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Two prositutes picked up Wednesday night, as part of Dallas's Prostitute Diversion Initiative off Interstate 20 near Lancaster

​While the focus of this week's National Prostitute Diversion Conference was Dallas's collaborative approach to treating prostitutes as victims and diverting them to programs that include drug treatment, counseling and job training, many of the attendees repeatedly asked what was being done to enforce laws against men who pay for sex.

"I just have to ask because it's the elephant in the room: What is being done in the demand area?," a female police officer from Massachusetts asked during the Q&A session of one panel, expressing concern that while women with a third prostitution offense in Texas face a felony that remains on their record and makes it difficult to find employment for years to come, the men who buy their services may go without punishment. "We're going to examine this model. We're importing this [approach] to the rest of the country by having you here talking to us today, and so I'd like to know how you're dealing with the johns."

Sgt. Louis Felini, the Dallas police officer responsible for creating the city's Prostitute Diversion Initiative, was quick to answer. "Right now we're targeting mostly the female population, but that's going to change sometime in the next year," he said. New ways to enforce the law -- which prohibits prostitution for both the seller and buyer -- against johns are under discussion, he added, including the possibility of yanking truckers' licenses if they're caught soliciting.

"What we're going through is a philosophy change in law enforcement," he said. "We have to prove this program can sustain itself and that these women really want help, and I think we've been able to accomplish that, so we're moving in the right direction." He stressed that since most prostitutes were sexually and physically abused as children and didn't enter the "profession" by choice, johns play into the cycle of abuse by paying for the end result.

As promised earlier, here's the full 75-page report from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission concerning use of force during the Rainbow Lounge raid in Fort Worth in June. Per the agency's Open Records Coordinator, driver's license information and vehicle license plate numbers have been redacted from the documents; hence, the occasional black marks.
c09-012 Report Uof Redacted_joe

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn

​Last week, as you no doubt recall, Sheila Hill's attorney, Victor Vital, requested a new trial or evidentiary hearing based upon possible jury misconduct preceding all those guilty verdicts in the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial. Now we know how U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn will proceed -- by dismissing two of the three claims (those involving a newspaper found in the jury room and D'Angelo Lee's claim that a friend of his said a juror gave opinions about the case during the trial), and by interviewing in private Nedra Frazier, the juror Sam interviewed only hours after she and the other jurors found Don Hill and his four co-defendants guilty of 23 of the 29 charges against them. Lynn will then provide a transcript to counsel. A copy of yesterday's order follows.

​Some time this morning, we should have the full copy of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's so-called "use of force" report concerning the raid on the Rainbow Lounge in late June. Till then, TABC spokesperson Carolyn Beck offers this morning a lengthy summary, in which TABC Agent Chris Aller -- who'd been to the bar two night before, spotted two men in "dressed only in thong-like underwear or bikini bottoms sitting on some picnic tables" and thought just maybe they were involved in "drug activity or lewd conduct" -- is cleared of singling out the Rainbow Lounge for being a gay bar. Says the summary, which also clears TABC Agent Trainee Jason Chapman, "The allegation that the Rainbow Lounge was targeted for being a gay bar was unfounded." Aller -- who's seen in that now-infamous photo standing over patron Chad Gibson, who was hospitalized for a week after the raid with a skull fracture -- was also cleared of using excessive force, as was Chapman

Yet TABC Administrator Alan Steen says the two men, fired in August along with Sgt. Terry Parsons, will remain fired, despite the report's findings: "Although the evidence did not show that our agents targeted the bar or used excessive force, it does not take away from the fact that the agents violated several policies that night. I want to take another opportunity to say that this is not how we treat people, and we have been looking at this from every angle to find ways to make sure it does not happen again."

After the jump, a laundry list of changes made within TABC to address the issues raised by the fallout from the Rainbow Lounge raid; as soon as we receive the full report, we'll post accordingly. Fort Worth police are also releasing their own internal-affairs report this morning, in which the department says its officers likewise did not use excessive force and won't be fired.

​This morning, The New York Times' editorial page insists the tale of Ernestina Mondragon, the first of 39 drivers ticketed by Dallas police for not speaking English to speak up, is merely a symptom of a larger issue: "how local police departments should deal with recent immigrants." (And, no, the editorial does not say that Mondragon's been in the U.S. for 29 years.) After all, Police Chief David Kunkle has said it's very possible his officers were just enforcing a federal statute available on their in-car ticketing computers -- one that says commercial drivers must speak English, and one that DPD doesn't enforce. Said the chief, "When we deal with crime victims ... our interest is not their immigration status," echoing the sentiment of Arlington Deputy Chief of Police Kim Lemaux, who told Unfair Park the same week, "We don't have the ability to take on unfunded mandates such as immigration enforcement."

