and could communicate worldwide with people," Kellogg said. "He would rig up strange antennas, like he would drop a barrel out of his window late at night. People would think it was trash, but it was his radio antenna. He was having conversations with people in the Aleutian Islands and Australia."

Helping to develop radar systems was his vocation, Kellogg said, but Mr. Bailey had a basketful of avocations, such as designing and modeling his own western clothing.

"He really looked like the Marlboro Man," Kellogg said. "You'd swear he had walked right out of the Fort Worth Stock Show."

Mr. Bailey is survived by his cousins, Sandra Shelton Solomon and husband, Harold, of Rockwall, Marvin C. Shelton and wife, Victoria, of Texarkana, Texas, Jody Swint Barlow and husband, Dooley, of Ardmore, Okla., Tom Swint and wife, Suzanne, of Houston, Ricky Turton and wife, Toni, of Winter Park, Fla., and Dr. Fred Turton and wife, Trina, of Sarasota, Fla.

Staff writer Art Chapman contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Police find two nude bodies

By Deanna Boyd, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - The body of a man was found by police in a vacant house Wednesday morning about 200 yards from where the body of a second man was discovered Tuesday evening.

Investigators believe tentatively that the two slayings may be linked, said homicide Detective Tom Boetcher.

The men, both of whom were found nude, had not been positively identified Wednesday morning. Homicide and major case detectives are investigating whether they may be two cousins reported missing by family members on Saturday.

The first body was found about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a field near Lake Como, about 140 feet beyond where Blackmore Avenue dead ends.

Boetcher said patrol officers were searching the area Wednesday morning after receiving information during roll call that two cousins from east Fort Worth were missing and had possibly been brought to Como.

A patrol officer found the second body about 7:50 a.m. just inside the front door of a vacant white house in the 5100 block of Blackmore. He said the body had obvious trauma but the cause of death has not yet been determined.

[TexasStooge]

BIG CROWDS EXPECTED TODAY

FORT WORTH, Texas (Star-Telegram) - Today is the single busiest day of the year for the Fort Worth Zoo. Mother Nature may not cooperate, what with rain and 40-degree temperatures in the forecast. But half-price Wednesday during spring break is typically a record-setter.

Last year, 14,000 people went through the park. Two years ago, 16,000 people did. If crowds like that turn out, beware of the inevitable traffic snarls along University Drive and Interstate 30. Zoo officials are encouraging people to try alternate exits, such as Forest Park Boulevard and Montgomery Street off Interstate 30 and Berry Street off Interstate 35W.

The T is also running a "safari shuttle" all week from the Intermodal Transportation Center downtown straight to the zoo. It leaves every half-hour during the day.

[TexasStooge]

Tech students show exemplary conduct

By Bob Ray Sanders, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - A return trip to a Fort Worth high school proves that the message of a critical column was received, and the messenger heard a few, too.

The students of Trimble Technical High School in Fort Worth redeemed themselves last week.

While I'm sure there are still some students who believe that it was I who needed redemption, most that I heard from and talked with understand that on my visit there two weeks ago, a majority who attended an assembly program disgraced their school, their principal and faculty and, most of all, themselves.

I wrote about that experience in a very damning way, and I heard from hundreds of people about that column, including more than 100 students at the school.

A recurring theme in most of the messages from Tech students was that they had exhibited unruly behavior but that they were upset that I would shame them by making it public.

"How dare you judge us after only a two-hour visit," many of them said defiantly.

In addition to being angry, some were hurt and felt ashamed because they believed that I was one more person dumping on them primarily because two years ago their predominantly minority school had achieved exemplary status based on statewide standardized test results.

I allowed them to have their say in a subsequent column.

Even before I'd written the first word about my experience at the school, I was invited by one student to return to speak to his journalism class.

After the column was published, many students suggested that I revisit Tech to see them as they "really are" as opposed to on that one off-day Friday afternoon.

I returned last week.

Arriving right at 9 a.m. for a 9:10 a.m. class, I was amazed that, unlike my previous visit, I didn't see one kid outside of the building. Not one!

