Dallas zips make best, worst Forbes list
By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - In the city of Dallas, 15 miles can make the difference between one of the best home buys in the country and one of the worst.
According to Forbes magazine, one of the best locations is in the zip code 75231 and one of the worst zip codes is 75212.
Researchers looked at home prices in every zip code in the country.
In Dallas, average existing homes sold for six percent more last year and realtors said the best is yet to come, especially in Lake Highlands.
Erin Howell said she felt pretty good about purchasing her home in Lake Highlands two years ago.
"We're the biggest cheerleaders for our neighborhood, but it was great to see that it had national recognition," she said of Lake Highlands making it on the Forbes list.
Of all the zip codes in the country, 75231 in northeast Dallas saw the third highest home appreciation in the past couple of years.
The average Lake Highlands home sold for $234,000 last year, which well more than doubled the price of two years ago.
But just 15 miles away, 75212 in West Dallas made it on the other end of the spectrum on the Forbes list. It was six spots from the bottom.
The average sale price of a home was $96,000 last year, which is less from two years ago when it was around $113,000.
John Capello, head of the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce, said the area has battled labels for 40 years.
"Some of it is in foreclosures, some of it is in people speculating [and] buying land that is below market and people trying to get rid of property," Capello said.
News from the Lone Star State
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TexasStooge
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McDonald's robbery under investigation
DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - Dallas police were investigating a McDonald's restaurant robbery in Old East Dallas in which four men took money from the register and the safe.
The men, wearing masks and carrying at least two firearms, entered the McDonald's in the 5400 block of Ross Avenue around 9:30 p.m. Monday. One of the employees tried to call 911 and got into a fight with one of the suspects, Dallas police Senior Cpl. Max Geron said.
The employee was treated and released at the scene for a laceration to the top of his head after he was pistol-whipped, he said.
Three suspects already had fled before police arrived. Officers chased the fourth man but didn't catch him, although they did recover some of the money that the suspects dropped, Geron said.
It was unclear from the police report whether customers were in the fast-food restaurant when the robbery occurred, he said.
DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - Dallas police were investigating a McDonald's restaurant robbery in Old East Dallas in which four men took money from the register and the safe.
The men, wearing masks and carrying at least two firearms, entered the McDonald's in the 5400 block of Ross Avenue around 9:30 p.m. Monday. One of the employees tried to call 911 and got into a fight with one of the suspects, Dallas police Senior Cpl. Max Geron said.
The employee was treated and released at the scene for a laceration to the top of his head after he was pistol-whipped, he said.
Three suspects already had fled before police arrived. Officers chased the fourth man but didn't catch him, although they did recover some of the money that the suspects dropped, Geron said.
It was unclear from the police report whether customers were in the fast-food restaurant when the robbery occurred, he said.
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Arlington police chief will take on more duties
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON, Texas - Police Chief Theron Bowman will temporarily take over a vacant deputy city manager job while Arlington officials conduct a nationwide search.
Cheryel Carpenter, a city spokeswoman, said that Chief Bowman is expected to return to his police position full time after a new deputy city manager is hired. She said that Chief Bowman will hold down both jobs, but some of his responsibilities will be delegated to his two assistant chiefs and six deputy chiefs.
Chief Bowman could not immediately be reached for comment.
This is not an unprecedented move for the city of Arlington.
Former Arlington police Chief David Kunkle became a deputy city manager and worked at City Hall for five years. He left Arlington in 2004 to become the Dallas police chief.
Chief Bowman started his law enforcement career in Arlington in 1983 and became police chief in 1999, replacing Chief Kunkle.
As interim deputy city manager, Chief Bowman will be in charge of neighborhood services, which includes police, fire, libraries, parks and recreation and community services. City officials hope to have a replacement chosen in four to six months.
The opening was created when a City Council restructuring added a fourth deputy city manager.
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON, Texas - Police Chief Theron Bowman will temporarily take over a vacant deputy city manager job while Arlington officials conduct a nationwide search.
Cheryel Carpenter, a city spokeswoman, said that Chief Bowman is expected to return to his police position full time after a new deputy city manager is hired. She said that Chief Bowman will hold down both jobs, but some of his responsibilities will be delegated to his two assistant chiefs and six deputy chiefs.
Chief Bowman could not immediately be reached for comment.
This is not an unprecedented move for the city of Arlington.
Former Arlington police Chief David Kunkle became a deputy city manager and worked at City Hall for five years. He left Arlington in 2004 to become the Dallas police chief.
Chief Bowman started his law enforcement career in Arlington in 1983 and became police chief in 1999, replacing Chief Kunkle.
As interim deputy city manager, Chief Bowman will be in charge of neighborhood services, which includes police, fire, libraries, parks and recreation and community services. City officials hope to have a replacement chosen in four to six months.
The opening was created when a City Council restructuring added a fourth deputy city manager.
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Daughter, parents reunited after kidnapping
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - A two-year-old girl was reunited with her parents after she was taken on a carjacking gone wrong and later dumped near a field where she was found.
At about 3:00 p.m. Martha Chavez stopped in at a north Oak Cliff home and left her daughter alone in a minivan for a moment. However, moments later two men stole the vehicle with the little girl inside while Chavez was still standing on the door step of the home.
About 30 minutes later, police found the van along Interstate 45 in Ferris but no child was inside.
The young girl was found safe in Dallas a short time later and was still strapped in her car seat.
Neighbor Juan Castillo came face to face with the suspects and saw them drive off not knowing the little girl was inside the van.
"We find out when my neighbor came out crying looking for the van and they tell us, 'Hey they stole my van and [my] baby's inside," he said.
While the family cried waiting to find out what happened to the young girl, the family's tears of worry turned to tears of joy as they learned she had been found.
Officer Angela Salazar was the first officer to see the child.
"She was by herself still strapped in the car seat," she said. "She was very quiet. She wasn't crying."
The young girl cried out for her mother who was too overcome with emotion to say much except thank you.
"I just want to thank the police [and] the media that helped me find my little girl," she said.
Chavez said her daughter will turn two Wednesday and was grateful they will all celebrate her birthday together.
Police said Child Protective services is not involved in the case and only blamed the suspects who took the van.
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - A two-year-old girl was reunited with her parents after she was taken on a carjacking gone wrong and later dumped near a field where she was found.
At about 3:00 p.m. Martha Chavez stopped in at a north Oak Cliff home and left her daughter alone in a minivan for a moment. However, moments later two men stole the vehicle with the little girl inside while Chavez was still standing on the door step of the home.
About 30 minutes later, police found the van along Interstate 45 in Ferris but no child was inside.
The young girl was found safe in Dallas a short time later and was still strapped in her car seat.
Neighbor Juan Castillo came face to face with the suspects and saw them drive off not knowing the little girl was inside the van.
"We find out when my neighbor came out crying looking for the van and they tell us, 'Hey they stole my van and [my] baby's inside," he said.
While the family cried waiting to find out what happened to the young girl, the family's tears of worry turned to tears of joy as they learned she had been found.
Officer Angela Salazar was the first officer to see the child.
"She was by herself still strapped in the car seat," she said. "She was very quiet. She wasn't crying."
The young girl cried out for her mother who was too overcome with emotion to say much except thank you.
"I just want to thank the police [and] the media that helped me find my little girl," she said.
Chavez said her daughter will turn two Wednesday and was grateful they will all celebrate her birthday together.
Police said Child Protective services is not involved in the case and only blamed the suspects who took the van.
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Execution Wednesday for theater killer
Inmate condemned in '97 Dallas attack insists he didn't shoot women
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - As Tommie Collins Hughes sits in his cell awaiting execution tonight, a 65-year-old father in Illinois wonders whether justice is being served for his dead daughter.
"If he is executed, it doesn't make a difference," Mabayoje Erinkitola said. "That is just the due process of the law. It is not going to bring your child back."
Nearly nine years have passed since 25-year-old Foluke G. Erinkitola and her friend Roxanne Andrea Mendoza, 29, were robbed and killed in the parking lot of the AMC Grand theater at Interstate 35E and Northwest Highway.
The murders took place Aug. 13, 1997. The robbers fled in a car that undercover officers happened to see speeding away from the theater's parking lot before they knew about the shooting.
Patrol officers were soon able to stop the car. Inside, they found three people, Ms. Erinkitola's billfold, Ms. Mendoza's purse and two .38-caliber handguns.
It took a jury only 70 minutes to find Mr. Hughes guilty of capital murder in Ms. Erinkitola's death.
His cousin, Derric D. English, was also charged with capital murder. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty for him because he was not the gunman and he had no prior convictions.
Mr. English is serving a life sentence.
Mr. Hughes' girlfriend at the time, Alina T. Henry, was also present during the robberies and shootings. Prosecutors agreed to let her plead guilty to aggravated robbery in exchange for testifying against her co-defendants. She is serving an 11-year term.
Mr. Hughes, 31, maintains that he is innocent.
"I'm sorry they were killed, but I'm not the one who did it," Mr. Hughes told The Associated Press in a recent interview. He said he was talking to the women at their car when Ms. Henry became jealous, drove by and shot the women.
But during Mr. Hughes' trial, his cousin Hernando Palmer testified that he had asked Mr. Hughes why he thought the two women had to die.
"He said that the [expletive] could identify them," Mr. Palmer testified in 1998.
The lead prosecutor in Mr. Hughes' capital murder trial, Toby Shook, said he has been waiting for tonight's execution.
"I'm glad the day is finally here," said Mr. Shook, now chief of the felony trial division of the district attorney's office and the Republican candidate for district attorney.
