Photo by Eric Garcia

​A Dallas-based strip-club chain facing a class-action lawsuit tried to compel its dancers not to join that legal action -- and even fired a woman who wouldn't comply, or so the strippers claim. In a motion filed earlier this month, the dancers also claim that the clubs foisted the agreements on the dancers late at night -- and when many of the strippers were drunk.

The chain, Jaguars, denies the allegations. But a judge ruled today that the clubs have to post a notice reminding dancers that they're free to join the class action and that retaliation for their doing so is illegal.

The dancers claims come in the midst of an ongoing lawsuit over whether strippers should be classified as employees or independent contractors, the subject of our cover story several weeks ago. Lawsuits are being filed against strip clubs across the country, and one of the latest is against both Jaguars Gold and its owner, Bryan Scott "Niko" Foster. The nine plaintiffs in the suit are from the Abilene, El Paso, Odessa, Fort Worth and Lubbock branches of the club. Foster calls the suit and ones like it the work of "ambulance chasers," but the legal system often disagrees.

In a motion for emergency injunctive relief filed earlier this month, the strippers claim that upon learning about the lawsuit, the defendants "swiftly hatched an illegal plan to discourage other potential class members from joining this lawsuit." They allege that on the night of December 2 and very early into the morning of December 3, the dancers were asked to line up and shown a "screen shot" of a legal document, then "asked on the spot" to decide whether they wanted to be employees or independent contractors. At that time, the dancers claim, most of the women were in the middle of their shifts and that "many of them were intoxicated."

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Photo by Mark Graham

Peggy Railey in the Tyler nursing home where she's spent the last 20 years

​In 1989, two years after the attack that left her in a vegetative state, People described Peggy Railey's existence as "death-in-life." Our Mark Graham documented as much years later when he visited her in the Tyler nursing home where she has spent the last two decades; today, he told me, spending time with her was eerie. "Her eyes would follow you," he said. "And she made anguishing sounds whenever they combed her hair or brushed her teeth. She was in a vegetative state, but you wondered: Was she still in there?" But her tortured existence has come to an end: The Tyler Morning Telegraph is reporting that she has died, and that her body has been taken to the Tyler Memorial Funeral Home.

Even if you were not in Dallas in April 1987, you likely know what happened: She was found strangled in the garage of the home she shared with her husband, First United Methodist Church senior pastor Walker Railey. Peggy's family told former Observer columnist and Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, then at the Dallas Times Herald, they were certain who'd put that wire around their daughter's throat: Walker, who, it was revealed, was having an affair with a woman named Lucy Papillon. Ella Renfro, Peggy's 87-year-old grandmother, told Laura there was motive: "A divorced man doesn't get to be bishop."

Railey and his attorney, Doug Mulder, always maintained his innocence; Walker said he'd lied about his whereabouts that night to cover his affair. Mulder, the former prosecutor, told Mike Shropshire in the fall of 1987: "If you're going to create an alibi, you'd better create a better one than Walker did." After he was acquitted of attempted murder in 1993, Walker hit the lecture circuit. Laura, whose coverage of the trial won her and this paper awards, wrote in 1996 that the only reason Walker walked was because of "the egregious handling of this case by our own Dallas County District Attorney John Vance ... who was ill and clueless at the time of the Railey trial [and] sent two shrubs to San Antonio to lose the case."

Walker was last seen on Facebook, claiming to work for a California church. But now, finally, Peggy Railey is at peace.

Photo by Patrick Michels

Joey Dauben, who now sits in jail in Navarro County

​Perhaps you've heard by now: Joey Dauben, publisher of the Ellis County Observer and several other small-town papers and websites throughout North Texas, has been indicted and arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. The 30-year-old Dauben, who Patrick Michels profiled in an Observer cover story earlier this year, was arrested by Texas Rangers at his grandmother's house in Mabank late Monday afternoon. He currently sits in Navarro County Jail; his bond has been set at $200,000.

Dauben stands accused of three counts of sexual assault on a child, one count of indecency with a child, and sexual contact. All charges stem from an alleged incident in 2007, during a retreat for a now-defunct church, Olive Tree Ministries, at Navarro Mills Lake.

Reached by phone, his friend and video editor Brannon Bridge tells Unfair Park, "Basically, all I know is what's like been printed about it. But I can tell you, I'm 100 percent sure he's innocent."

Dauben, as Patrick mentioned in his cover story, began writing back in February about a man in Ennis who was busted with an apartment full of child pornography, and who Dauben believes is responsible for the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, the decades-old case that led to the establishment of the "Amber Alert" system (although Patrick called the connections between the Ennis man and the cold case "tenuous," and other media outlets, and law enforcement agencies, seem to agree). More recently, WFAA notes, Dauben posted an article on the Ellis County Observer site about "child porn rings" on Facebook, which he called "the breeding ground of a massive, global, inter-connected, sick and sadistic, electronic child porn, child-sex trafficking ring."

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Naomi Vaughan

Rebecca Avalon's No. 1 Rule: Stay off the pole, ladies.