The Times's editorial board, which has a few questions for the DPD about how this "noxious practice" was allowed to go on for so long without detection, could not agree more:

This is a country that has repeatedly gone overboard in its reaction to immigrants who don't speak the common tongue, but the mind still reels at this one. Where were these officers' supervisors, who presumably reviewed and approved each of these tickets after they were filed? Where were the judges who must have encountered these language offenders in traffic court? ... There is no question that the efforts to [have local peace officers enforce federal immigration policies] so have been marred by poor training, racial profiling and other abuses -- and widespread fear in the communities that the police are sworn to protect. If there is any remaining doubt, just take a look at what happened in Dallas.

​Dallas has developed a growing reputation as one of the few cities in the country to treat prostitutes as victims, whether through unique programs for under-age targets of human trafficking or specialty courts that help convicted sex workers create new lives. And so, two years after the Dallas Police Department started its Prostitute Diversion Initiative -- which, as noted here, will soon add DNA testing to its arsenal -- city officials kicked off the first National Prostitute Diversion Conference this morning at the Old Red Courthouse.

Before an audience of about 150 (many of whom came from out of town) at 8 this morning, county and city officials lauded Dallas's multi-agency effort to help prostitutes as a national example. And many acknowledged Sgt. Louis Felini, the man who initiated DPD's new approach to prostitution. "This developed organically from the ground up because Sgt. Felini saw that our approach wasn't working and really did it on his own," said Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle. "We really believe this is a model for cities across the country."

Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey called the initiative an example of "a well-oiled, good working partnership" that includes the police department, the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, Parkland Hospital and The Bridge.

​Until today, there has been not a single word of media coverage about an incident on the Dallas North Tollway earlier this month involving a state trooper accused of using excessive force to make an arrest. But moments ago Tela Mange, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, sent word that on October 10, a 42-year-old trooper named Arturo Perez did just that, prompting his firing by DPS Director Steven McCraw. That happened one week ago today.

Actually, that's not entirely correct: Perez, who worked in the state prison system for 16 years before moving to the DPS a little more than three years ago, opted to retire before he was formally fired. Nevertheless, McCraw has asked the Texas Rangers to investigate the incident "based on readily observable evidence from the Trooper's in-car video," according to the DPS's statement. Perez had been patrolling the Dallas North Tollway since July of this year.

Mange tells Unfair Park she's not sure where on the tollway the incident occurred, or what precisely happened; we're still woefully short on details. And the video will not be released any time soon: Mange says the Rangers will turn over their evidence, including the tape, to the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. It will be released only when the case is closed.

Update at 10 a.m. Saturday: Last night, Fox 4 ran an interview with Randy Isenberg, the attorney for Whitney Fox, who Perez arrested for drunken driving near the Lemmon Avenue exit on October 10. The piece shows the injuries Fox sustained during her arrest. It's after the jump.

Flickr user: vgsgeek

​Here's a friendly little heads-up from your pals at Unfair Park: If you've received a citation from the Dallas Police Department and haven't taken care of it, you might want to settle up sooner than later. That's because the city's this close to signing a contract with Dallas County that'll ensure drivers with unpaid tickets can't get their cars registered until they pay up.

On Monday, the city council's Public Safety committee will be briefed on the Scofflaw Vehicle Registration Denial Program, the result of three months' worth of discussions between the city and county. The committee's PowerPoint presentation won't be posted to the city's Web site till tomorrow, but First Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans tells Unfair Park this afternoon that the decision stems from a municipal courts efficiency study done earlier this year, which, as Evans says, recommended establishing the program to "reduce, if not eliminate, the backlog on our dockets." The study stemmed from an April audit that revealed the municipal courts are losing a small fortune on unpaid citations.

Dallas County actually began denying registration to drivers with unpaid fines back in February; Garland's doing the same thing. Drivers with outstanding fines will wind up on the county's wanted Web site.

FBI

Don Hill's testimony about the fax machine found at his residence in June 2005 tickled juror Nedra Frazier so much that she may have let it slip that she either was talking about the case before deliberations or listening to others talk about it.