"He deserves the punishment. It still makes me angry [to think of] the potential the two victims had," he said.
The women became friends at GTE, where Ms. Erinkitola was an intern and Ms. Mendoza was an account manager.
Ms. Erinkitola was preparing for her second year in the master's of business administration program at the University of Illinois. Her father said she became very worldly at a young age and dreamed of a career in international business.
"We took her to Nigeria as a baby, and she came back at age 12," he said. "She was going to go to France to do international studies."
Ms. Mendoza had just been promoted to account manager at GTE Technology Solutions Center in Irving. She moved from GTE's San Francisco offices and had a boyfriend in California whom she was planning to marry, her family said.
Mr. Erinkitola said that he had forgotten Mr. Hughes was scheduled to be executed tonight and that he's torn over the death penalty. He said the answers to two questions would determine whether justice was served:
"Does he now realize that killing someone is wrong? Does he really understand his crime? That's what I want to know."
Inmate condemned in '97 Dallas attack insists he didn't shoot women
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - As Tommie Collins Hughes sits in his cell awaiting execution tonight, a 65-year-old father in Illinois wonders whether justice is being served for his dead daughter.
"If he is executed, it doesn't make a difference," Mabayoje Erinkitola said. "That is just the due process of the law. It is not going to bring your child back."
Nearly nine years have passed since 25-year-old Foluke G. Erinkitola and her friend Roxanne Andrea Mendoza, 29, were robbed and killed in the parking lot of the AMC Grand theater at Interstate 35E and Northwest Highway.
The murders took place Aug. 13, 1997. The robbers fled in a car that undercover officers happened to see speeding away from the theater's parking lot before they knew about the shooting.
Patrol officers were soon able to stop the car. Inside, they found three people, Ms. Erinkitola's billfold, Ms. Mendoza's purse and two .38-caliber handguns.
It took a jury only 70 minutes to find Mr. Hughes guilty of capital murder in Ms. Erinkitola's death.
His cousin, Derric D. English, was also charged with capital murder. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty for him because he was not the gunman and he had no prior convictions.
Mr. English is serving a life sentence.
Mr. Hughes' girlfriend at the time, Alina T. Henry, was also present during the robberies and shootings. Prosecutors agreed to let her plead guilty to aggravated robbery in exchange for testifying against her co-defendants. She is serving an 11-year term.
Mr. Hughes, 31, maintains that he is innocent.
"I'm sorry they were killed, but I'm not the one who did it," Mr. Hughes told The Associated Press in a recent interview. He said he was talking to the women at their car when Ms. Henry became jealous, drove by and shot the women.
But during Mr. Hughes' trial, his cousin Hernando Palmer testified that he had asked Mr. Hughes why he thought the two women had to die.
"He said that the [expletive] could identify them," Mr. Palmer testified in 1998.
The lead prosecutor in Mr. Hughes' capital murder trial, Toby Shook, said he has been waiting for tonight's execution.
"I'm glad the day is finally here," said Mr. Shook, now chief of the felony trial division of the district attorney's office and the Republican candidate for district attorney.
"He deserves the punishment. It still makes me angry [to think of] the potential the two victims had," he said.
The women became friends at GTE, where Ms. Erinkitola was an intern and Ms. Mendoza was an account manager.
Ms. Erinkitola was preparing for her second year in the master's of business administration program at the University of Illinois. Her father said she became very worldly at a young age and dreamed of a career in international business.
"We took her to Nigeria as a baby, and she came back at age 12," he said. "She was going to go to France to do international studies."
Ms. Mendoza had just been promoted to account manager at GTE Technology Solutions Center in Irving. She moved from GTE's San Francisco offices and had a boyfriend in California whom she was planning to marry, her family said.
Mr. Erinkitola said that he had forgotten Mr. Hughes was scheduled to be executed tonight and that he's torn over the death penalty. He said the answers to two questions would determine whether justice was served:
"Does he now realize that killing someone is wrong? Does he really understand his crime? That's what I want to know."
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DART may head west, east
Dallas: Study focuses on previously overlooked potential rail lines
By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The future of mass transit in North Texas could have a few more rail lines in West Dallas and East Dallas, according to a DART analysis released Tuesday.
The study bolstered the case for all of the potential rail lines the transit agency is studying, including a northern crosstown route from Richardson to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and a North Dallas route along LBJ Freeway.
But the study, which used new job and population projections supplied by Dallas, also focused on several previously overlooked potential rail lines. Those lines, in West and East Dallas, could attract enough riders to be studied further and possibly be included in Dallas Area Rapid Transit's 2030 rail construction plan, according to the study.
"West Dallas, we thought, was very positive," said Theresa O'Donnell, Dallas' development services director. "This looks to me like it's good for the city of Dallas."
No action was taken on the study Tuesday. DART could adopt a 2030 rail construction plan this year.
DART recently proposed a delay in prioritizing projects for several years without postponing the start of any potential construction. The delay would allow regional planners to thoroughly review Dallas' projections and possibly use them in their own forecasts.
DART must use regional growth projections supplied by the North Central Texas Council of Governments to compete for federal funding. The council of governments is to issue new growth projections in 2008, and those predictions could include the new Dallas data that predicts much higher growth in the city's southern sector.
"We know we can't wait until 2008 to make some decisions," said DART board vice chairman Joyce Foreman. "I think it's important that we make a statement now.
"We have had some people who have been waiting for some form of rail for years who we want to work with."
The new data show that a rail line along Singleton Boulevard or Fort Worth Avenue in West Dallas would attract enough riders to be worthwhile.
A sufficient number of riders also would use some form of mass transit along the old Santa Fe rail line in Old East Dallas, the study shows.
In addition, rail line extensions from Pleasant Grove to near Interstate 20 showed large increases in potential riders, as did an extension in East Dallas to in or around Mesquite.
Those potential rail lines or extensions still must compete against others for DART funding.
The study also found that rail line extensions would be viable to suburbs such as McKinney, Mesquite and Cedar Hill, which are not in the DART system. The key for those cities is to have some form of feeder bus service to funnel patrons to trains, the study shows.
The use of new data threatened to pit suburbs against Dallas, depending on which rail lines fared better in the new study. All existing rail lines and those planned for construction performed well under the new study, as did practically all of the rail lines being examined by DART for its 2030 plan.
Dallas' growth projections could be important because of the number of new potential transit users the city expects to have by 2030.
Cost and ridership estimates play a large role in determining which rail lines to build, and competition for up to $4 billion in funding for future projects will be fierce.
Two weeks ago, seven Dallas City Council members spoke at a DART board meeting and emphasized the importance of using the new growth projections to draw new transit lines, particularly through southern Dallas, if possible.
A light-rail line from Richardson, through Addison and Carrollton to D/FW Airport would cost up to $1.5 billion. A North Dallas-area rail line, including a tunnel under LBJ Freeway, could cost $2 billion.
"At the end of the day, we're happy to see the southern sector of Dallas grow," said Addison council member Greg Hirsch. "The numbers shown here are not necessarily good or bad for us. But we prefer that the board prioritize projects and move forward soon."
Dallas: Study focuses on previously overlooked potential rail lines
By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The future of mass transit in North Texas could have a few more rail lines in West Dallas and East Dallas, according to a DART analysis released Tuesday.
The study bolstered the case for all of the potential rail lines the transit agency is studying, including a northern crosstown route from Richardson to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and a North Dallas route along LBJ Freeway.
But the study, which used new job and population projections supplied by Dallas, also focused on several previously overlooked potential rail lines. Those lines, in West and East Dallas, could attract enough riders to be studied further and possibly be included in Dallas Area Rapid Transit's 2030 rail construction plan, according to the study.
"West Dallas, we thought, was very positive," said Theresa O'Donnell, Dallas' development services director. "This looks to me like it's good for the city of Dallas."
No action was taken on the study Tuesday. DART could adopt a 2030 rail construction plan this year.
DART recently proposed a delay in prioritizing projects for several years without postponing the start of any potential construction. The delay would allow regional planners to thoroughly review Dallas' projections and possibly use them in their own forecasts.
DART must use regional growth projections supplied by the North Central Texas Council of Governments to compete for federal funding. The council of governments is to issue new growth projections in 2008, and those predictions could include the new Dallas data that predicts much higher growth in the city's southern sector.
"We know we can't wait until 2008 to make some decisions," said DART board vice chairman Joyce Foreman. "I think it's important that we make a statement now.
"We have had some people who have been waiting for some form of rail for years who we want to work with."
The new data show that a rail line along Singleton Boulevard or Fort Worth Avenue in West Dallas would attract enough riders to be worthwhile.
A sufficient number of riders also would use some form of mass transit along the old Santa Fe rail line in Old East Dallas, the study shows.
In addition, rail line extensions from Pleasant Grove to near Interstate 20 showed large increases in potential riders, as did an extension in East Dallas to in or around Mesquite.
Those potential rail lines or extensions still must compete against others for DART funding.
The study also found that rail line extensions would be viable to suburbs such as McKinney, Mesquite and Cedar Hill, which are not in the DART system. The key for those cities is to have some form of feeder bus service to funnel patrons to trains, the study shows.
The use of new data threatened to pit suburbs against Dallas, depending on which rail lines fared better in the new study. All existing rail lines and those planned for construction performed well under the new study, as did practically all of the rail lines being examined by DART for its 2030 plan.
Dallas' growth projections could be important because of the number of new potential transit users the city expects to have by 2030.