​Rebecca Avalon likes to say she did things backwards: went to college, got a master's degree in science education, became an elementary school teacher, then started stripping. She's quit dancing full time twice but keeps going back.

"When people say to me, 'You have a master's degree, why are you doing this?'", Avalon says, she tells them the truth. "Overall, I felt more respected by the gentlemen I would meet in the club than I ever did by the parents and administration in the public school system. When you say that to another teacher they're like, 'Oh, yeah, absolutely.'"

These days, though, her stripping is limited to a few days a week at The Lodge. She spends her other time running Strip and Grow Rich, a website and series of seminars on financial education and management and long-term career planning. She based her program on Naked Assets, a similar series of classes that she took in Las Vegas; by May 2008, she was a majority owner in the Naked Assets company.

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Illustration by Jesse Lenz

​First Baptist Dallas's Robert Jeffress is throwing in with Rick Perry, which is hardly a surprise given Jeffress's participation in that meeting with Perry and pastors back in June at James Robison's LIFE Outreach International campus in Euless. (Also: Jeffress would never, ever endorse Mitt Romney. Not ever.) But he made it official this morning with a statement released in advance of Perry's appearance at Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council's annual Values Voter Summit in D.C., where the governor and Observer cover boy will speak in about an hour. Matter of fact, Jeffress will introduce Perry.

Says the release, "Jeffress' introduction will serve as his official endorsement of his fellow Texan, and is a first for the Pastor who has never publicly stood behind any political candidate." To which the pastor adds, in part:

"Replacing Barack Obama is more than a political issue, it is a spiritual issue. ...[And] conservative Christians will have a choice to make. Do we want a candidate who is skilled in rhetoric, or one who is skilled in leadership? Do we want someone who is a conservative out of convenience, or one who is a conservative out of conviction? Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person, or one who is a born again follower of Jesus Christ? I believe that in Rick Perry we have a candidate who is a proven leader, a true conservative, and a committed follower of Christ."

Read the whole thing here.

Update at 2:45 p.m.: On the other side is the video of Jeffress's introduction of Perry this afternoon.

Update at 5:05 p.m.: Jeffress was on CNN about an hour ago -- and, again, moments ago -- referring, yet again, to Mormonism as "a cult," one among many reasons he can't support Romney. That video also follows.More >>

​Back in August, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said he was taking a long, hard look at Mortgage Electronic Registration System, which, as we noted at the time, was created in 1995 by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other financial institutions to speed up the recording and transfer of mortgages previously processed by county clerks' offices across the country. But in actuality, according to myriad media accounts, MERS has around 50 employees who do little more than document the transfers at around $25 a keystroke without paying the counties in which the transactions take place  -- which is why Watkins claimed that MERS was holding on to "tens of millions in uncollected filing fees that are potentially owed to Dallas County," money he threatened to go after in court if need be.

Moments ago, he made good on his threat: On the other side is the complaint filed against MERS, Stewart Title Company and Bank of America in Dallas County District Court, which reads less like a lawsuit -- at least, initially -- and more like a treatise on the events leading up to the financial collapse of 2008, the history of the mortgage system in the U.S. and why "public recordation of mortgage interests in the U.S dates back to at least the middle of the 17th Century," augmented with charts, graphs and quotes from Frederic Mishkin and Paul Krugman. Which I know you're dying to read at the end of a long workday. We don't get to Dallas County and its deed records till page 35 of the 48-page complaint. So, then, to the press release we go.

Today, District Attorney Craig Watkins on behalf of Dallas County, Texas, commenced an action against MERSCORP, Mortgage Electronic Registration System ("MERS"), Bank of America, and others seeking a judicial determination of whether the MERS System established by the mortgage banking industry to electronically track home mortgages violates Texas law related to the public recording of interests in home loans and the mortgages securing them.

"This is the first step to recoup the tens of millions in uncollected filing fees owed to the citizens of Dallas County," said Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins.

Like I said before, Watkins didn't think of this all by himself: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is going after MERS on charges of foreclosure fraud, and there are many other pending suits making the same or related allegations, all smoldering remnants of the foreclosure disaster of '08. All the relevant Dallas County docs follow. More >>

Photo by Danny Fulgencio

Evan Stone

​During his storied tenure here, Patrick Michels took a deep interest in the legal doings of Denton attorney Evan Stone, who's filed dozens of cases in Dallas federal court involving thousands of John Does who Stone says are illegally downloading movies, most of 'em pornos. As Patrick wrote in his cover story on Stone:

It was a novel approach, suing thousands of anonymous defendants at a time, a strategy used by just a handful of lawyers around the country. Quicker than he could add defendants to his mailing list, though, Stone attracted enemies: Internet freedom advocates, technology lawyers, the ACLU and even lawyers for the porn industry, each with their own complaints.

