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60 Minutes on the Justice -- and Injustices -- of Dallas County

Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:03:06 AM

For those who missed last night's 60 Minutes -- about how Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and the Innocence Project are taking on "the Wade legacy," in the words of Scott Pelley -- the entire 12-minute segment is after the jump. Among the reasons the story is especially extraordinary: CBS News' cameras were with James Lee Woodard last year as he provided the DNA sample that finally exonerated him after 27 years of being imprisoned for a murder he did not commit. Pelley also gathers five other men exonerated by DNA evidence with the assistance of the Innocence Project, among them Billy James Smith, who "lost ten family members while I was incarcerated" for a sexual assault he didn't commit.

Says Craig Watkins, when Pelley asks him whether he's wasting time fixing Henry Wade's wrongs, "When justice has failed, we have to fix it." And that's precisely what you see happen at around the 8:20 mark, when Woodard is told, one week ago today, he's soon to be a free man. Said District Judge Mark Stoltz -- a former Dallas County prosecutor -- it wasn't justice, "but the end of injustice." --Robert Wilonsky

Category: Cover Story
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The Half Truth and Nothing Like the Truth, So Help Me Tom

Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 01:11:25 PM
Dr. Heywood Sanders

In this week’s paper version of Unfair Park, we dig deep into the convention center hotel controversy at City Hall. Mayor Tom Leppert’s dream of building a hotel using public money will come closer to reality when the city council votes next week whether to approve financing for the purchase of land in front of the convention center, which will presumably be the location for the hotel.

Dr. Heywood Sanders of the University of Texas at San Antonio, who is considered the leading independent authority when it comes to convention centers, says the tactic of securing the land is a way for city leaders to test the waters in order to find out which council members will go along with the project and where the opposition is coming from --meanwhile, getting feedback along the way. “I would argue the city is taking baby steps, never outright lying, but never saying the whole truth,” Sanders tells Unfair Park.

Category: Cover Story
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The Doctor is Way Out

Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 03:13:26 PM

Yesterday, the Texas Medical Board released an “agreed order” signed on April 11 by Dr. Richard Buch, the brilliant but nutty orthopedic surgeon who has a reputation for going off on nurses and cursing hospital personnel. He was, of course, the subject of the cover story in last week's paper version of Unfair Park. The result of confidential hearings, the agreed order provides more details about Buch’s behavior -- such as at least three reports of "disruptive behavior" said to have taken place at Medical City Dallas Hospital in 2003 "that included incidents of angry outbursts, derogatory remarks, exhibitions of temper, and the use of profanity"; and details concerning his behavior during a suspension from Medical City.

The board panel ordered that for two years, Buch must be evaluated by an independent psychiatrist, receive any care and treatment recommended and have the treating psychiatrist submit written reports every three months to the board. He’s also required to obtain 15 hours of continuing medical education (CME) in ethics and 15 hours of CME in physician-interpersonal relationships, and pay an administrative penalty of $5,000. Sometimes even the talented Dr. House needs a bit of discipline. --Glenna Whitley

Category: Cover Story
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Fashion Tips, Prom Advice, Period Planning and Transgender Talk

Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 10:28:29 AM
Mark Graham
High school sweethearts Amber Burden and Jacoby James

A few months ago, I got a call from an editor at Seventeen who‘d come across a story I wrote for the paper version of Unfair Park about a female-to-male transgender teen who began living as a boy while attending an Irving high school. The editors wanted to feature Jay in the magazine, so I put them in touch.

Jay agreed to share his experience with his peers nationwide, and this month his story appears in his own words on page 132 of Seventeen, complete with a couple of oh-so-teen-mag before-and-after shots. Here's the page for your perusal. By the way, not kidding about the period planning. --Megan Feldman

Category: Cover Story
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The Flynn Flask Man

Thu Feb 07, 2008 at 09:12:11 AM
Heritage sold this flask last year, believing it belonged to Errol Flynn -- who, it said, was "well known for his drinking, womanizing, and hard living in general." Only, it wasn't Flynn's.