Cost and ridership estimates play a large role in determining which rail lines to build, and competition for up to $4 billion in funding for future projects will be fierce.
Two weeks ago, seven Dallas City Council members spoke at a DART board meeting and emphasized the importance of using the new growth projections to draw new transit lines, particularly through southern Dallas, if possible.
A light-rail line from Richardson, through Addison and Carrollton to D/FW Airport would cost up to $1.5 billion. A North Dallas-area rail line, including a tunnel under LBJ Freeway, could cost $2 billion.
"At the end of the day, we're happy to see the southern sector of Dallas grow," said Addison council member Greg Hirsch. "The numbers shown here are not necessarily good or bad for us. But we prefer that the board prioritize projects and move forward soon."
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Plano soccer coach arrested for child molestation
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
PLANO, Texas - Plano police arrested a Plano soccer coach on two charges of indecency with a child by contact, a Plano police spokesman said Wednesday.
Police arrested Dennis Drummond, 66, Tuesday. The charges stem from allegations by two juvenile girls who were from two different soccer teams Drummond coached.
Drummond has been a soccer coach for several years with Plano Youth Soccer. Additional allegations are being investigated, Officer Carl Duke said.
"Drummond has been in a position of contact with juveniles for a long period of time, we encourage parents who have had children on any of his teams take the time to talk to their children about any inappropriate contact," Officer Duke said.
Police ask that anyone with information about Drummond that can help the investigation call the Plano police tip line at 972-941-2148.
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
PLANO, Texas - Plano police arrested a Plano soccer coach on two charges of indecency with a child by contact, a Plano police spokesman said Wednesday.
Police arrested Dennis Drummond, 66, Tuesday. The charges stem from allegations by two juvenile girls who were from two different soccer teams Drummond coached.
Drummond has been a soccer coach for several years with Plano Youth Soccer. Additional allegations are being investigated, Officer Carl Duke said.
"Drummond has been in a position of contact with juveniles for a long period of time, we encourage parents who have had children on any of his teams take the time to talk to their children about any inappropriate contact," Officer Duke said.
Police ask that anyone with information about Drummond that can help the investigation call the Plano police tip line at 972-941-2148.
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Dallas police nab 'most wanted' man
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police arrested their most wanted man Wednesday morning.
Nathan Green had been sought since March 5, when he allegedly beat up his girlfriend. Police feared he was going to kill her.
Sources said Green was arrested by in the 900 block of Lambert Street in Southwest Dallas.
He was apparently hiding in a closet, but did not resist arrest when police approached.
Green was wanted for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend, Laquisha Harp, on Sunday, March 5. He allegedly broke down the door to her apartment, grabbed her, beat her up and held her captive for sevearl hours.
Green then allegedly left Harp on the side of the road, battered and bruised.
Dallas police placed him on the most wanted list because they feared he might act again, and more violently.
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police arrested their most wanted man Wednesday morning.
Nathan Green had been sought since March 5, when he allegedly beat up his girlfriend. Police feared he was going to kill her.
Sources said Green was arrested by in the 900 block of Lambert Street in Southwest Dallas.
He was apparently hiding in a closet, but did not resist arrest when police approached.
Green was wanted for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend, Laquisha Harp, on Sunday, March 5. He allegedly broke down the door to her apartment, grabbed her, beat her up and held her captive for sevearl hours.
Green then allegedly left Harp on the side of the road, battered and bruised.
Dallas police placed him on the most wanted list because they feared he might act again, and more violently.
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Miss Deaf Texas was 'texting' parents before accident
AUSTIN, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The reigning Miss Deaf Texas who was killed by a train was text messaging her parents and friends on her cellphone as she walked near the tracks and might have been distracted, police said.
Tara McAvoy, 18, was walking about a foot away from Union Pacific railroad tracks. She had typed a message to her parents, both of whom are hearing-impaired, letting them know she was walking along the tracks from home to her mother's workplace on Monday.
A few minutes later, McAvoy was struck by the snowplow on the front of a 65-car Union Pacific train, which authorities said extended 16 inches on both sides of the tracks. She died at the scene.
"As the train approached, they sounded the horn and got no response," Austin police Detective David Fugitt told the Austin American-Statesman. "They activated the emergency brakes but were unable to stop in time."
Fugitt said he is not sure whether McAvoy would have felt vibrations from the train.
The train was hauling a fleet of cars from Mexico to St. Louis.
McAvoy graduated from the Texas School for the Deaf in 2005 and won the state pageant in June. She was scheduled to compete in the national pageant in California this year.
She had been a cheerleader, a basketball player and an honor roll student at the Texas School for the Deaf.
AUSTIN, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) - The reigning Miss Deaf Texas who was killed by a train was text messaging her parents and friends on her cellphone as she walked near the tracks and might have been distracted, police said.
Tara McAvoy, 18, was walking about a foot away from Union Pacific railroad tracks. She had typed a message to her parents, both of whom are hearing-impaired, letting them know she was walking along the tracks from home to her mother's workplace on Monday.
A few minutes later, McAvoy was struck by the snowplow on the front of a 65-car Union Pacific train, which authorities said extended 16 inches on both sides of the tracks. She died at the scene.
"As the train approached, they sounded the horn and got no response," Austin police Detective David Fugitt told the Austin American-Statesman. "They activated the emergency brakes but were unable to stop in time."
Fugitt said he is not sure whether McAvoy would have felt vibrations from the train.
The train was hauling a fleet of cars from Mexico to St. Louis.
McAvoy graduated from the Texas School for the Deaf in 2005 and won the state pageant in June. She was scheduled to compete in the national pageant in California this year.
She had been a cheerleader, a basketball player and an honor roll student at the Texas School for the Deaf.
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Dallas police arrest accused kidnapper
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police have captured a man accused of kidnapping and severely beating his former longtime girlfriend.
Nathan Wayne Green, 26, was taken into custody about 10 a.m. Wednesday on an outstanding warrant for aggravated kidnapping in connection with a March 5 incident.
He is accused of breaking into the home of Laquisha Harp, 23, and kidnapping her before releasing her several hours later.
Detectives from the Dallas Police Department’s Southwest patrol deployment unit found Mr. Green hiding in a closet of a house in the 900 block of Lambert Street in East Oak Cliff. He was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Aggravated kidnapping is a first-degree felony, which carries a punishment of up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The incident has sparked an internal inquiry into whether patrol officers should have investigated further when they were initially called to Ms. Harp’s apartment. They found a door had been kicked in and neighbors reported they had heard a woman screaming.
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police have captured a man accused of kidnapping and severely beating his former longtime girlfriend.
Nathan Wayne Green, 26, was taken into custody about 10 a.m. Wednesday on an outstanding warrant for aggravated kidnapping in connection with a March 5 incident.
He is accused of breaking into the home of Laquisha Harp, 23, and kidnapping her before releasing her several hours later.
Detectives from the Dallas Police Department’s Southwest patrol deployment unit found Mr. Green hiding in a closet of a house in the 900 block of Lambert Street in East Oak Cliff. He was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Aggravated kidnapping is a first-degree felony, which carries a punishment of up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The incident has sparked an internal inquiry into whether patrol officers should have investigated further when they were initially called to Ms. Harp’s apartment. They found a door had been kicked in and neighbors reported they had heard a woman screaming.
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TexasStooge
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Schlosser hearing postponed
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
MCKINNEY, Texas - A pre-trial hearing in the Dena Schlosser capital murder case set for this morning was postponed until next week.
The hearing, which was postponed because of another trial, will likely determine whether Ms. Schlosser's second capital murder trial will be heard by a judge or jury. The hearing will now be March 23.
Collin County District Attorney John Roach has said he wants State District Judge Chris Oldner to decide the verdict in the second trial instead of a jury. But whether a jury hears the case is up to Ms. Schlosser, 37. One of Ms. Schlosser's attorney's, David Haynes, said the defense hopes to announce its decision at the hearing.
The first trial ended in a hung jury late last month when jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favor of not guilty by reason of insanity.
The state and defense do not disagree Ms. Schlosser killed her daughter Maggie Schlosser, only about her state of mind at the time.
Doctors diagnosed postpartum depression and psychosis in Ms. Schlosser after Maggie was born. Testimony showed she had numerous religious-based hallucinations and delusions. She thought God wanted her to kill Maggie. Three psychiatrists testified for the defense at the trial that Ms. Schlosser was insane when she killed her daughter. The state did not call any psychiatrists to testify.
The state is seeking to send Ms. Schlosser to prison for life. The defense wants Ms. Schlosser to go to a mental institution until the judge and doctors say she should be released.
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
MCKINNEY, Texas - A pre-trial hearing in the Dena Schlosser capital murder case set for this morning was postponed until next week.
The hearing, which was postponed because of another trial, will likely determine whether Ms. Schlosser's second capital murder trial will be heard by a judge or jury. The hearing will now be March 23.
Collin County District Attorney John Roach has said he wants State District Judge Chris Oldner to decide the verdict in the second trial instead of a jury. But whether a jury hears the case is up to Ms. Schlosser, 37. One of Ms. Schlosser's attorney's, David Haynes, said the defense hopes to announce its decision at the hearing.
The first trial ended in a hung jury late last month when jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favor of not guilty by reason of insanity.
The state and defense do not disagree Ms. Schlosser killed her daughter Maggie Schlosser, only about her state of mind at the time.
Doctors diagnosed postpartum depression and psychosis in Ms. Schlosser after Maggie was born. Testimony showed she had numerous religious-based hallucinations and delusions. She thought God wanted her to kill Maggie. Three psychiatrists testified for the defense at the trial that Ms. Schlosser was insane when she killed her daughter. The state did not call any psychiatrists to testify.