Walking inside, I didn't see a single student in the hallway.

The principal was there to greet me, and the silence was -- to use one of the students' words -- awesome.

I would later joke that at first I thought I had mistakenly entered Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital next door. It was so quiet that I wondered what was wrong.

"This is how we always are," one student told me.

"I'd like to think so," I replied.

The journalism students came prepared with questions, partly about the profession, but mainly they wanted to quiz me about the critical column.

What were my expectations of the school and them? Did I have a preconceived idea of how the students would/should behave? Why is it that the media always find negative things to write about Tech as opposed to positive things? And, if I really wrote the column to benefit them, why didn't I realize that the words and the tone of the column were hurtful?

We had a frank discussion. I responded honestly to their queries while trying to encourage them at the same time.

They had to understand that I write what I see, what I feel and what I believe, and that I don't apologize for writing the truth even if it sometimes hurts.

I wanted them to know that despite what some of them believed, I truly did care about them.

The column, I told them, wasn't about me -- it was indeed for their benefit.

Believe me, I told the class in response to one young man's question, "If I didn't care about you, I would have walked out of this school and forgotten about you that very day. I would not have spent four days thinking about you before I decided to write the column. And I wouldn't have come back today."

It is because I care, I explained, that I do have high expectations of them. I expect them to be at their best -- not on some days, but every day.

As far as judging them, they have to know that most people won't give them the courtesy or the time to spend two hours getting to know them. Most often, they will be judged in a matter of seconds.

Certainly, young people will have days when they act like the teen-agers they are, and I know that what may be fun for them can be annoying to us old fogies.

But regardless of how they may act on any given day, they still have a responsibility to obey and respect others, especially those in authority like their teachers, principals and parents, who have their best interests at heart.

It is the disrespect that is inexcusable.

My impression is that most of the Tech students have learned that lesson, though they learned it the hard way.

The day of my revisit coincided with the arrival of a new car that will be given away to a student at the end of the year.

Tech has some great corporate partners, and this is the second year that one of them has donated a vehicle as an incentive to boost the school's attendance. Those students who have earned enough "Bulldog Bucks" through daily attendance and being on time for class get a chance to enter their names in a drawing for the car.

When the bell sounded signaling the students to go outside, where they would have a chance to see the vehicle, they were still on their best behavior.

Their conduct was exemplary.

My hope, of course, is that they will always carry themselves in such a respectable manner.

[TexasStooge]

English family arrived after war

By Bill Fairley, Special to the Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH, Texas - The grandfather and father of Fort Worth police Sgt. Kevin Foster served in the British armed forces from World I to the Korean War.

As the Fort Worth Police Department historian, Sgt. Kevin Foster has unearthed many forgotten tales of law enforcement from the city's early days.

Of course, Foster is also interested in the history of his family. The setting of those stories is quite different from the Texas frontier.

Foster's mother and father immigrated from England in the 1950s.

His father's family was originally from the village of Havant near the English coastal city of Portsmouth.

His grandfather, George Herman Foster, joined the Royal Marines at age 17 in May 1914. In his third month of fighting in the trenches in Belgium, he was captured by the Germans near Antwerp and held as a prisoner of war in Dobritz, Germany. He escaped when German Navy sailors started a small rebellion. In the confusion, Foster and other British POWs escaped to Holland and on May 9, 1918, two days before the Armistice, made their way to Scotland.

He was the first Royal Marine to arrive home and received a congratulatory message from King George V on his escape.

War was not over for George Foster. In 1939, when fighting with Germany erupted again, he enlisted in the British Army. His son, Frank Foster, joined the Royal Air Force when he turned 18. Frank Foster, Kevin's father, was turned down for aerial gunnery school but became a motorcycle courier.

"On one of his missions," Kevin Foster said recently, "he handed one dispatch directly to Gen. George S. Patton.

"My dad said later that he wasn't fond of trying to keep up with Patton's men. They would push through an area, and the hole would close behind them, leaving the dispatch couriers to find their way through German lines, often on their own."