Oak Lawn-based Heritage Auction Galleries, subject of a cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park back in April '06, now says it accidentally sold $30,000 worth of phony celeb trinkets, among them a flask allegedly belonging to Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart's cigarette case, both sold last April. The Dallas Morning News broke the news of the sale and of Heritage's investigation into the authenticity of some 200 other items sold in recent years. And Rick Wamre at Back Talk Lakewood fills in the details about the buyer who figured out his item, the Flynn flask, was a phony -- Charles Heard, who displays his Hollywood collectibles in the Lakewood branch of Wells Fargo Bank.

Incidentally, Heritage is now auctioning off the entire town of Garryowen, Montana, where The Battle of the Little Bighorn began. One assumes that's far easier to authenticate than a flask. --Robert Wilonsky

Category: Cover Story
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The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Is a ... Waitaminute ... "Support Group"?

Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 04:06:13 PM
Dale “Tiger” Jameton

Courtland Ray Edmonds never seemed the type to join the Aryan Brotherhood. Today, however, he and several other alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas sit in the Dallas County Jail, charged with capital murder for the August 2006 death of Anthony Ormwell Clark. Edmonds is mentioned briefly in last week’s cover story: Police believe Clark’s body was prepared for disposal at Edmond’s Mesquite home on Shepherd Lane. I requested an interview with Edmonds, along with his co-defendants, while writing the story to get a peak into the kind of man Dale “Tiger” Jameton seemed to be to his friends. Mostly, I wanted to learn how a man could enter the Texas prison system a petty theft with a drug habit and come out a killer committed to the twisted ideology of one of the state’s most dangerous prison gangs.

Edmonds initially consented to an interview through his mother and later declined on advice of his lawyer. So I sent Edmonds a letter with a list of questions, mostly about Jameton, hoping to get a response before we went to press. Unfortunately, I didn’t get his letter until yesterday.

Category: Cover Story
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Waiting on a Train

Tue Nov 06, 2007 at 01:30:50 PM

Recently, I got a call from a public call center in Mexico. I could tell because the second after I answered, I heard a voice say in Spanish, “They will speak to you now,” the formal call center etiquette used anywhere from Laredo to Tierra del Fuego.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Javier.”

Category: Cover Story
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Mrs. Don Hill Speaks! And Says She and Her Hubby Are Innocent! No, Really?

Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 01:33:22 PM
Brian Harkin

Well, I had the chance to talk to the former Sheila Farrington for a feature about her husband Don for the paper version of Unfair Park this week. Mrs. Hill says she will not cop a plea, and while I know that’s what all criminal defendants say initially, she sounds pretty convincing. Or, at least, convinced.

She doesn't hedge her bets or concede any mistakes in judgment. Instead, she sticks to her claim of absolute innocence for her and her husband. Declining to go into the specifics of both their cases, Hill instead suggests they’re innocent because they're religious people.

“You will find us in church every Sunday,” she says. “We live by what we believe in.” And of her fellow defendant and spouse, she says, “The Don Hill that I know, my husband, you will never meet a more honest politician. All I know is he’s a very straightforward, honest politician.”

Now, to the good stuff.

Category: Cover Story
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If Anand Jon Comes Back to Dallas, He Might Not Be Leaving

Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 12:31:07 PM
Anand Jon, who designs for Paula Abdul, is a wanted man in Dallas.

Must be the week for unsealed indictments. Only, we had an idea these were coming, as three arrest warrants on sexual assault charges have been issued in Dallas for New York-based fashion faux pas Anand Jon. The 33-year-old designer for the likes of Paris Hilton and Paula Abdul allegedly met would-be models on the Internet and arranged to meet them when he came through Dallas -- allegedly to sexually assault them, as we reported in the paper version of Unfair Park earlier this year. Allegedly.