The state is seeking to send Ms. Schlosser to prison for life. The defense wants Ms. Schlosser to go to a mental institution until the judge and doctors say she should be released.
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TexasStooge
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Dallas fire chief sacked over sexual harassment charges
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Dallas Assistant Fire Chief Roland Gamez has been fired after the city upheld sexual harassment charges against him.
"Acting Fire chief Louis Bright has determined that Roland Gamez' employment with the City of Dallas and Dallas Fire-Rescue be terminated effective immediately," the city of Dallas said in a statement.
The statement said Gamez was charged with sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct and was placed on administrative leave while an investigation took place.
Prior to any disciplinary action, the probe was reviewed by fire officials, city attorneys and city officials, the city added.
Gamez's case was one of three investigations into sexual harassment charges against high-level city officials.
Jhonnie Ortiz was charged with sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct and placed on paid administrative leave but no evidence of the charges was found and Ms. Ortiz has since returned to work.
Eddie Goldsmith, a water customer service supervisor was also charged with sexual harassment - he resigned on 14 March. The city did not say in the statement whether he had been found guilty or not.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Dallas Assistant Fire Chief Roland Gamez has been fired after the city upheld sexual harassment charges against him.
"Acting Fire chief Louis Bright has determined that Roland Gamez' employment with the City of Dallas and Dallas Fire-Rescue be terminated effective immediately," the city of Dallas said in a statement.
The statement said Gamez was charged with sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct and was placed on administrative leave while an investigation took place.
Prior to any disciplinary action, the probe was reviewed by fire officials, city attorneys and city officials, the city added.
Gamez's case was one of three investigations into sexual harassment charges against high-level city officials.
Jhonnie Ortiz was charged with sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct and placed on paid administrative leave but no evidence of the charges was found and Ms. Ortiz has since returned to work.
Eddie Goldsmith, a water customer service supervisor was also charged with sexual harassment - he resigned on 14 March. The city did not say in the statement whether he had been found guilty or not.
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TexasStooge
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Security guard shot at plasma donation center
By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - A security guard at a plasma donation center has been shot after a man who he turned away opened fire.
The shooting took place on Wednesday afternoon at Plasma Services in the 10,000 block of Lake June Road.
Police have a suspect in custody.
The security guard was able to hide behind a pillar - he received two shots to the leg.
"The security guard thought [the man] was playing, because some people do this," said witness Lawrence Burrell.
The guard had earlier tried to escort the man out the center after he had tried to donate blood for a second time in a week.
"He was upset because he was denied again. He wanted to donate blood so he could money, I guess," said Sgt Robert Grant from the Dallas Police Department.
The incident was captured on surveillance video.
By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - A security guard at a plasma donation center has been shot after a man who he turned away opened fire.
The shooting took place on Wednesday afternoon at Plasma Services in the 10,000 block of Lake June Road.
Police have a suspect in custody.
The security guard was able to hide behind a pillar - he received two shots to the leg.
"The security guard thought [the man] was playing, because some people do this," said witness Lawrence Burrell.
The guard had earlier tried to escort the man out the center after he had tried to donate blood for a second time in a week.
"He was upset because he was denied again. He wanted to donate blood so he could money, I guess," said Sgt Robert Grant from the Dallas Police Department.
The incident was captured on surveillance video.
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Blaze damages firefighters' equipment
By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8
HOOD COUNTY, Texas - Firefighters say sparks from a train sent flames racing half-a-mile down the tracks.
Some 20 acres burned in Hood County -- a small fire by measure or was it?
"If it had been a bigger fire or moving faster in that area, we'd probably gone to three funerals this week I imagine. So, they are very, very lucky," said Matt Hutsel, Tolar fire chief.
Three firefighters jumped from this brush truck and ran to safety after the engine locked up -- the flames rushing towards them.
They're okay -- but the equipment is another story.
"It definitely hurt Hood County. It hurt two different departments and it hurt the county," said Roger Deeds, Hood County fire marshal.
Two brush trucks were damaged -- including the big one in North Hood County that holds 920 gallons of water.
"It's like I said one of the most reliable trucks we've got," said Michael Bell, North Hood County fire chief.
"Right now we're gonna be hurtin' real bad."
The frame was totaled on this one while battling hot spots along the railroad tracks.
It needs a new $20,000 chaise -- a little steep for this small volunteer department.
"Our bills, our fuel everything we do is all donation. So, this'll put me back about a year-and-a-half," said Bell.
Both trucks only had liability insurance.
It'll cost $50,000 to replace the charred one. That means extra fundraisers and a call for help.
"Out in the countryside it's still very, very dry and very bad conditions. So, we're not out of this yet," added Reed.
"We're just gonna have to do the best we can and try to keep up with it," he added.
By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8
HOOD COUNTY, Texas - Firefighters say sparks from a train sent flames racing half-a-mile down the tracks.
Some 20 acres burned in Hood County -- a small fire by measure or was it?
"If it had been a bigger fire or moving faster in that area, we'd probably gone to three funerals this week I imagine. So, they are very, very lucky," said Matt Hutsel, Tolar fire chief.
Three firefighters jumped from this brush truck and ran to safety after the engine locked up -- the flames rushing towards them.
They're okay -- but the equipment is another story.
"It definitely hurt Hood County. It hurt two different departments and it hurt the county," said Roger Deeds, Hood County fire marshal.
Two brush trucks were damaged -- including the big one in North Hood County that holds 920 gallons of water.
"It's like I said one of the most reliable trucks we've got," said Michael Bell, North Hood County fire chief.
"Right now we're gonna be hurtin' real bad."
The frame was totaled on this one while battling hot spots along the railroad tracks.
It needs a new $20,000 chaise -- a little steep for this small volunteer department.
"Our bills, our fuel everything we do is all donation. So, this'll put me back about a year-and-a-half," said Bell.
Both trucks only had liability insurance.
It'll cost $50,000 to replace the charred one. That means extra fundraisers and a call for help.
"Out in the countryside it's still very, very dry and very bad conditions. So, we're not out of this yet," added Reed.
"We're just gonna have to do the best we can and try to keep up with it," he added.
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Man executed for slayings outside theater
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (DallasNews.com/AP) – A former Marine was executed Wednesday night for the shooting deaths of two women during a robbery outside a Northwest Dallas theater in August 1997.
"I love my family," Tommie Hughes, 31, said in his final statement. "You all stay strong. Watch over each other," he told his mother, grandmother and some friends as they watched from a nearby window.
Hughes kept repeating "I love you. I love you" and looking at his family until the drugs took effect.
He said nothing about his victims, but at one point turned his head and stared at their relatives.
He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m., eight minutes after the dose began.
Hughes, was the fifth prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the first of four scheduled this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Hughes was executed for the murder of Foluke Erinkitola. He robbed and then shot in the head Erinkitola and her friend Roxanne Mendoza in their car after the women had watched a movie. During the trial, a cousin testified Hughes snickered when asked why he killed the women and said they could have identified him.
Hughes denied he planned the robbery or killed the women.
"The picture that they painted of me as being the mastermind, it's just totally off the rock," he said.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday rejected requests to commute Hughes' sentence to life or to issue a 90-day reprieve.
A federal judge in Houston and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied appeals to stop the execution because the lethal drugs used in the execution are unconstitutionally cruel. About an hour before the execution on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court also turned down an appeal in the case.
Erinkitola, 25, who was from the Chicago area and was a student at the University of Illinois, had been in the Dallas-area on a summer internship with GTE Corp. Mendoza, 29, originally from San Francisco, also worked for GTE.
"They were very bright girls with tremendous futures ahead of them," said Toby Shook, who was lead prosecutor in the case for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office.
Hughes said he was talking to the women when his girlfriend at the time, Alina Henry, shot them in a jealous rage.
"There's no way I can understand the loss their families feel. But I'm not the one who did it," Hughes said in a recent interview from death row outside Livingston.
Shook said Hughes, whom he called "a pathological liar ... completely void of remorse," planned the robbery and shot both women.
Hughes' cousin, Derric English, helped rob the women while Henry was the getaway driver. Hughes was 22 at the time, while English and Henry were each 19.
All three were caught after a short chase by police officers who were in the parking lot on a separate undercover operation.
Hughes was charged with both killings but only tried for Erinkitola's death. His defense attorneys presented no witnesses at his trial.
At a separate trial, English was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Henry pleaded to a lesser charge of aggravated robbery in exchange for her testimony against both men. She was sentenced to 11 years.
Hughes, who grew up in Dallas, said he might have been able to stop the killings.
"It's done. I can't bring them back," he said.
During his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Hughes had robbed three other people at gunpoint at a restaurant parking lot near the theater four days before. He was also indicted for the January 1996 slaying of Jaffar Ali, owner of a Dallas convenience store, during a robbery.
Hughes, who was in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years but got a bad conduct discharge after a court-martial, was also accused by police of domestic violence against his ex-wife.
"He's such a cold-blooded psychopath that he deserves the fate that awaits him on Wednesday," Shook said.
Next on the execution schedule is Robert Salazar Jr., condemned for the 1997 beating death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter in Lubbock. He is set to be executed March 22.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (DallasNews.com/AP) – A former Marine was executed Wednesday night for the shooting deaths of two women during a robbery outside a Northwest Dallas theater in August 1997.
"I love my family," Tommie Hughes, 31, said in his final statement. "You all stay strong. Watch over each other," he told his mother, grandmother and some friends as they watched from a nearby window.