Of the 13 couriers in Frank Foster's unit, he was the only one to escape serious injury or death, Kevin Foster said.

After the war, "Frank found civilian life boring," Kevin Foster said.

Frank Foster volunteered to go back into the RAF during the Cold War. After the British withdrew from Palestine in 1948, and fighting erupted between the new nation of Israel and neighboring states, Frank Foster was sent to Egypt.

He was due to leave the military in late 1950, but the Korean War broke out and the British military added "a year for the Queen" to his enlistment.

After his discharge in 1951, he returned to England where he married Vaunie, nicknamed Pat, who had served in the RAF in Northern Ireland.

Vaunie's mother had emigrated to the United States during World War II and married a man who lived in Fort Worth. Frank and Vaunie followed.

"Dad began repairing motorcycles -- having a lot of experience with them in WWII -- but he soon found a better job at the Swift packing plant on the north side," Kevin Foster said.

Frank Foster later worked with relatives at Lynn's Delivery Service. After he retired in 1986, he and Pat moved back to Great Britain, this time to the Isle of Wight. After Frank died in 1996, Pat returned to Fort Worth.

Kevin Foster's sister, Patricia Foster, recalls her mother and dad telling about coming to America with everything they owned in one suitcase. They spent the last cash they had in St. Louis on a hamburger, arriving penniless and hungry, in Fort Worth.

SOURCES: Interviews and material furnished by Kevin Foster and Patricia Foster.

[TexasStooge]

Fire destroys Dallas apartments

By JOLENE DeVITO / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - No one was hurt when a four-alarm fire roared through a North Dallas apartment complex early Thursday.

Security guards at The Ivy Apartments, 7225 Fair Oaks Ave., first noticed the flames around 2 a.m. That triggered a frantic effort to roust sleeping tenants.

"I smelled smoke and got up and looked out the window and saw nothing but smoke," said an unidentified woman who is a resident. "I got up, got dressed and ran out and just started beating on doors that I knew people lived in—just told them to get out."

"It appears that everyone did get out," said Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Capt. Jesse Garcia. "It really is a miracle considering the magnitude of this fire."

Investigators pinpointed the source of the fire to a second-floor unit, but said the cause had not been determined.

Two dozen apartments were damaged or destroyed and about 100 residents were displaced.

"It's like a bad dream," said the female tenant, who carried no insurance. "You see stuff like this on the news and you just never think that it would happen to you, personally."

"These people walked out this morning with their pajamas on," said American Red Cross spokeswoman Anita Foster. Her agency is helping the victims with clothing, food and housing assistance.

"It's been a really tragic year emotionally for families in our area," Foster said, adding that her agency has already helped some 1,100 fire victims in North Texas in 2005.

[TexasStooge]

Dallas PD property room overflowing

By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8

NEWS 8 EXCLUSIVE

DALLAS, Texas - It's the biggest stash of drugs in North Texas - and you may be surprised where it is located.

News 8 has learned that since January of 2002, the Dallas Police Department has not destroyed one single piece of drug evidence. The department's property room is overflowing, and officials said it's becoming a critical situation.

Dallas police make thousands of drug arrests every year, and once police collect the evidence it goes to the property room. Exclusive photos of the overflow show the drugs piling up there.

"As you see we are pretty much at our max," said DPD Cpt. Troy McClain. "We need to resume destruction."

Because of the fake-drug scandal, the FBI asked the department to stop destroying any drugs until its investigation was complete. So now, there 600 boxes and containers filled with narcotics - so many that some recently spilled and the narcotics unit had to rebag them.

"Some marijuana sacks broke open, but those cases were already disposed of and those were ready for destruction," McClain said.

In memos obtained by News 8, several deputy and assistant chiefs asked for the destruction of drugs to resume as far back as August 2003. In one memo, assistant chief Ron Waldrop outlined his concerns, saying the situation is "creating employee health concerns ... about exposure to hazardous fumes."

In fact, News 8 asked for permission to shoot footage inside the property room, but that request was denied because officials said the situation was too hazardous. Employees agreed the smell is sometimes overbearing.