Harris County also has issued an open warrant for his arrest on a felony charge of sexual assault of a child between age 14 and 16. But the two Texas counties will have to get in line, as yesterday a Los Angeles judge unsealed a 59-count indictment against Anand Jon for sexual assault of 20 women between the ages of 14 and 27. The charges include forcible rape, lewd acts upon a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual battery by restraint and attempted forcible oral copulation. The indictment supersedes previous charges involving 18 women. The allegations include 54 felonies and five misdemeanors.

Category: Cover Story
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Obituary for a Serial Killer

Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 12:45:20 PM
Coral Eugene Watts, who killed women he believed had "evil eyes"

Fifty-three-year-old Coral Eugene Watts, who confessed to slaying 11 women in Texas -- two from the Dallas area -- died of prostate cancer on Friday in a Michigan prison. Watts was the poster boy for the unintended consequences of plea bargains in Texas.

Suspected in dozens of murders, the Michigan native killed random women he saw on the street -- usually before dawn -- and left no physical evidence that could be traced to him. After a 1982 attack on two women in Houston, both of whom lived, Watts was arrested and charged with burglary with attempt to commit murder.

Watts told Houston detectives he attacked the women because they had “evil eyes.” The paper version of Unfair Park described Watts’ horrific crimes in a June 2003 cover story. It wasn’t enough to take their lives. Watts had to kill their spirits.

In 1982, the Harris County District Attorney made a deal with Watts. He gave detailed confessions to one murder in Michigan and 11 in Texas, showing detectives where he had buried three bodies. One was Anna Ledet, a 34-year-old Dallas woman attending medical school in Galveston; another was Linda Tilley, an Arlington woman in school at the University of Texas, probably Watts’ first Texas victim.

Category: Cover Story
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Chelsea's Story

Tue Sep 18, 2007 at 04:00:09 PM
A self-portrait from Chelsea Richardson's Web site

A few new developments in an old story: I was an intern when Glenna Whitley and I wrote about the brutal murder of a Mansfield couple named Rick and Suzanna Wamsley in 2003. Their son, Andrew Wamsley, and his girlfriend, Chelsea Richardson, have been sentenced, respectively, to life in prison and death for their roles in the Wamsleys' murder. A third accomplice, Susana Toledano, plead guilty to murder and became a witness for the state, testifying against Andrew and Chelsea.

Rick Wamsley was shot in the head and stabbed 21 times. Suzanna Wamsley was shot and then stabbed 18 times. At the time of the murder, Andrew Wamsley and Toledano were both 19, and Richardson was 20 years old. Officials say the trio hoped to collect the Wamsley's $1.65 million estate.

Chelsea Richardson was the first woman ever to be sentenced to death in Tarrant County. Now 23, she's the subject of an upcoming We channel documentary on women on Death Row and has launched her own Web site, Chelsea's Story. Check out the artwork. And the poetry. A sample: "The only outlet to her pain flows in that cheap ink & map pencils / Trying to pour her heart out & express with the rapid flicks of her hand & strokes with a stiff wrist / This ones pain is from blame misplaced on her."

Category: Cover Story
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A "House of Death" Lawsuit is No Mas

Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 02:35:19 PM
The House of Death -- has to be one hell of a neighborhood, no?

OK, so we’re a little late on this, but late last month a U.S. district judge in El Paso issued a ruling on what is known as the House of Death case, which we wrote about earlier this year. For those unfamiliar with the case: Twelve men were kidnapped and taken to a house in Juarez, Mexico, where they were tortured, killed and buried by members of the Vicente Carillo Fuentes criminal organization, commonly known as the Juarez cartel.

The first of these murders was witnessed by a high-ranking member of the cartel who also happened to be an informant for the U.S. government. When the murder was over, and after the informant had helped bury the body, he made his way to El Paso, where he told his handlers at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement what he had seen. According to his testimony, they also listened to a recording of the murder.