Hughes kept repeating "I love you. I love you" and looking at his family until the drugs took effect.
He said nothing about his victims, but at one point turned his head and stared at their relatives.
He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m., eight minutes after the dose began.
Hughes, was the fifth prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the first of four scheduled this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Hughes was executed for the murder of Foluke Erinkitola. He robbed and then shot in the head Erinkitola and her friend Roxanne Mendoza in their car after the women had watched a movie. During the trial, a cousin testified Hughes snickered when asked why he killed the women and said they could have identified him.
Hughes denied he planned the robbery or killed the women.
"The picture that they painted of me as being the mastermind, it's just totally off the rock," he said.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday rejected requests to commute Hughes' sentence to life or to issue a 90-day reprieve.
A federal judge in Houston and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied appeals to stop the execution because the lethal drugs used in the execution are unconstitutionally cruel. About an hour before the execution on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court also turned down an appeal in the case.
Erinkitola, 25, who was from the Chicago area and was a student at the University of Illinois, had been in the Dallas-area on a summer internship with GTE Corp. Mendoza, 29, originally from San Francisco, also worked for GTE.
"They were very bright girls with tremendous futures ahead of them," said Toby Shook, who was lead prosecutor in the case for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office.
Hughes said he was talking to the women when his girlfriend at the time, Alina Henry, shot them in a jealous rage.
"There's no way I can understand the loss their families feel. But I'm not the one who did it," Hughes said in a recent interview from death row outside Livingston.
Shook said Hughes, whom he called "a pathological liar ... completely void of remorse," planned the robbery and shot both women.
Hughes' cousin, Derric English, helped rob the women while Henry was the getaway driver. Hughes was 22 at the time, while English and Henry were each 19.
All three were caught after a short chase by police officers who were in the parking lot on a separate undercover operation.
Hughes was charged with both killings but only tried for Erinkitola's death. His defense attorneys presented no witnesses at his trial.
At a separate trial, English was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Henry pleaded to a lesser charge of aggravated robbery in exchange for her testimony against both men. She was sentenced to 11 years.
Hughes, who grew up in Dallas, said he might have been able to stop the killings.
"It's done. I can't bring them back," he said.
During his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Hughes had robbed three other people at gunpoint at a restaurant parking lot near the theater four days before. He was also indicted for the January 1996 slaying of Jaffar Ali, owner of a Dallas convenience store, during a robbery.
Hughes, who was in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years but got a bad conduct discharge after a court-martial, was also accused by police of domestic violence against his ex-wife.
"He's such a cold-blooded psychopath that he deserves the fate that awaits him on Wednesday," Shook said.
Next on the execution schedule is Robert Salazar Jr., condemned for the 1997 beating death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter in Lubbock. He is set to be executed March 22.
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TexasStooge
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Dallas fire chief sacked over sexual harassment charges (Updated)
By DAN RONAN / WFAA ABC 8
One of the highest ranking Dallas Fire-Rescue officials was fired Wednedsday. Assistant Chief Roland Gamez, a 27-year veteran of the force, was accused of sexual harrassment.
Gamez and his attorney denied the charges, which were outlined in a report released by the city.
The ousted chief complained that he was dismissed without a hearing and said the charges against him were trumped up.
The investigation by Dallas Fire-Rescue Internal Affairs personnel examined 34 allegations of sexual harassment. Among the findings:
• The city said it sustained allegations that Gamez said, "I could kiss you on the lips" to a male worker he supervised .
• Gamez was also accused of massaging one of his workers on the neck.
• Gamez was exonerated on an allegation that he "attempted to solicit a dinner date with a female subordinate." The investigation could not substantiate allegations that Gamez placed his hands on the woman's thigh.
"The City of Dallas has ignored its own policies," said Jack Ayres, Gamez' lawyer. "It has manufactured this investigation to try and destroy Chief Gamez, and they've done a good job."
Gamez ran the fire department's communications center. Ayres contends two disgruntled civilian employees made up the charges because of a long-running pay dispute they had with Gamez.
Some of the charges say Gamez made advances to male employees, but Gamez insists he is not homosexual.
The City Manager's office approved the chief's dismissal without a hearing. They reasoned that because Gamez was management, he was not protected by Civil Service rules.
Ayres contends that another reason Gamez terminated concerns his close relationship with former Chief Steve Abraira.
"This is the last Hispanic in the command structure of the fire deparment," Ayres said. "She dismissed Chief Abraira—basically forced him to resign—because she wants to be the fire chief."
News 8 made several attempts to contact City Manager Mary Suhm about Gamez' termination. She was unavailable.
Jack Ayres said he is now planning a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.
The Gamez case was one of three investigations into sexual harassment charges against high-level city officials.
• Jhonnie Ortiz was charged with sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct and placed on paid administrative leave, but no evidence of the charges was found. Ortiz has since returned to work.
• Eddie Goldsmith, a water department customer service supervisor, was also charged with sexual harassment. He resigned on March 14, but the city's statement did not say whether he had been found guilty or not.
By DAN RONAN / WFAA ABC 8
One of the highest ranking Dallas Fire-Rescue officials was fired Wednedsday. Assistant Chief Roland Gamez, a 27-year veteran of the force, was accused of sexual harrassment.
Gamez and his attorney denied the charges, which were outlined in a report released by the city.
The ousted chief complained that he was dismissed without a hearing and said the charges against him were trumped up.
The investigation by Dallas Fire-Rescue Internal Affairs personnel examined 34 allegations of sexual harassment. Among the findings:
• The city said it sustained allegations that Gamez said, "I could kiss you on the lips" to a male worker he supervised .
• Gamez was also accused of massaging one of his workers on the neck.
• Gamez was exonerated on an allegation that he "attempted to solicit a dinner date with a female subordinate." The investigation could not substantiate allegations that Gamez placed his hands on the woman's thigh.
"The City of Dallas has ignored its own policies," said Jack Ayres, Gamez' lawyer. "It has manufactured this investigation to try and destroy Chief Gamez, and they've done a good job."
Gamez ran the fire department's communications center. Ayres contends two disgruntled civilian employees made up the charges because of a long-running pay dispute they had with Gamez.
Some of the charges say Gamez made advances to male employees, but Gamez insists he is not homosexual.
The City Manager's office approved the chief's dismissal without a hearing. They reasoned that because Gamez was management, he was not protected by Civil Service rules.
Ayres contends that another reason Gamez terminated concerns his close relationship with former Chief Steve Abraira.
"This is the last Hispanic in the command structure of the fire deparment," Ayres said. "She dismissed Chief Abraira—basically forced him to resign—because she wants to be the fire chief."
News 8 made several attempts to contact City Manager Mary Suhm about Gamez' termination. She was unavailable.
Jack Ayres said he is now planning a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.
The Gamez case was one of three investigations into sexual harassment charges against high-level city officials.
• Jhonnie Ortiz was charged with sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct and placed on paid administrative leave, but no evidence of the charges was found. Ortiz has since returned to work.
• Eddie Goldsmith, a water department customer service supervisor, was also charged with sexual harassment. He resigned on March 14, but the city's statement did not say whether he had been found guilty or not.
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TexasStooge
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Dallas doctor improves implant safety
By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - It's not just models and movie stars who have breast implants.
Nearly 300,000 "ordinary" women had their figures enhanced last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgery.
Alessandra Reyna, 32, has wanted to be one of them, but said she was scared.
"I was scared," she said, and so she resisted for years. "The infections; the risk; the look."
Those are concerns also shared by Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. William Adams. He says regardless of whether women choose saline or silicone implants, about one in 10 patients will have some sort of complication.
The most common complaint is hardening, which could lead to pain or possibly removal.
"It's clearly a problem that we'd like to address and like to eliminate as much as possible," Dr. Adams said.
In the last few years, Dr. Adams has developed and tested a triple-antibiotic liquid. It kills the bacteria responsible for hardening and breaking down breast implants.
The implant is soaked in the antibiotic—as is the breast cavity—before the device is placed.
Dr. Adams' research, recently published in a top journal for plastic surgeons, shows it cuts complications from one in 10 women to less than two percent.
"I think patients can go into it feeling better and more secure that they're going to have an optimized, safer result," Dr. Adams said.
Dr. Adams hopes the antibiotic solution could even add to the life of an implant. Right now, they only last about a decade before a replacement is necessary.
The antibiotic solution is being more widely used by plastic surgeons. Patients can ask for it before surgery.
Better safety finally convinced Alessandra Reyna to take the plunge.
"I feel great," she said. "It's boosted my self-confidence. I'm kicking myself for not doing it five years before, but I wouldn't have had the advantages I have now, so I'm glad I waited."
By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - It's not just models and movie stars who have breast implants.
Nearly 300,000 "ordinary" women had their figures enhanced last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgery.
Alessandra Reyna, 32, has wanted to be one of them, but said she was scared.
"I was scared," she said, and so she resisted for years. "The infections; the risk; the look."
Those are concerns also shared by Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. William Adams. He says regardless of whether women choose saline or silicone implants, about one in 10 patients will have some sort of complication.
The most common complaint is hardening, which could lead to pain or possibly removal.
"It's clearly a problem that we'd like to address and like to eliminate as much as possible," Dr. Adams said.
In the last few years, Dr. Adams has developed and tested a triple-antibiotic liquid. It kills the bacteria responsible for hardening and breaking down breast implants.
The implant is soaked in the antibiotic—as is the breast cavity—before the device is placed.