"There has been a new ventilation system, installed in 2002, to address some of those concerns, but I don't believe we have any evidence that we have health concerns over there," McClain said.

And there are more problems. Even though DPD stores high-powered rifles, drugs and thousands of pieces of evidence, the security cameras in the property room don't work - and it's been a problem for years.

"Some have been out of service, and we are in the process of correcting and fixing that right now," said McClain.

As for the drug overflow, in a May 2004 memo the FBI told Dallas police the department could resume destruction of evidence, but nothing happened. Now, Chief David Kunkle is making it a priority, and the property room staff has been given permission to get rid of the problem.

[TexasStooge]

Dallas pastor faces molestation charges

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - The pastor of an East Dallas church was in custody late Wednesday, accused of molesting a young parishioner.

Larry Joe Crocker, 56, was arrested at his Garland home and charged with two counts of indecency with a child by contact. The alleged victim is a teenage boy, who investigators said was allegedly molested on two occasions at the pastor's house.

Members of Crocker's church, Lakeview Christian Church in East Dallas, said the allegations are a crushing blow to their small church.

"Devastated is a good word," said church trustee Brian Cook. "We've all known Larry for a long time, and this is just something ... a bolt out of the blue that we just can't believe (is) true."

Police are holding Crocker at the Garland detention center, with a bond set at $10,000. He still must be arraigned on the second count against him.

"This has happened over the past several months," said Garland police spokesman Joe Harn. "There was more than one time that it happened. I think this was just a situation where the parents, the child trusted him."

Church trustees, who said Crocker grew up there and became minister about four years ago, told News 8 they will continue to back their pastor.

"We're going to stand behind him and keep him in our prayers," Cook said.

[TexasStooge]

D-FW a hub for drug smuggling

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA ABC 8

DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Texas - Federal Immigration and Customs agents hope they've put a crimp in a major drug pipeline with the arrests of 19 people in Dallas and San Antonio.

The individuals arrested are charged with being part of an organization that smuggled 200 pounds of cocaine a week from Mexico. While the case is important, it also shows the key position Dallas occupies in the national distribution of illegal drugs.

Though packages of shrink-wrapped powder are always the star of a drug bust, the unseen centerpiece in local arrests is really Dallas-Fort Worth, the most important drug hub in Texas.

"It's a perfect area," said ICE's Ken Cates. "I think Dallas-Fort Worth is about the sixth or seventh largest city, so it's a good place to hide."

Cates looks at a map of Texas and sees the same thing smugglers do: Dallas and Fort Worth are sweet spots as trans-shipment points for drugs - a crossroads of both north-south and east-west interstates.

Those arrested Wednesday are charged with smuggling large chunks of cocaine across the border at Piedras Negras en route to San Antonio. Then they moved the drugs north to Dallas, where they were broken up in smaller pieces for shipment to the Northeast. Once it was sold, they smuggled the money southward.

"Dallas is just ideally suited," Cates said. "It's just about a day's drive from the Mexican border ... far enough away from the intense enforcement of the border patrol."

The smugglers further exploited North Texas transportation to store their drugs in Arlington, West Dallas and Plano. They used new houses in the suburbs, as well as old houses normally associated with drugs.

[TexasStooge]

Sheriff wrestles money, staff woes

In office 2 months, she defends silence on county jail problems

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

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez said Wednesday that it will take more staff and money to fix many of the problems outlined in two recent reports critical of the way the county jail operates.

She also said she has been slow to announce her top administrative staff because the relatively low salary scale in Dallas County is making it hard for her to attract high-quality outside candidates.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ms. Valdez offered few specifics about her plans for changing the department. But she discussed the reception she has received from the department's rank and file, and her reasons for not speaking publicly sooner, despite an array of bad news about the jail.

She said she will ask the county commissioners for more staff but first wants to ask them for the money to conduct a study of staffing needs across the department.

"That way I can have the information I need to present the right plan to the commissioners," she said.

A study of jail health programs last month highlighted sweeping problems, including a lack of health care staff, too few jail guards to escort staff and inmates on sick calls, and inadequate facilities, all of which exacerbated inmates' illnesses.