When we spoke with juror Nedra Frazier hours after she helped convict Don Hill, his wife and three others in the Dallas City Hall corruption case, she mentioned Hill's denial about owning a fax machine as "the one thing that stuck out" during his testimony. After she referred to it as "the talk of the day," we pressed her for an explanation, and Frazier denied discussing it with other jurors before deliberations.

However, she referred to "outside people," the public and media as those she heard elaborating on the issue, leading to a motion filed this afternoon by Sheila Hill's attorney, Victor Vital, requesting a new trial or evidentiary hearing into possible jury misconduct. In addition to citing Frazier's comments to us, the motion claims Frazier "gave opinions about the case" to an acquaintance of defendant D'Angelo Lee prior to the verdicts (a signed statement from Lee is included) and reminds U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn that a newspaper was found in the jury room containing an article about the trial.

Juror statements have come to light which indicate that, during the trial, jurors were listening to comments from the public. In order to ensure that a fair trial was not compromised, Mrs. Hill requests that the Court declare a mistrial or, alternatively, conduct an evidentiary hearing and investigation into whether juror misconduct has occurred.

​It's just a single line on the city's Automated Red Light Enforcement Commission's agenda for Tuesday's meeting: "Program Transition from PWT to DPD." But as it so happens, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle tells Unfair Park, that transition -- getting the city's Safe Light Program out of Public Works and Transportation and into DPD HQ -- took place at the beginning of the month, as a result of the budget cuts and layoffs at Dallas City Hall. The DPD also took over parking enforcement (as in, "enforcing meters in primarily the downtown area," says the chief) and the Crisis Intervention Team, which, Kunkle reminds, "are social workers who do outreach with the homeless downtown."

"The Houston Police Department manages their red-light camera program, and we were involved in the beginning of Dallas's," Kunkle says. "We were already involved in reviewing citations, but we're not going to be involved in the adjudication part of it. We will, however, be involved in the budget and contract side of it."

As you may recall, at the commission's last meeting, in June, it was brought up that the city has spent more than $6 million each year to monitor and maintain the 66 red-light cameras installed in 2007. (At present, DPD says, there are only 57 cameras up and running; the rest are being installed at this very moment.) But Dallas has only pocketed $676,753, after it splits that revenue with the state. In other words, it's the opposite of a money-maker. Mark Duebner, the former director of Business Development and Procurement for the city who moved to DPD earlier this month, reiterates a point made at that meeting: These cameras weren't intended to be ATMs, but accident deterrents.

"I was involved in getting that initial contract secured, and at the time critics said the cameras would cause an increase in rear-end crashes, because people tend to stop short" when they see the cameras," Duebner says. "All of our crash data, however, says that all types of accidents have been reduced. [And] the signals themselves are a public works function, but if you think about it, DPD tickets people for running red lights. So it makes more sense to be here than it ever did in public works."

Sean Salisbury

​Sean Salisbury was not -- no way, no how, no sir -- fired from The Fan 105.3 for "sexting." At least, that's what Richie wrote on September 11 about his former radio-station teammate.  Gawker Media-owned Deadspin, which has been obsessed with the Frisco resident's Salisbury steak for a long time, insisted otherwise, and so began a lengthy, riveting back-and-forth with the former NFL journeyman QB-turned-ESPN analyst.

Late Friday, the McKinney Courier-Gazette provided the latest chapter in this ongoing narrative: Salisbury has sued Deadspin and Gawker Media for defamation in Denton County Court. (Deadspin, offering no comment save for a lengthy excerpt from the McKinney paper, noted that is has not yet been served.) Jeffrey Tillotson is repping Salisbury, who says Deadspin's made it hard for him to find work. I have been unable to reach Richie Whitt for comment.

State Rep. Terri Hodge

​Mark your calendars: March 8. That, says Jack Fink, is when state Rep. Terri Hodge will finally stand trial, per Judge Barbara Lynn's decision. Say what? You forgot Hodge was indicted along with Don Hill, D'Angelo Lee and the rest of the found-guilty gang? Then you should go back and re-read the original indictment, in which Hodge is accused of accepting free rent from Brian and Cheryl Potashnik in exchange for sending letters of support to the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs for Southwest Housing's apartment developments.

Of course, as Patrick "Buzz" Williams reminded us last year, her attorney has maintained that the few hundy in free rent wasn't a bribe. Because, see, "she thought she qualified for housing assistance because, as a state legislator, she makes very little money." Got it? Schutze and Merten have already called not-it for live-blogging. Seems awful early for that.

Photos by Kimberly Thorpe

Claude Simmons and Christopher Shun Scott outside the House of Blues, shortly after their release from prison today. Check out more photos here in our slide show.