Dr. Adams' research, recently published in a top journal for plastic surgeons, shows it cuts complications from one in 10 women to less than two percent.
"I think patients can go into it feeling better and more secure that they're going to have an optimized, safer result," Dr. Adams said.
Dr. Adams hopes the antibiotic solution could even add to the life of an implant. Right now, they only last about a decade before a replacement is necessary.
The antibiotic solution is being more widely used by plastic surgeons. Patients can ask for it before surgery.
Better safety finally convinced Alessandra Reyna to take the plunge.
"I feel great," she said. "It's boosted my self-confidence. I'm kicking myself for not doing it five years before, but I wouldn't have had the advantages I have now, so I'm glad I waited."
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The price of loyalty
Betty Culbreath is a faithful, fire-breathing fixture in black politics. But she's taking heat for her latest alliance – with the mayor.
By SCOTT FARWELL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The first time she met Laura Miller, Betty Culbreath threatened to throw her "skinny a**" out a second-story window.
That was in 1991, when Ms. Culbreath was a political devotee of incendiary Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and Ms. Miller was a reporter pawing over his personal life.
"I asked some questions that were penetrating, and she nearly bit my head off," Ms. Miller said recently, her smile backlit by the memory. "It probably had an expletive in there somewhere."
Fifteen years later, Ms. Culbreath is still cussing, and she's still unflinchingly loyal – but today her allegiance runs to Ms. Miller, the Dallas mayor.
It is a storied political transformation in a city where political stories are increasingly driven by race.
Nearly nine out of 10 black voters opposed a pair of propositions designed to increase mayoral power last year, elections seen in southern Dallas as a rebuke of Ms. Miller's performance and a political comeuppance.
Ms. Culbreath, 64, is the mayor's most prominent – and virtually only public – black ally.
Last fall, Ms. Miller elevated her former foe to chairwoman of the Plan Commission, the most powerful appointed position in the city, an opening move in next spring's high-stakes citywide election.
Ms. Miller will seek a second full term as mayor. Ms. Culbreath plans to run for the seat being vacated by council member Don Hill, one of 14 openings on the May 2007 ballot.
After 40 years of public life, Ms. Culbreath is known best for building and burning bridges with Dallas' black political leaders.
She worked under Mr. Price, campaigned for City Council member James Fantroy and massaged the black body politic with activist Diane Ragsdale.
Ms. Culbreath was the first black chairwoman of the Plan Commission, the first black woman to lead the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board, and the first black, nonphysician director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department.
Ms. Culbreath's career soared in the 1980s and '90s, pushed higher and higher by hot thermals of opportunity for minorities, according to Rufus Shaw Jr., a political columnist for the Elite News, a weekly tabloid in southern Dallas.
That's why many blacks felt betrayed when she threw in with Ms. Miller.
"She started out in the trenches with all of us launching the phenomenon of John Wiley Price," Mr. Shaw said. "Now she's just a pawn of Laura Miller."
Ms. Culbreath bristled at the suggestion that she's a mouthpiece for the mayor.
"I'm not afraid to support the candidate of my choice," she said. "I don't care if it's George Wallace. I stand on what I believe to be right and what's in the best interests of the citizens of Dallas. If I stand on it alone, that's fine."
At home
Ms. Culbreath lives in a ranch-style brick home in Oak Cliff, where she's raising a 7-year-old boy, a distant relative with absentee parents.
She is addicted to Court TV, sings out loud with the Temptations and plods around in her bathrobe until noon.
Ms. Culbreath is an unapologetic Republican, a born-again social conservative and a politically incorrect patrician who blames white liberals for the nation's urban underclass.
The topic spins into one of her legendary run-on riffs.
Eyes wide, head snapping, finger jabbing the air, she recites from a political hymnal that strikes many blacks as straight-up heresy.
"I'm critical of a system that has made people dependent on it. Every story I read about a refugee from New Orleans is a woman with two or three babies and a fiancé ... all with different daddies. They're making a mockery out of the word fiancé.
"We've got a system where this government will give you a Section 8 voucher, a welfare check, a food stamp card – and make you think that's the way you're supposed to live for the rest of your life.
"You get $200 from the state, but you could make $200 on the job ... and your children will see somebody get up every morning with something worthwhile to do."
Ms. Culbreath's blowtorch rhetoric is legend.
But as a younger woman, she worried obsessively about the burned-out shells of her relationships. Jokes about unrequited love, she said, belied insecurities about her looks and weight.
It took four marriages and four divorces, a soul-ravaging struggle to reach a son addicted to crack and confronting her mortality during a kidney transplant to tamp down the insecurities.
"I never thought about being sexy. I never thought I was cute," Ms. Culbreath said, "but I knew I was smart."
Critics concede that she is a formidable intellect.
"I always thought she had one of the most shrewd political minds in Dallas," Mr. Shaw said. "But then she just fell off the wagon."
Shifting alliances
Ms. Culbreath has campaigned for Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites – Lyndon B. Johnson, both Presidents Bush, Jesse Jackson, Steve Bartlett, Al Lipscomb and now Laura Miller.
Critics say her wild gyrations suggest Ms. Culbreath is a political opportunist.
"I guess she feels like she can get her power from the white community," said Mr. Fantroy.
Ms. Culbreath says shifting philosophies suggest an open mind.
The debate will almost certainly define Ms. Culbreath's expected campaign next spring. Is she a City Hall insider on the outside of her community? Or is she plugged in enough to power up the city's racial disconnect?
Mr. Price, who once referred to Ms. Culbreath as a mentor, snorted with contempt when asked whether he thinks his former aide is ready to play in the big leagues.
Political appointments, he said, are the cheap seats of power.
"You speak for somebody when you've been elected," he said, suggesting southern Dallas voters rejected Ms. Culbreath during her 2002 school board campaign. She won 19 percent of the vote. "What does that say in terms of support and credibility?"
Lavalike animosity bubbles near the surface between the former friends.
Last spring, Mr. Price turned his back on Ms. Culbreath as she prayed before a Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting. He said it was a gesture of disrespect.
The tension built over years along grinding political tectonic plates, but Mr. Price said his former ally ruptured their relationship in March 2004 when she supported Charles Rose, his Democratic primary opponent.
Ms. Culbreath said it's not true.
"Charles is as big a fool as John," she said. "Why would I support one fool over another one?"
Singed by her own fire
Ms. Culbreath's rough edges scuffed her career.
Dallas County commissioners suspended the Health and Human Services for two weeks without pay in December 2000 after a profane on-camera interview in which she said nurses' complaints about a black doctor were motivated by racism.
It wasn't the first time she blamed public discord on discrimination. In 1988, Ms. Culbreath denounced her colleagues on the North Central Texas Health Facilities Board as racists and sexists before walking out of a meeting. She was angry about being passed over for board president.
Two years later, she made a similar claim during a debate on the Plan Commission when opponents said she was too abrasive to lead. Ms. Culbreath dismissed the criticism as veiled racism.
Today, she says that she was wrong and that politicians who claim racial bias actually betray the black community.
"All you're doing is inciting little black kids and little Hispanic kids and little white kids to take vengeance and stuff out on one another," she said. "You ain't doing nobody no damn good. All you're doing is pimping, pimping your people."
A self-proclaimed straight shooter, Ms. Culbreath offers an opaque explanation for a 1979 felony drug conviction.
Ms. Culbreath said she was set up by her maid, who came to the door one night and asked for prescription diet pills containing speed. She said she did not accept money for two pills.
There is no way to confirm the story because Ms. Culbreath filed a motion in a Nacogdoches court in 1990 to erase her criminal record. A judge set aside the indictment, obscuring most of the case's details from the public.
In October, Mr. Fantroy – a former friend and political ally – cited the case as a reason for voting against her nomination to the Plan Commission.
"He hates me because I support Laura Miller and because I got a kidney [transplant]," Ms. Culbreath said. "Sometimes being evil will make you sicker."
Mr. Fantroy, who needs a kidney transplant, laughed out loud at the assertion and said, "Betty ought to be run out of Dallas for even bringing something like that up."
Joining Price
Ms. Culbreath's political roots reach back to the 1960s, but she gained full access to local government's inner sanctums of power in 1985 when Mr. Price – Dallas County's first black commissioner – hired her as his senior aide.
"Me and John Price were the only black people in that whole damn building," she said. They helped crack the door for minorities over the next six years.
"I saw African-Americans hired at Dallas County. I saw black people getting contracts," she said. "I saw the whole face of the county change, so I knew that was the good and right thing to do."
The job sharpened Ms. Culbreath's acumen. She helped shape Mr. Price's message and worked to mitigate political and legal fallout.
Police arrested the commissioner in March 1990 after he and other activists whitewashed billboards to protest cigarette and alcohol advertising in southern Dallas.
Ms. Culbreath said she raised the $500 to bail him out of jail.
Six months later, Mr. Price warned that blacks would take to the streets with M16s if the city hired a bigoted police chief.
Ms. Culbreath spent the next several days on the phone offering context for the quote, suggesting soliloquy.
"I hate that it was said," she said to a reporter at the time. "He was upset. When you look at a system that crushes one if its own, it makes you wonder what would have happened to any of us."
Soon after, a young reporter from D Magazine – Laura Miller – walked into Mr. Price's office on the second floor of the Dallas County administration building.
"I didn't know she had a reputation," Ms. Culbreath said. "I overheard a couple questions I didn't like, and I just told her, 'Those questions are inappropriate. You shouldn't be asking him that.' "
Ms. Miller continued to press Mr. Price about alleged sexual peccadilloes. Ms. Culbreath twirled in her chair and fired: "Keep on and I'm going to throw your skinny ass out that window."