And a state inspection this month failed the jail for the second year running, citing several facilities problems, including an intake area designed for 63 inmates that was holding up to 350 at a time.

"We want the best jail possible, no question," Sheriff Valdez said. "And the inmates aren't the only ones who benefit from that – employees and the whole community does."

"I think the reception has been pretty good. I realize I do things so differently from what they're used to," she said. "For instance, I make a point to learn the first names of employees.

"One time I saw an officer coming down the hall wearing sunglasses and I said, 'Take off your sunglasses.' It was clear he was irritated by that, but I said, 'I don't mean to give orders, but I want to see your eyes. How can I know you unless I see your eyes?' And I think he appreciated that."

She said she has made unannounced visits to various departments. "I've had at least 20 employees I've met who have told me, 'I never shook the hand of a sheriff before.'

"I'm doing things that are just me, and I've heard really good feedback."

She also defended her decision to remain silent for the first 2 ½ months of her tenure, despite the many jail-related problems making headlines.

"I was elected to do a job, and it wasn't to be out in the media all the time," she said. "My job is getting stuff done. ... I don't see speaking out in the media as a strong part of my job. People didn't elect me to make statements all the time. They elected me to solve problems, and there are plenty of problems to deal with."

Richard Stoll, a political science professor at Rice University, said a publicly elected official, such as the sheriff, should be available to explain new policies to the public.

"We in the public should have a lot of information about what our public officials are doing, to evaluate whether we elected the right people," he said. "We need ways to evaluate the policies government at every level is undertaking, and part of that information comes from the individual offices."

He said the sheriff doesn't have to speak publicly on every issue, but "on a certain number of issues, where new policy is set, she has to be able to articulate why she did it."

Sheriff Valdez said many of the problems cited in the jail health study and the state inspection deal with facilities and medical issues that her staff has no control over. But, she said, "every report has commented on how well our staff has done with what little resources they have. If we had more, we could do even better."

She said her jail staff members are not medics, and she agreed wholeheartedly with the jail study recommendation that the medical staff should become involved from the moment new arrestees are booked to identify potential medical problems.

She said it is a policy that detention officers are supposed to bring medical problems to the attention of the medical staff.

"We should be asking that they do that a little stronger," she said. "And we should put something in the policy where if they mention it three or four times and nothing happens, they should then bring it to the attention of one of us in administration."

But she generally avoided questions about how the jail's many problems occurred, problems with a new computer system or with the unwillingness of county commissioners over the years to pay for more jail staff.

"I'm not about finding fault," she said. "I'm about finding solutions."

She said she has been trying to attract people from other agencies to join her administrative team but has run up against financial hurdles.

"I have a challenge because of the salaries Dallas County pays," she said. "I can't bring people in from the same level elsewhere because they'd take a salary cut. There are plenty of people willing to come, but not the kind of people I want. I'm very fussy about the quality of person I'm looking for."

She said she has spoken with the county commissioners about more salary flexibility. And she said she has had to think creatively by trying to draw people out of retirement, for instance, so that their salaries would be less of an issue.

The sheriff is allowed to fill 10 positions by direct appointment without regard to civil service rank or testing, and traditionally those have been the top administrative posts. But the county commissioners set the salaries for each position in the budget, and Sheriff Valdez would need to get commissioners' approval to change the salary structure or increase salaries for those positions.

A quick comparison of salary figures produced by the Texas Municipal Police Association shows that Dallas does lag in top administrative compensation. The pay for assistant chief deputies is $86,160 in Harris County, for instance, compared with $78,000 in Dallas County. The chief deputy in Harris County earns $97,524, compared with $81,946 in Dallas. Salaries for similar positions in Travis County were unavailable, but the top lieutenant pay in Travis is $85,000 – a rank four positions below chief deputy.

Ms. Valdez said she will soon produce an organizational chart with at least some of her new appointees.

She said that once the initial plateful of problems is addressed, she wants to make the department more proactive. Her ideas include creating a community-relations position to reach out to the public: "Why should they always have to come to us with problems?"