​The courtroom was filled with tears, then cheers: Two men who spent 12 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit went free today. And while Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins believes this a defining moment for his office and a turning point for Dallas County, 54-year-old Claude Simmons Jr. and 39-year-old Christopher Shun Scott -- sentenced to life in prison for the 1997 robbery and murder of Alfonso Aguilar -- are far less concerned at the moment with the political ramifications.

"It's just a glorious day for me," Scott told Unfair Park. He spoke of feeling some bitterness towards those who sent him away for so long for a crime he did not commit: "I can forgive, but not forget." And yet, he's at peace. "I just got to keep praying for it," he said.

Zeddie Rucker, Chris Scott's mother, said today, "I knew I did not raise a killer." For years, she said, she told her son, "Don't let your faith waiver."

​Simmons, speaking to us after he'd left the Frank Crowley Courthouse and took his first steps of freedom in the brisk October afternoon, said, "I haven't been past those gates in so long. I didn't know which way to go." (He was, of course, given directions -- to House of Blues, where Simmons and Scott were joined by several other men recently freed from prison after their wrongful incarcerations. More about that after the jump.)

Since their arrests 12 years ago, both men maintained their innocence; one year ago, university-run groups devoted to proving prisoners' innocence championed their cause and convinced the Dallas County District Attorney -- and, ultimately, the Dallas Police Department -- to investigate. Theirs was an extraordinary case: While 20 other men have free before them, Simmons and Scott are the first two freed without DNA evidence. And Michelle Moore at the Conviction Integrity Unit, says they will not be the last: "This is the tip of the iceberg here," she told Unfair Park. "This is where we're going to be in the future."

Photos by Kimberly Thorpe

​You're looking at 220 pounds of methamphetamine, 4.5 kilos of cocaine and $660,000 in cash; you'll have to look at our slide show to see the assortment of machine guns hauled in. The whole stash was seized in North Texas yesterday from more than 80 members of a violent Mexican drug cartel known as La Familia.

A little while ago, federal, state and local authorities stood behind the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas Division, James Capra, as he commended the various agencies for working together in Project Coronado, part of a national effort to put down La Familia.

"I'm here to tell you what they are," said Capra. "Just a group of drug-trafficking thugs who profit off the backs of addiction." According to the feds, some of those arrested this week "used stash houses to store the drugs and cash proceeds and acted as intermediaries and brokers to negotiate the acquisition, price, delivery and payment. They used vehicles to transport the drug proceeds to Michoacan, to pay for the methamphetamine and cocaine shipments, secreting the proceeds in false compartments, gas tanks or other containers in the vehicles."

Across the country, more than 1,100 people have been arrested during the operation -- 84 of them in and around Dallas, which, of course, is a major hub for the distribution of drugs coming up from Mexico. The various agencies represented at today's press conference -- an alphabet soup that included the FBI, the I.R.S., the U.S. Secret Service and Texas Air National Guard -- touted the recent success as evidence that the agencies were catching up with the drug cartels.

"Obviously, what happens in Mexico doesn't stay in Mexico," said Steve McCraw, director of Texas Department of Public Safety. The Official Word follows -- jump for it. Or else.

CopShop.com

​While Irving makes the occasional headline with its use of the Criminal Alien Program -- which involves turning over to federal immigration officials people detained for any reason, even traffic violations --  top cops in Arlington have taken a stand against that approach. Instead, they insist that helping to enforce federal immigration laws diverts resources from fighting serious crime and dissuades people from coming forward to help victims or identify criminals.

"It's often difficult to successfully accomplish our mission of preventing and reducing crime with the current resources and funding to our department," Arlington Deputy Chief of Police Kim Lemaux said moments ago, during a national conference call organized by Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative, during which police leaders across the country called for federal immigration reform. (Originally, organizers said that Dr. Theron Bowman, Arlington's chief of police, would be participating in the call. No reason was given for the cop swap. Nonetheless, Bowman was among the police chiefs involved in a massive study, The Role of Local Police: Striking a Balance Between Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties, released earlier this year.)

"'We don't have the ability to take on unfunded mandates such as immigration enforcement," Lemaux said. "Our department operates under a community policing strategy, and if a group of residents fears the police then they won't turn to officers for help, making them viable victims. We need everyone in our community to be willing to be involved and to not be afraid to report crimes. Tasking local law enforcement with immigration enforcement really sets us on a path that directly conflicts with community policing."