She said Ms. Miller paused, "looked at me kinda crazy ... and went on flipping that little notebook."
That flinty exchange, both women say, sparked mutual respect.
Reconsidering a foe
Ms. Miller's D Magazine cover story was published in March 1991.
It was titled "Hustler" and featured a full-page photo of a buff Mr. Price wearing boxing gloves, his eyes fixed in an icy stare.
The story ran nine pages, offered thin evidence of political corruption and quoted three anonymous sources who accused the commissioner of rape.
None of the women filed police reports. Mr. Price denied the allegations.
The Dallas County district attorney's office indicted Mr. Price on a rape charge in the fall of 1991, but one of the women asked prosecutors to dismiss the charge because she said she feared death threats.
In an affidavit, the woman said prosecuting the case would not serve "the best interest of the African-American community."
Mr. Price's standing among black voters did not appear to be tarnished – he has been re-elected four times since the case – but Ms. Miller's reputation as a vicious journalist with racist tendencies lives on in southern Dallas.
"After I got elected, I thought ... I would start fresh with the council and the black community and the business community, and we'd all just start fresh," Ms. Miller said. "But of course, it didn't happen that way."
The mayor invited Ms. Culbreath to lunch in the summer of 2001. They sat next to a window at La Calle Doce in Oak Cliff and discussed the city's polarizing racial issues – former Police Chief Terrell Bolton, economic development in southern Dallas and the city's chronic neglect of black neighborhoods.
Ms. Culbreath pledged her political support.
"I wanted change downtown," she said. "I wanted some energy at City Hall, and I liked that she stood up and spoke her mind."
The women walked into a meeting with black journalists days after Ms. Miller was elected mayor in 2002.
"That's the first time I saw the alliance," said Robert Ashley, news director of southern Dallas radio station KHVN-AM (970). "Betty was there as her right-hand person."
Ms. Culbreath has been publicly pro-mayor ever since.
"People in the community like to say Laura Miller hates black people," Ms. Culbreath said recently on radio station KKDA-FM (104.5), where she is a regular guest.
She then offered to pay $100 to anyone who could call in with evidence the mayor is racist.
"What has Laura Miller ever done that is anti-black? What has she ever promoted that was anti-black? What vote has she ever passed that was anti-black?" she said. "I been asking, but I ain't paid out nary $100 yet."
Ms. Culbreath said her loyalty to the mayor will be a political liability during her expected City Council campaign next spring. But she said it proves her central message to southern Dallas voters – that she's a fearless and independent thinker.
"They know my soul, they know who I am," Ms. Culbreath said, "and they know how to vote for Betty Culbreath and still dislike Laura Miller."
Betty Culbreath is a faithful, fire-breathing fixture in black politics. But she's taking heat for her latest alliance – with the mayor.
By SCOTT FARWELL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - The first time she met Laura Miller, Betty Culbreath threatened to throw her "skinny a**" out a second-story window.
That was in 1991, when Ms. Culbreath was a political devotee of incendiary Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and Ms. Miller was a reporter pawing over his personal life.
"I asked some questions that were penetrating, and she nearly bit my head off," Ms. Miller said recently, her smile backlit by the memory. "It probably had an expletive in there somewhere."
Fifteen years later, Ms. Culbreath is still cussing, and she's still unflinchingly loyal – but today her allegiance runs to Ms. Miller, the Dallas mayor.
It is a storied political transformation in a city where political stories are increasingly driven by race.
Nearly nine out of 10 black voters opposed a pair of propositions designed to increase mayoral power last year, elections seen in southern Dallas as a rebuke of Ms. Miller's performance and a political comeuppance.
Ms. Culbreath, 64, is the mayor's most prominent – and virtually only public – black ally.
Last fall, Ms. Miller elevated her former foe to chairwoman of the Plan Commission, the most powerful appointed position in the city, an opening move in next spring's high-stakes citywide election.
Ms. Miller will seek a second full term as mayor. Ms. Culbreath plans to run for the seat being vacated by council member Don Hill, one of 14 openings on the May 2007 ballot.
After 40 years of public life, Ms. Culbreath is known best for building and burning bridges with Dallas' black political leaders.
She worked under Mr. Price, campaigned for City Council member James Fantroy and massaged the black body politic with activist Diane Ragsdale.
Ms. Culbreath was the first black chairwoman of the Plan Commission, the first black woman to lead the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board, and the first black, nonphysician director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department.
Ms. Culbreath's career soared in the 1980s and '90s, pushed higher and higher by hot thermals of opportunity for minorities, according to Rufus Shaw Jr., a political columnist for the Elite News, a weekly tabloid in southern Dallas.
That's why many blacks felt betrayed when she threw in with Ms. Miller.
"She started out in the trenches with all of us launching the phenomenon of John Wiley Price," Mr. Shaw said. "Now she's just a pawn of Laura Miller."
Ms. Culbreath bristled at the suggestion that she's a mouthpiece for the mayor.
"I'm not afraid to support the candidate of my choice," she said. "I don't care if it's George Wallace. I stand on what I believe to be right and what's in the best interests of the citizens of Dallas. If I stand on it alone, that's fine."
At home
Ms. Culbreath lives in a ranch-style brick home in Oak Cliff, where she's raising a 7-year-old boy, a distant relative with absentee parents.
She is addicted to Court TV, sings out loud with the Temptations and plods around in her bathrobe until noon.
Ms. Culbreath is an unapologetic Republican, a born-again social conservative and a politically incorrect patrician who blames white liberals for the nation's urban underclass.
The topic spins into one of her legendary run-on riffs.
Eyes wide, head snapping, finger jabbing the air, she recites from a political hymnal that strikes many blacks as straight-up heresy.
"I'm critical of a system that has made people dependent on it. Every story I read about a refugee from New Orleans is a woman with two or three babies and a fiancé ... all with different daddies. They're making a mockery out of the word fiancé.
"We've got a system where this government will give you a Section 8 voucher, a welfare check, a food stamp card – and make you think that's the way you're supposed to live for the rest of your life.
"You get $200 from the state, but you could make $200 on the job ... and your children will see somebody get up every morning with something worthwhile to do."
Ms. Culbreath's blowtorch rhetoric is legend.
But as a younger woman, she worried obsessively about the burned-out shells of her relationships. Jokes about unrequited love, she said, belied insecurities about her looks and weight.
It took four marriages and four divorces, a soul-ravaging struggle to reach a son addicted to crack and confronting her mortality during a kidney transplant to tamp down the insecurities.
"I never thought about being sexy. I never thought I was cute," Ms. Culbreath said, "but I knew I was smart."
Critics concede that she is a formidable intellect.
"I always thought she had one of the most shrewd political minds in Dallas," Mr. Shaw said. "But then she just fell off the wagon."
Shifting alliances
Ms. Culbreath has campaigned for Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites – Lyndon B. Johnson, both Presidents Bush, Jesse Jackson, Steve Bartlett, Al Lipscomb and now Laura Miller.
Critics say her wild gyrations suggest Ms. Culbreath is a political opportunist.
"I guess she feels like she can get her power from the white community," said Mr. Fantroy.
Ms. Culbreath says shifting philosophies suggest an open mind.
The debate will almost certainly define Ms. Culbreath's expected campaign next spring. Is she a City Hall insider on the outside of her community? Or is she plugged in enough to power up the city's racial disconnect?
Mr. Price, who once referred to Ms. Culbreath as a mentor, snorted with contempt when asked whether he thinks his former aide is ready to play in the big leagues.
Political appointments, he said, are the cheap seats of power.
"You speak for somebody when you've been elected," he said, suggesting southern Dallas voters rejected Ms. Culbreath during her 2002 school board campaign. She won 19 percent of the vote. "What does that say in terms of support and credibility?"
Lavalike animosity bubbles near the surface between the former friends.
Last spring, Mr. Price turned his back on Ms. Culbreath as she prayed before a Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting. He said it was a gesture of disrespect.
The tension built over years along grinding political tectonic plates, but Mr. Price said his former ally ruptured their relationship in March 2004 when she supported Charles Rose, his Democratic primary opponent.
Ms. Culbreath said it's not true.
"Charles is as big a fool as John," she said. "Why would I support one fool over another one?"
Singed by her own fire
Ms. Culbreath's rough edges scuffed her career.
Dallas County commissioners suspended the Health and Human Services for two weeks without pay in December 2000 after a profane on-camera interview in which she said nurses' complaints about a black doctor were motivated by racism.
It wasn't the first time she blamed public discord on discrimination. In 1988, Ms. Culbreath denounced her colleagues on the North Central Texas Health Facilities Board as racists and sexists before walking out of a meeting. She was angry about being passed over for board president.
Two years later, she made a similar claim during a debate on the Plan Commission when opponents said she was too abrasive to lead. Ms. Culbreath dismissed the criticism as veiled racism.
Today, she says that she was wrong and that politicians who claim racial bias actually betray the black community.
"All you're doing is inciting little black kids and little Hispanic kids and little white kids to take vengeance and stuff out on one another," she said. "You ain't doing nobody no damn good. All you're doing is pimping, pimping your people."
A self-proclaimed straight shooter, Ms. Culbreath offers an opaque explanation for a 1979 felony drug conviction.
Ms. Culbreath said she was set up by her maid, who came to the door one night and asked for prescription diet pills containing speed. She said she did not accept money for two pills.