She'd like a grant writer who can target new sources of money for projects. She wants a sort of "community posse" – a group of people who can explain to the public the wide range of services the department provides.

"Half the people out there don't even know what we do," she said.

"I have big dreams. But it comes down to what can we afford."

[TexasStooge]

Police close in on shooting suspects

Associates of man hurt at bar suspected in shootings near Central

By JASON TRAHAN, TANYA EISERER and ERNESTO LONDOÑO / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Authorities say they are close to making an arrest in Tuesday's dramatic assault rifle attack on a Central Expressway access road that left three men dead and one critically injured.

"They have a suspect they're trying to get totally identified so they can get a warrant," said Capt. Leon Holman of the University Park police. "Then we have to find him."

University Park investigators, assisted by Dallas police homicide detectives, are piecing together how an early Tuesday bar brawl at Jack's Pub in Dallas east of Central Expessway led to a man firing an assault rifle out of a Jaguar's sunroof at a Crown Victoria in the 5800 block of Central Expressway.

Detectives theorize that associates of a man injured in that brawl may have carried out the attack seeking revenge. Police believe the injured man, Fernando Balderas, 21, was at Baylor University Medical Center about the time of the shooting.

On Tuesday evening, detectives interviewed Mr. Balderas after he and his attorney voluntarily approached police. Police have questioned dozens of people in the case.

Capt. Holman also said surveillance tapes from the club "were secured at Jack's" and "have not been viewed yet."

Dallas police Officer Christopher Dwayne Gibson witnessed the attack and was the first person to see the bullet-riddled sedan after it crashed on the southbound service road just before 2 a.m. Tuesday.

"It was pretty gruesome," Officer Gibson said. "I've been on eight years, and I've seen several shootings, and that is the worst."

Killed were Eddie Pech, 36; Bernardo Andrade, 21; and his cousin Favio Andrade, 19. Osvaldo Juarez, the fourth occupant in the victims' vehicle, was in stable condition at Baylor on Wednesday.

Juan Andrade, a cousin of the dead cousins, said Mr. Juarez has only been in the United States for a few months. His closest relatives in the Dallas area are Bernardo Andrade's parents, Juan Andrade said.

About 9 a.m. Tuesday, police located the Jaguar at the home of a woman believed to be the girlfriend of Mr. Balderas. Police say the Jaguar belongs to Mr. Balderas.

Brawl wounds

Police believe the men who were later killed were at Jack's Pub on Yale Boulevard between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. when Mr. Balderas was struck in the head and hand with a beer bottle.

Mr. Balderas, two men and a woman went outside. Two off-duty police officers working security talked to Mr. Balderas and filed a police report.

A worker who was at the bar that night said Mr. Balderas and his friends did not want a police report filed, but the officers insisted. His friends refused to identify themselves to the officers.

The employee said that all Mr. Balderas would tell the police about his attacker was that he was a large Hispanic man.

Police called for an ambulance at 1:05 a.m., and paramedics who arrived minutes later bandaged Mr. Balderas' head and left hand and told him he needed to see a doctor.

According to fire department records, the ambulance left the bar parking lot at 1:25 a.m.

The worker said that Mr. Balderas and his friends then left in the Jaguar about the same time as the ambulance departed.

Capt. Holman said police believe that the victims from the Crown Victoria were still inside the bar when the Jaguar left the parking lot. He said police think the suspects took Mr. Balderas to a nearby hospital, dropped him off and then returned to the area to wait for the people in the Crown Victoria.

"They must have followed them from Jack's," Capt. Holman said. "We don't know that for sure because we don't have anyone in custody. The only other person who could have that information is one of the victims, and he's not able to talk."

Maria Carpenter, a spokeswoman for Baylor Health Care System, confirmed that a Fernando Balderas was admitted into the emergency room Tuesday and released the same day. She said she could not disclose what time he was admitted or released.

A Baylor employee with access to emergency room records told The Dallas Morning News that Mr. Balderas was admitted at 2:11 a.m. Tuesday and was treated for lacerations of the wrist, palm of the hand and index finger. The employee said Mr. Balderas' wounds were sown.