​Will the feds' new stance on medicinal marijuana have any impact on local users, even though, sadly, Texas isn't among the states that permit the practice? Craig Watkins's office says no way, no how. Local Libertarians, not surprisingly, are crossing their fingers. (As opposed to ...)

"The federal policy shift won't impact the way we evaluate or prosecute cases here," says Kevin Brooks, felony trial bureau chief in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. "I've never seen a circumstance where people have been caught with a small amount of marijuana and say they're using it for medicinal purposes. If there was a doctor prescribing it or telling them to use it, I'm not saying we wouldn't have any compassion for that, but we'd still have to evaluate it the way we would evaluate any other case -- based on the merits."

Paul Petersen, the chairman of the Dallas County Libertarian Party, would love to see that change. The memo sent to federal prosecutors earlier this week, Petersen tells Unfair Park, is "an example of the pendulum moving back in the direction of individual freedom and responsibility" and "a nice, small step in the right direction."

Brian Harkin

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins

​On Friday, 54-year-old Claude Alvin Simmons Jr. and 39-year-old Christopher Shun Scott will be free men for the first time since being wrongly sent to prison in October 1997 for the robbery and murder of Alfonso Aguilar. Two other men will take their places: Alonzo Hardy, who is already in prison serving 30 years for an unrelated aggravated robbery; and Don Michael Anderson, who has been charged with the murder following Hardy's confession to the killing, in which he implicated Anderson.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins tells Unfair Park he was first notified one year ago that it was likely Dallas County had sent to prison the wrong men. The Texas Center for Actual Innocence at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Arlington Innocence Network came to his office in 2008 with the grim news, which Watkins pored over till deciding to turn over the case to his Conviction Integrity Unit and the Dallas Police Department's Cold Case Unit. Bringing in the DPD was a particularly difficult decision, Watkins says; he explains after the jump. He also talks about the ramifications of this case for both his office and DPD Chief David Kunkle's force, and why this one -- the first non-DNA exoneration since Watkins took office -- could have profound implications nationwide.

Stephanie Daniels

​So, you don't like the Dallas Police Department's new black-and-whites, hunh? That comes as a shock to the DPD -- especially Lt. Dale Barnard, the department's fleet manager. I spoke with him this morning to find out a little more about the new ride, which rolls out in February. Specifically, I wondered, who designed this sucker and what's he heard by way of reaction?

Turns out, the Friends of Unfair Park's complaints are the first he's heard: "Never received a [negative] comment," Barnard says. "And we've been working this for, oh, I don't know ... We did a department-wide survey two, three years ago, and 80 percent voted for the black-and-white. And we tested blue and black [logos] both with officers, the city manager, all the chiefs and various other people around the department, and overwhelmingly everyone liked the blue the best because it was a way of blending old and new. And we never received a comment about the font.

"We were trying to do something big with the size of the letters," he continues. "We wanted it to be big and bold since so much of the [current] car was a reflective decal, and we tried to keep as much of that as possible."

More of our brief Q&A follows. Hit the sirens.

Dallas County District Attorney

Claude Simmons is one of two men being exonerated for a 1997 murder he did not commit.

​Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins's office sends word this morning that two men convicted of murder in October 1997 -- 54-year-old Claude Alvin Simmons Jr. and 39-year-old Christopher Shun Scott -- have been exonerated. Says Watkins's spokesperson, Jamille Bradfield, these are "the first two non-DNA exonerations since Mr. Watkins has been in office." And per the press release, two other men have been arrested by the Dallas Police Department in conjunction with the April 1997 slaying of Alfonso Aguilar, who was robbed and then shot to death:

The Dallas County District Attorney's (DA) Office announced today that a joint investigation between the Dallas Police Department's (DPD) Cold Case Unit and the Conviction Integrity Unit of the District Attorney's Office has resulted in an arrest and capital murder charge against Don Michael Anderson, 40, for the 1997 capital murder of victim Alfonso Aguilar. A co-actor in the murder, Alonzo Hardy, 49, has also been identified through the joint investigation. Hardy has been in custody since 1999 and is currently serving a 30-year sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for an unrelated aggravated robbery which he committed approximately one year after the murder. ...

The reinvestigation of the case revealed that both Anderson and Hardy had been mentioned as suspects during the early stages of the original investigation of the offense and that defense attorneys attempted to present evidence at one of the 1997 trials that Anderson had in fact confessed to the offense. The trial judge would not allow the jury to hear the evidence. The reinvestigation includes an extensive confession by Hardy, detailing his and Anderson's role in the offense. His detailed statement, likewise exonerates Simmons and Scott. Hardy's statement is corroborated by physical evidence collected at the original crime scene as well as by other witnesses. Hardy has also passed a polygraph.