There is no way to confirm the story because Ms. Culbreath filed a motion in a Nacogdoches court in 1990 to erase her criminal record. A judge set aside the indictment, obscuring most of the case's details from the public.
In October, Mr. Fantroy – a former friend and political ally – cited the case as a reason for voting against her nomination to the Plan Commission.
"He hates me because I support Laura Miller and because I got a kidney [transplant]," Ms. Culbreath said. "Sometimes being evil will make you sicker."
Mr. Fantroy, who needs a kidney transplant, laughed out loud at the assertion and said, "Betty ought to be run out of Dallas for even bringing something like that up."
Joining Price
Ms. Culbreath's political roots reach back to the 1960s, but she gained full access to local government's inner sanctums of power in 1985 when Mr. Price – Dallas County's first black commissioner – hired her as his senior aide.
"Me and John Price were the only black people in that whole damn building," she said. They helped crack the door for minorities over the next six years.
"I saw African-Americans hired at Dallas County. I saw black people getting contracts," she said. "I saw the whole face of the county change, so I knew that was the good and right thing to do."
The job sharpened Ms. Culbreath's acumen. She helped shape Mr. Price's message and worked to mitigate political and legal fallout.
Police arrested the commissioner in March 1990 after he and other activists whitewashed billboards to protest cigarette and alcohol advertising in southern Dallas.
Ms. Culbreath said she raised the $500 to bail him out of jail.
Six months later, Mr. Price warned that blacks would take to the streets with M16s if the city hired a bigoted police chief.
Ms. Culbreath spent the next several days on the phone offering context for the quote, suggesting soliloquy.
"I hate that it was said," she said to a reporter at the time. "He was upset. When you look at a system that crushes one if its own, it makes you wonder what would have happened to any of us."
Soon after, a young reporter from D Magazine – Laura Miller – walked into Mr. Price's office on the second floor of the Dallas County administration building.
"I didn't know she had a reputation," Ms. Culbreath said. "I overheard a couple questions I didn't like, and I just told her, 'Those questions are inappropriate. You shouldn't be asking him that.' "
Ms. Miller continued to press Mr. Price about alleged sexual peccadilloes. Ms. Culbreath twirled in her chair and fired: "Keep on and I'm going to throw your skinny ass out that window."
She said Ms. Miller paused, "looked at me kinda crazy ... and went on flipping that little notebook."
That flinty exchange, both women say, sparked mutual respect.
Reconsidering a foe
Ms. Miller's D Magazine cover story was published in March 1991.
It was titled "Hustler" and featured a full-page photo of a buff Mr. Price wearing boxing gloves, his eyes fixed in an icy stare.
The story ran nine pages, offered thin evidence of political corruption and quoted three anonymous sources who accused the commissioner of rape.
None of the women filed police reports. Mr. Price denied the allegations.
The Dallas County district attorney's office indicted Mr. Price on a rape charge in the fall of 1991, but one of the women asked prosecutors to dismiss the charge because she said she feared death threats.
In an affidavit, the woman said prosecuting the case would not serve "the best interest of the African-American community."
Mr. Price's standing among black voters did not appear to be tarnished – he has been re-elected four times since the case – but Ms. Miller's reputation as a vicious journalist with racist tendencies lives on in southern Dallas.
"After I got elected, I thought ... I would start fresh with the council and the black community and the business community, and we'd all just start fresh," Ms. Miller said. "But of course, it didn't happen that way."
The mayor invited Ms. Culbreath to lunch in the summer of 2001. They sat next to a window at La Calle Doce in Oak Cliff and discussed the city's polarizing racial issues – former Police Chief Terrell Bolton, economic development in southern Dallas and the city's chronic neglect of black neighborhoods.
Ms. Culbreath pledged her political support.
"I wanted change downtown," she said. "I wanted some energy at City Hall, and I liked that she stood up and spoke her mind."
The women walked into a meeting with black journalists days after Ms. Miller was elected mayor in 2002.
"That's the first time I saw the alliance," said Robert Ashley, news director of southern Dallas radio station KHVN-AM (970). "Betty was there as her right-hand person."
Ms. Culbreath has been publicly pro-mayor ever since.
"People in the community like to say Laura Miller hates black people," Ms. Culbreath said recently on radio station KKDA-FM (104.5), where she is a regular guest.
She then offered to pay $100 to anyone who could call in with evidence the mayor is racist.
"What has Laura Miller ever done that is anti-black? What has she ever promoted that was anti-black? What vote has she ever passed that was anti-black?" she said. "I been asking, but I ain't paid out nary $100 yet."
Ms. Culbreath said her loyalty to the mayor will be a political liability during her expected City Council campaign next spring. But she said it proves her central message to southern Dallas voters – that she's a fearless and independent thinker.
"They know my soul, they know who I am," Ms. Culbreath said, "and they know how to vote for Betty Culbreath and still dislike Laura Miller."
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TexasStooge
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2 indicted for organized crime, murder-for-hire
By BRETT SHIPP / News 8 Investigates (WFAA ABC 8)
HUNT COUNTY, Texas — Two men allegedly involved in illegal gambling activities in East Texas have also been indicted in connection with organized crime and a murder-for-hire scheme.
The new information came in the wake of a News 8 investigation into the growing illegal gambling industry in nearby Hunt County.
The undercover investigation broadcast two weeks ago exposed a lucrative and thriving illegal gambling industry in southern Hunt County, which is just east of Dallas.
The response from the investigation had some local residents saying they were embarrassed and disgusted.
In gaming room after gaming room in southern Hunt County, there were a dozen smal casinos in a 20 square mile area.
But two weeks after the News 8 exposé, the businesses remained open and the Hunt County Attorney Joel Littlefield claimed his hands were tied due to a loophole in state law.
"We have no help from the state with regard to closing this loophole down," he said.
The sheriff blamed Hunt County commissioners for a lack of resources; Hunt County commissioners blamed state laws governing gaming machines.
Commissioner Phillip Martin said he was not even sure a problem exists.
"I'm saying that there's a situation where they have these games that possibly, in a certain situation, could be made illegal at that point," Martin said. "I'm sure there's basketball games [and] illegal gambling. I'm sure that any time you have sports TV on TV that there's illegal gambling."
Across Lake Tawokani in neighboring Rains County, County Attorney Robert Vititow has zero tolerance for illegal gambling. He says most of the video slot machines he sees are illegal.
"You just don't have a lot of people go play if you can't win cash," he said. "So, when they are doing it illegally, we will continue to prosecute each one of those cases, no matter how long it takes."
Vititow's agents shut down a casino operating in a warehouse in October, 2004, and charged eight individuals with multiple crimes.
Two of them—Charlie McAnally and Hayward Rigano—are now under indictment in a murder-for-hire scheme for allegedly trying to have a Rains County investigator killed for investigating illegal gambling.
"I guess it's just something they thought needed to be done," Vititow said.
Back in Greenville, Hunt County Commissioners see casino operators in a less sinister light.
"They've got some good honest people, I'm talking about, in this county," Commissioner Martin said. "I can't help if you found somebody that was without integrity or honesty and was trying to evidently get self gain."
And while Hunt County officials downplay potential gambling violations as petty misdemeanor crimes, the Rains County attorney has charged all eight defendants with felonies including money laundering and engaging in organized crime.
By BRETT SHIPP / News 8 Investigates (WFAA ABC 8)
HUNT COUNTY, Texas — Two men allegedly involved in illegal gambling activities in East Texas have also been indicted in connection with organized crime and a murder-for-hire scheme.
The new information came in the wake of a News 8 investigation into the growing illegal gambling industry in nearby Hunt County.
The undercover investigation broadcast two weeks ago exposed a lucrative and thriving illegal gambling industry in southern Hunt County, which is just east of Dallas.
The response from the investigation had some local residents saying they were embarrassed and disgusted.
In gaming room after gaming room in southern Hunt County, there were a dozen smal casinos in a 20 square mile area.
But two weeks after the News 8 exposé, the businesses remained open and the Hunt County Attorney Joel Littlefield claimed his hands were tied due to a loophole in state law.
"We have no help from the state with regard to closing this loophole down," he said.
The sheriff blamed Hunt County commissioners for a lack of resources; Hunt County commissioners blamed state laws governing gaming machines.
Commissioner Phillip Martin said he was not even sure a problem exists.
"I'm saying that there's a situation where they have these games that possibly, in a certain situation, could be made illegal at that point," Martin said. "I'm sure there's basketball games [and] illegal gambling. I'm sure that any time you have sports TV on TV that there's illegal gambling."
Across Lake Tawokani in neighboring Rains County, County Attorney Robert Vititow has zero tolerance for illegal gambling. He says most of the video slot machines he sees are illegal.
"You just don't have a lot of people go play if you can't win cash," he said. "So, when they are doing it illegally, we will continue to prosecute each one of those cases, no matter how long it takes."
Vititow's agents shut down a casino operating in a warehouse in October, 2004, and charged eight individuals with multiple crimes.
Two of them—Charlie McAnally and Hayward Rigano—are now under indictment in a murder-for-hire scheme for allegedly trying to have a Rains County investigator killed for investigating illegal gambling.
"I guess it's just something they thought needed to be done," Vititow said.
Back in Greenville, Hunt County Commissioners see casino operators in a less sinister light.
"They've got some good honest people, I'm talking about, in this county," Commissioner Martin said. "I can't help if you found somebody that was without integrity or honesty and was trying to evidently get self gain."
And while Hunt County officials downplay potential gambling violations as petty misdemeanor crimes, the Rains County attorney has charged all eight defendants with felonies including money laundering and engaging in organized crime.
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