At this point, they had enough evidence to take down their target, but instead they sent the informant back to Mexico, where he would facilitate other murders. Only when two DEA agents were nearly kidnapped, taken to the house and killed did the investigation finally come to an end, culminating in the arrest of Santillan Tabares, a senior member of the Juarez cartel.

Dallas lawyer Raul Loya filed a lawsuit in behalf of several of the victims, including an El Paso diesel mechanic named Luis Padilla.

Category: Cover Story
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Celeb Designer Jon Anand Is Wanted in Dallas -- By Law Enforcement Officials

Tue Jun 12, 2007 at 02:05:58 PM
Anand Jon with one of his famous friends and clients, Paula Abdul

Last month in the paper version of Unfair Park, Glenna Whitley told the sordid story of celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon, who allegedly promised would-be models from Dallas they were going to show off his tony togs -- right before he sexually assaulted them. Well, moments ago The Los Angeles Times reported that today, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged him with having attacked six other women -- "while authorities in Dallas have a warrant for his arrest on similar charges," reports the paper.

It's a familiar story: According to Los Angeles district attorney's office aspokesperson Jane Robison, the 33-year-old known for having designed clothes for the likes of Paris Hilton and Paula Abdul lured girls and women -- some of whom were as young as 14 -- with the promise of big-money and high-profile modeling gigs. But, instead, he raped them, say prosecutors, who have slapped 46 charged on Jon out in Los Angeles. Robison, who brands Jon "a prolific serial sexual predator," also says that Dallas authorities have obtained "a probable cause warrant to transfer" Jon to Dallas, where he will face similar charges. He's currently out on bail. --Robert Wilonsky

Category: Cover Story
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God Exists, Damn It

Thu May 03, 2007 at 03:51:42 PM
This man says he can prove that God exists. Big deal. So can we, in two words: Jessica Biel.

This week's paper version of Unfair Park features a cover story on Roy Abraham Varghese, who founded the Institute of Metascientific Research in Garland four years ago. Its mission: to refute the arguments put forward by atheists and scientific materialists and thus prove the existence of God. He does this with an assortment of arguments, boiling down to the unexplained existence (in material terms) of thought, consciousness, self-awareness and rationality.

Science cannot proceed without a set of basic scientifically unprovable assumptions that imply the existence of God, he says. These are that the universe is rational, that it is governed by a logical set of physical laws and constants, that these assumptions are valid and that we can know and understand them. Varghese asks: If the fundamental doctrine of atheism is valid and the universe truly is the result of a blind and unguided process, then why assume it is ultimately intelligible and investigate from that premise? How can one maintain that the universe is at bottom chancy and irrational while at the same time invest faith in science, rationality and calculation to explain its specifics? Atheism is incoherence, Varghese insists.

Category: Religion and Other Assorted Blasphemies
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Prisoner, Save Thy Self?

Tue May 01, 2007 at 03:35:12 PM

There are nearly 7 million people now under the supervision of the correctional system in the United States -- and that includes prison, parole or probation. That’s one out of every 32 adult Americans, a rate of incarceration that is unprecedented in U.S. history. What, then, to do with our ever-growing prison population? This is one of the questions last week’s cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park seeks to address.

“Men come to prison as a punishment,” Alexander Paterson, the famous 20th century English prison commissioner, once said. "It is…the sentence of imprisonment, and not the treatment accorded in prison, that constitutes the punishment.” As Marie Gottschalk noted in the Texas Law Review last summer: “This means recognizing our ‘solidarity with the expelled of society’ and making life behind bars as humane as possible, even if we cannot prove it reduces the recidivism rate. As the Swedish Minister of Justice Herman Kling once said: ‘We must practice humanity without expecting anything in return.’”

The prison we wrote about last week has taken a radical approach to prison reform: It has turned over its programming to an Evangelical organization called Prison Fellowship Ministries. Ten years in, the experiment is considered by some to be a success; by others, to be an unconstitutional failure.

Category: Cover Story
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