The full release from the DA's office is after the jump, and we'll follow up shortly with an interview with Watkins and Mike Ware, head of the Conviction Integrity Unit. And, yes, there has been one other man released from prison not using DNA evidence: Richard Miles, who was released on bond earlier this month pending a new investigation, after it was discovered exculpatory evidence was withheld at trial.

Photos by Stephanie Daniels

​We told you it was coming, and here it is -- the Dallas Police Department's new black-and-white ride, which made its debut mere moments ago in front of DPD HQ on South Lamar. With its intense LED lights, silk-screened graphics and that "Serving Since 1881" motto plastered on the sides, these cars are a definite upgrade from the blue-and-whites rolled out in 1992. The department's fleet manager, Lt. Dale Barnard, says 266 of the brand-new cars will hit the streets in late February. So, you've been warned. More photos after the jump.

Cars Diecast

​We're, oh, about four hours away from getting a sneak peek at the new Dallas Police Department cars -- that's when the city council's Public Safety Committee treks down to the DPD Basic Training Center for the unveiling of the new ride that's been parked in the HQ basement for the past week. Till then, this is all we know per a memo (scroll down to the last page) sent this morning to the committee: Beginning next year, DPD's ditching the blue ride and going old-school black-and-white.

How come? Well, for several reasons, says the missive, chief among them, "National studies have shown that police vehicles painted in this manner are more 'visible' to the community in which they serve." And: Black-and-white's cheaper than blue: The current blue body-wrap decal runs around $945, says the memo, while black-and-white decals plus installation "costs approximately $325." And: "Tradition has ingrained citizen perception that a black and white vehicle is a police vehicle." And: They're just more kick-ass.

Sam Merten

According to juror Nedra Frazier, the arguments against conspiracy surrounded Rickey Robertson, seen here leaving the courthouse with his wife and baby daughter after the jury found him guilty on two counts.

A few hours after she and 11 other jurors found Don Hill and his four co-defendants guilty of 23 of the 29 charges against them in the Dallas City Hall corruption case, Rowlett resident Nedra Frazier gave me a behind-the-scenes peek at the deliberations. Much like my lengthy interview with Don and Sheila Hill, the majority of my conversation with Frazier didn't make it into the cover story in the current paper version of Unfair Park because of space constraints, so I've again pulled together the highlights in the form of a Q & A after the jump.

Frazier, a 43-year-old wife and mother of two children, had planned on spending the last few months trying to find a new job to replace the one she held for 10 years at Avaya, a telecommunications company, which had been shipped overseas to India at the end of January. Instead, a last-minute challenge in June by the defense alleging that the prosecution had been eliminating jurors based on race resulted in her addition as the last of four black jurors selected.

Because the case involved several defendants and numerous counts, Frazier endorsed a plan to discuss each count as it appeared on the jury's verdict form, which juror Rachel Secore of Dallas confirms. Each count was read out loud, followed by the definitions of the counts, the count as it appeared in the indictment and then the definitions once again. "There was a lot of discussion about the definitions. That part we took very seriously," Secore says.

The jury spent the most time discussing count 20, Frazier says, eventually finding both Hill and Darren Reagan not guilty. "There just wasn't enough evidence on that one." After that decision, jurors took a second look at approximately four other counts, especially regarding Sheila Hill's and Rickey Robertson's involvement. "There were several we had to go back and just really, really think about it and talk about it."

Photos and cutlines by Danny Fulgencio

An inclination for religious references did not save Don Hill from lawful judgment.

A little more than 24 hours after a jury found Don and Sheila Hill guilty on a total of 12 counts in the City Hall corruption case, the two sat down with me for a lengthy interview at the offices of Baker Botts on the 11th floor of Trammell Crow Center. Space constraints prevented much of our conversation from appearing in this week's cover story about the trial, so I've pulled together the highlights in the form of a Q & A after the jump, along with a slide show, which includes some never-before-seen photos from the trial.

The Hills were generous with their time (we spoke for approximately two and a half hours), and even though Sheila's attorney, Victor Vital, and Don's consultant, Ken Carter, were on hand, there was little interference. And no question was off-limits. In the aftermath of the verdicts, both seemed focused on their 16-year-old daughter from Sheila's previous marriage to Eric Farrington, who's also a convicted felon. Don says his stepdaughter, who's a junior in high school, wants them to be at her graduation next year. "She's strong, and rightly so, she is a little anxious about what this all means for her mother and pops and her own life in what she wants to do."