The employee said emergency records indicate doctors ran a blood test to check his alcohol level, something usually only done at the request of police.

Mr. Balderas was released from the hospital at 4:37 a.m., according to the Baylor employee.

Starting at 1:49 a.m., three ambulances, including the one that had responded to the fight at Jack's, raced to the shooting on Central at Mockingbird Lane.

Just before 2 a.m., Officer Gibson and his partner were stopped at a red light on westbound Mockingbird approaching Central Expressway and were waiting to turn when they heard loud noises. They were transporting a woman suspected of drunken driving to the county jail.

Assault rifle

"We didn't know what it was at the time or where it was coming from," he said. "We went on through the light, and we suddenly saw a light-colored vehicle" and a man standing through the sunroof firing what appeared to be an assault rifle – possibly an AK-47-style automatic weapon.

At first, the officers didn't know if they were firing at someone or up in the air, he said. "We turned to try to get behind the vehicle, but it was basically long gone. We saw the victims to the left and we immediately stopped," he said.

He said he got out of his patrol car, leaving his partner with the prisoner, and ran toward the victims' vehicle.

"No one was talking," he said. "They were hurt seriously. That's why we tried to get medical attention as soon as possible."

Capt. Holman said the suspects in the Jaguar ambushed the victims in the Crown Victoria. "I don't think that they suspected anything at all."

He did not know whether the two groups knew each other before that night.

Family members of the men killed and injured in the attack were left to pick up the pieces Wednesday.

Tracy Harrison, a marketing representative at Premier Athletic Club, where Bernardo Andrade's mother works, said gym members donated more than $2,000 Wednesday to help the family pay for funeral and burial expenses. The family anticipates to spend roughly $6,500 on the funeral and burial.

Ms. Harrison said the gym's staff is organizing a five-kilometer run to raise money for Mr. Andrade's widow, Brunella. He also left behind year-old twins.

Ms. Harrison said several gym members were particularly struck by the location of the shootings – on the periphery of the low-crime Park Cities.

"It's getting closer to home for a lot of people in the bubble," she said.

[TexasStooge]

One year after Jabari, new policy issued

By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - If Jabari the gorilla made his big escape today, Dallas police – not zoo officials – would be in charge of trying to contain him, under a policy released Wednesday.

That reverses a previous protocol that gave Dallas Zoo officials command of animal escapes within the zoo's perimeter.

The release of the four-page policy follows other security changes that police have made at the zoo in the last year.

"The Dallas Police Department – with public safety being our No. 1 function – is in charge on or off grounds of an escape," said Lt. Todd Thomasson, a southwest patrol commander.

"The zoo agreed with us that once we get there, we will take tactical control of the situation."

The policy was released two days before the first anniversary of Jabari's escape from his zoo habitat. On March 18, the 350-pound gorilla injured three visitors before being fatally shot by two tactical officers.

Zoo officials believe the gorilla took a "one in a million" 14-foot leap over a habitat wall.

Dallas police and zoo officials were criticized for communication breakdowns and their confused response to the emergency during the 13-year-old Jabari's rampage.

The commander of the Police Department's tactical division was faulted for rushing out of the office to an off-duty job instead of going to the scene of the escape.

The new policy, which spells out for the first time in writing how officers and zoo officials should respond if a dangerous animal escapes, was drafted by the police and zoo employees over several months and recently approved by Police Chief David Kunkle.

Previously, officers were supposed to watch a 10-minute training video on what to do when an animal gets loose, but few officers saw the tape.

Zoo director Rich Buickerood, who helped draft the policy, said the new procedures make sense for the safety of zoo visitors and animals.

"We just felt when we were assessing everything that it made far more sense for the police to be ultimately be in charge," he said.

Jane Ballentine, a spokeswoman for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, said Dallas' new policy bucks the trend among many large zoos in the country.

Although no specific data are available, she said the nation's larger facilities often take primary command of animals within their walls.