To that list, you can now add District Court Judge David Godbey, who, I see here, fined Stone $10,000 last week for subpoenaing Internet Service Providers after the judge told him not to. Godbey's order, which you'll find on the other side, is very heavy on the tsk-tsk:

To summarize the staggering chutzpah involved in this case: Stone asked the Court to authorize sending subpoenas to the ISPs. The Court said "not yet." Stone sent the subpoenas anyway. The Court appointed the Ad Litems to argue whether Stone could send the subpoenas. Stone argued that the Court should allow him to -- even though he had already done so -- and eventually dismissed the case ostensibly because the Court was taking too long to make a decision. All the while, Stone was receiving identifying information and communicating with some Does, likely about settlement. The Court rarely has encountered a more textbook example of conduct deserving of sanctions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which came onboard to protect the nameless defendants, is particularly enamored of that "staggering chutzpah" line. Meanwhile, one attorney writes that $10,000 ain't nothin' to a guy like Stone, who's trying to get each John Doe to settle for $1,500 or more: "This seems like pennies to an attorney who is bringing in $2,500 per settlement at what he claims is a 45% settlement rate."More >>

Photo by Mark Graham

Kerry Max Cook

​Speaking of the wrongly imprisoned ...

On Saturday, we stopped to take note -- belatedly -- of the passing of Randall Dale Adams, whose October death didn't reach newspapers till late last week. Adams, of course, was freed from prison in '89 following the release of Errol Morris's documentary The Thin Blue Line, which helped prove he had nothing at all to do with the shooting death of a Dallas Police officer in 1976.

In prison, Adams got to know another wrongly imprisoned man: Kerry Max Cook, subject of this 1999 cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park, who was sent away for the rape and murder of an East Texas woman he didn't commit. Kerry spent 22 years in prison, wrote an award-winning book about his experience, was featured on Frontline and speaks wherever and whenever he can about issues related to his case and those like his, and they are myriad.

Reason I mention Kerry Max Cook is earlier today, he dropped a comment in the Randall Dale Adams item, and lest it go unnoticed, I thought I'd share it in a separate item. As it's a lengthy essay, it follows on the other side. If you have a moment.More >>

Schutze is taking in commissioners court this morning; it's part of his summer local-government internship program. I see John Wiley Price got there early -- why, there's a Channel 8 cameraman chatting him up as he walks into work 'round 5:30 in the a.m. First and only question's about all those cars formerly belonging to bad guys -- the very same ones Kevin Krause first wrote about back during the summer of '09 that were also mentioned in the feds' search warrant.

Not quite as good as the cover of the new Sports Illustrated, sure, but slightly better than this.

​Last night I finally had the chance to read the new issue of Rolling Stone, which happens to feature a feature by former Observer-er Jesse Hyde, who decamped for his native Utah a couple of years back. The story's a good one: "America's Most Twisted Crime Family: Inside a Mormon cult's secret empire -- and the boys who dared to defy it." Right in his wheelhouse. Joe Bob says check it out.

But, funny thing. I was just reading this piece on Deadspin: "Stay Soft, Dirk Nowitzki." Luke O'Brien offers a lengthy look at the naysayers who long insisted the eventual MVP of the 2011 NBA Finals wasn't tough enough to lead his team to the Promised Land like the German Moses he's become. Loads of links and lots of stats, a thorough history-of. Then I get toward the bottom only to discover a lengthy excerpt from this November 2007 Observer cover story written by none other than Jesse Hyde.

It's about how Dirk went to the Australian Outback to find himself, to reinvent himself, to learn from and then just as quickly forget the crushing blows of the '06 Finals and the 67-win season that followed only to end with a one-and-done against Golden State. Wrote Jesse:

For the first time in his career, Nowitzki did not spend the summer retooling some aspect of his game. Instead, he went on a five-week trip to Australia to clear his head. He slept in youth hostels, he dozed on the beach reading German novels and he let his hair and beard grow long. He drifted out at sea for days. He slept in a car for a week. For Nowitzki, it was a journey of self-discovery -- similar to the traditional walkabout Aborigines take in their 16th year as a rite of passage -- a time to consider where he had been and where he was going.

Sitting there in front of the fire, with nothing but the stars of the Southern Hemisphere above him, Nowitzki's mind raced through the past several months. The 67-win season. The promise of a championship. Then finally, walking off the court at Golden State, his opponents celebrating their improbable victory as confetti fell around them.

How strange it had been, seeing his former coach, Don Nelson, on the other side of the court. Nellie, who had traded up to draft him, who had proclaimed him Rookie of the Year, who had stood by him even as Mavericks fans booed that first year, now pacing the opposing sideline, exploiting the weaknesses of his one-time protégé.

And it had worked. Somehow it had taken Nowitzki out of his game. After one loss, he threw a trash can against a wall in frustration, but when it was finally over, all he wanted to do was disappear. On the flight home, he asked a team official if he could leave Dallas as soon as possible, but after checking in with the NBA, he was told no -- he would have to stick around for another week or so. He could guess why. It was a poorly kept secret that he would win the MVP trophy.

Thanks for the memory-jog, Deadspin. Let's have a parade.