Don says his two grown daughters from his previous marriage to Vivian have "pretty much" stuck with him throughout the trial. "It's difficult when your dad's name is in the news and across the paper. Sometimes they wonder about what they should say."

Since the indictments two years ago, Don says he's been smeared professionally, impairing his ability to earn an income, so he and Sheila have scaled their lifestyles down to the bare essentials. They've depended on strong support from their church, family and friends to supplement the limited amount of law Don has been able to practice while Sheila has been serving as his assistant. "The government went to people I've developed relationships with and interviewed them, showed them evidence and played wiretaps," he says.

Even though they both have no complaints about their representation, the two are optimistic about their chances of winning an appeal. "We're not knocked out. We're just going to keep pressing through to the very end," Don says. "We thought today would be truly the first day of the rest of our lives because we'd be moving on, but we're not. We're still in the fight."

Constable Jaime Cortes

​During a last-minute hearing this afternoon, a judge ordered that data seized from Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes's office computer be returned -- only, not to Cortes, as his lawyers, Larry Friedman and Domingo Garcia, had demanded, but to the court, where it will remain under seal until an upcoming hearing to determine what should be done with it. The hearing is just the latest piece of what has become a swirling cloud of accusations surrounding Cortes and Precinct 1 Constable Derick Evans.

Foster has said the hard drive was seized and its contents copied as part of a county investigation into the constables, but his office conducted the raid at night without a warrant or a subpoena. That prompted Cortes's lawyers to seek a temporary restraining order against Foster and request the data be returned, arguing that they took it illegally and in violation of the rights of county residents whose information may be on the hard drive.

"This applies to the health, wealth and safety of the residents of Dallas County," Friedman told reporters while waiting to address the judge. "This isn't just a political dispute, it's a serious legal matter." Garcia called the seizure a "classic example of Big Brother." One copy of the data has been given to the FBI; the other, to a grand jury.

​Back in April, we told you about Cathryn Elaine Harris, who claimed that Elm Street-based Blockbuster violated her rights to privacy by allowing Facebook to post her video rentals online. Harris sued Blockbuster in February, but the question was: Would U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Lynn let Harris take Blockbuster to trial? To which Lynn responded with a resounding "Sure, go right ahead." Alas, that case is entangled in some legal limbo in the Fifth Circuit; so ... holding breath.

But Harris and two other Dallas residents aren't waiting around: On Friday in Dallas federal court, Harris, Marrio Herrera and Maryam Hosseiny filed a class action complaint against Facebook, claiming that it was engaged in a "civil conspiracy" with Blockbuster to allow interlopers access to a list of their latest video rentals. Because, see, these folks thought they'd rented their movies in private. But Blockbuster and Facebook -- using something called Beacon, which allowed for the third-party sharing of private info unless you opted out, except nobody knew they could opt out -- had other intentions. The entire complaint is after the jump. I don't think they'd mind me sharing it.

Jeffrey Ellard's leg wound as pictured in 2006, a year before he (and the DOJ) sued the county

​Back up to June 2006, when Matt Pulle recounted the tale of Jeffrey Ellard, a prisoner in the Dallas County Jail whose six-inch leg wound went unattended by medical providers and became, as Matt would describe it in September 2007, "a big, soggy hole stocked with pus and the pieces of toilet paper he used to stem the bleeding." Ellard, who was released for medical treatment after five months only after the court ordered it, more or less became the poster boy for all that ailed the Dallas County Jail leading up to the U.S. Justice Department's federal lawsuit that accused the county and Sheriff Lupe Valdez of engaging in "a pattern or practice of failing to protect inmates at the Dallas County Jail from serious harm and undue risk from serious harm."

Ellard himself sued the county and the Sheriff's Department in December 2007; that complaint is after the jump. But nothing ever came of it. That's because the county says it was never served the paperwork, though attorneys representing Ellard say they in legal filings they were having an "ongoing dialogue" with the county and the District Attorney's Office to resolve the issue. And so, on April 14 of this year, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor dismissed the suit.

On April 17, Ellard's attorneys filed a motion to reopen; that too is after the jump. Six months later, O'Connor finally has an answer for them: This week the judge ruled that Ellard's suit against Dallas County and the District Attorney's Office can go forward after all. None of Ellard's attorneys are available for comment, and Peter Harlan, chief of the federal division in Craig Watkins's office, says only that the county didn't oppose the motion to reopen only because "the county had not been served, so I could neither agree or disagree" with Ellard's attorneys. As far as the county's position on the lawsuit, he says, "I really don't have any comment on pending litigation."