"Inside the perimeter, the zoo staff is in charge. Outside, it becomes a matter of the police being in charge," she said.

At the San Diego Zoo, the staff heads up animal escapes both inside and outside the zoo, officials said. At the Houston Zoo, the staff commands animal escapes inside the perimeter and relinquishes control to the police if the animal gets outside. Houston officials, however, said they've never had to test the policy.

"About 25 years ago, I think we had a macaw end up in a golf course," said Brian Hill, a spokesman for the Houston Zoo.

"We fortunately have never been in a position as they [Dallas Zoo officials] were that an animal got outside the perimeter of the zoo or in the zoo."

The Dallas police's new policy also authorizes officers to use deadly force against an animal that has escaped the zoo's perimeter or is a threat to people. Officers can also kill the animal if it is threatening to escape the zoo's boundaries, even if there is no immediate threat to life.

Mr. Buickerood stressed that his staff still will be the first responders to an emergency.

He said zoo employees will do everything they can while waiting for police to arrive to contain an escaped animal and prevent the need for the use of deadly force.

"During that time, we may be able to cajole the animal back into the habitat or contain it," he said.

The policy also establishes a command post at the Dallas Zoo Annex, where emergency personnel are supposed to assemble during emergencies and be assigned duties.

The Police Department was criticized after Jabari's escape because some officers ran past agreed-upon checkpoints at the park and distracted zoo staffers as they tried to surround and subdue the gorilla.

The new policy will be placed in police emergency procedures manuals and taught to all new recruits. Training sessions for some officers and zoo employees to practice emergency responses will begin soon, officials said.

Several of Lt. Thomasson's officers already have spent several days at the zoo learning about animals and how to contain them.

"One of the chimps spit and hit one of our officers 8 feet away," Lt. Thomasson said. "That was a real wake-up call."

Soon after Jabari's escape, Dallas police posted an officer equipped with a high-caliber rifle at the zoo during visiting hours.

Previously, the officer had no rifle and was posted from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., leaving no police presence at the zoo as it prepared to close at 5 p.m. Jabari escaped from his habitat after 4:30 p.m.

Lt. Thomasson said that officer will serve as a liaison between the police and zoo officials in the early moments of an emergency. The separate radio systems used by the police and zoo officials do not allow direct communication between the groups.

Lt. Thomasson said the new policy is cleaner and more straightforward than previous plans and should smooth communications between the zoo and police if another escape occurs.

"It is sad that it happened in the first place, and I hope it doesn't happen again," he said, "but we have to be prepared if it does."
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POLICY HIGHLIGHTS:

Primary goal

Safety of human life is the main objective. Every attempt will be made to bring the incident to a safe conclusion without loss of human or animal life.

Dangerous animals defined

All animals may become a threat to life, but these animals require an immediate emergency response: cheetah, chimpanzee, elephant, gorilla, lion, mandrill (male), rhinoceros and tiger.

Emergency calls

Code red: When a dangerous animal escapes from its enclosure or when any escaped animal is determined to be an immediate threat to life.

Code black: When a human is trapped in an enclosure with a dangerous animal.

In command

The zoo will be the initial lead agency for the capture and restraint of the animal. When a police supervisor arrives, the Police Department will automatically become the lead agency.

Use of deadly force

The zoo determines that a dangerous animal is about to leave the zoo perimeter or that it is outside the perimeter, and there is a threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury. Deadly force may be required, even if no human is being attacked.

[TexasStooge]

FAKE DRUG SCANDAL TRIAL CONTINUES

DALLAS, Texas (KDFW Fox 4) -- Dallas jurors got to see the evidence in the fake drug scandal. Former narcotics officer Mark Delapaz is accused of lying on a search warrant. Prosecutors filled the courtroom with boxes of fake drug packages. They say Delapaz knew the drugs were fake weeks before he asked to sign a search warrant to nab another suspected drug dealer.

The chemist who uncovered the bogus drugs testified that she knew by the packaging it was not cocaine. Attorneys for Delapaz say he never lied on any search warrant. They also say he had nothing to do with planting the fake drugs on innocent people.