​Fernando Hernandez is a 33-year-old Internal Revenue Service employee working out of the Dallas office. Only, today he's in federal custody after having been arrested by federal authorities, who dropped by Friday morning following a Dallas federal grand jury's decision to indict Hernandez for just offering to help out a poor soul who didn't want the IRS peeking at his tax return. Oh, can you hear the drums, Fernando?

The indictment charges Hernandez with one count of receiving a bribe by a public official and aiding and abetting. It alleges that in June 2005, Hernandez sought and accepted a $2000 cash payment from a U.S. taxpayer in return for Hernandez' promise that he would ensure that no IRS representative would audit that taxpayer's return.

An indictment is an accusation by a federal grand jury and a defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. However, if convicted, Hernandez faces a maximum statutory sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins

​While we pull ourselves away from the world's slowest, longest police chase ...

The Associated Press checks in today with Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins as he prepares to run for re-election one year from now. (Two weeks ago we met one Republican who'd like the job.) The rather lengthy piece recaps his highlights (all those DNA exonerations, that TV show) and spends quite a bit of time with the district attorney as he delivers speeches around town. But it also asks whether Watkins has been more concerned with his image and isn't maybe just a wee bit too sensitive when it comes to criticism. (To which he responds, "I may be thin-skinned.") And there's quite a bit of naysaying in the piece, especially at the top, from Watkins's nemesis Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. Writes Deborah Hastings:

As his re-election campaign rattles to life this fall, Watkins finds the national halo he's been standing under has become more of a local floodlight magnifying frailties and foibles. His trailblazing has become irksome to older politicians, who consider it arrogant to break the rules before playing by them.

Among them is John Wiley Price, the only black Dallas County commissioner, who says Watkins has "gotten to be a show horse instead of a work horse."

"I had a lot of high hopes for Craig," the outspoken fellow Democrat adds. "It appears he's gotten public policy confused with personality politics."

Sam Merten

Former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill outside the Earle Cabell, moments after the guilty verdicts were handed down

​Schutze and Merten are off in darkened corners finishing their City Hall corruption trial wrap-up (as in, What does it all mean?), so I'll refer you to KXAS-Channel 5's piece concerning the bill for the trial, which, the NBC affiliate says adds up to a whopping $750,000. That's from the defense attorneys, mind you, all of whom were court-appointed, save for Rickey Robertson's, which came out of his own pocket.

But I just spoke to Victor Vital, Sheila Farrington Hill's attorney, who says that figure's actually a little low, since it doesn't take into account the most current invoices -- not to mention whatever costs will be accrued during the appeals process following Monday's convictions.

"Ray [Jackson, Don Hill's attorney] and I, our budgets alone approached $700,000, and I think when you add D'Angelo [Lee]'s it's closer to a million," says the former Harris County prosecutor. "And Ted Steinke [Darren Reagan's attorney] is court-appointed. So if you're trying to get an accurate picture of how much public funds were used for court-appointed council, you'll need to wait a month. But based on court budgets we have to submit, the cost will exceed $750,000." Again, that's just for the initial three-month-long trial.

​Earlier this week, federal authorities were in a Dallas courtroom laying out the case against 19-year-old Jordanian Hosam Maher Smadi, arrested two weeks ago for allegedly trying to blow up Fountain Place in downtown Dallas. We didn't know when Smadi would again appear in court, but moments ago the U.S. Attorney's Office sent word: He's back at the Earle Cabell next week, as a matter of fact. That's because a federal grand jury has indicted him on two counts relating to the bombing attempt, each of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison (and a $250,000 fine).

Update: Check after the jump for the full indictment. In short, though, the release summarizes:

Count one of the two-count indictment charges Smadi with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, alleging that on September 24, 2009, he activated a timer connected to a vehicle borne improvised explosive device located inside a parking garage directly beneath a public building located at 1445 Ross Avenue in Dallas.

Count two of the indictment charges Smadi with bombing a place of public use, alleging that he knowingly and unlawfully delivered, placed, discharged and detonated an explosive device into a place of public use and government facility by activating a timer connected to the device or bomb and leaving it in the public parking garage of the building. It further alleges that Smadi did this with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury and with the intent to cause extensive destruction of the facility, likely to result in major economic loss.