Dallas Defense Attorney Blog

According to this Dallas Morning News editorial piece, a small group of Dallas police officers have been pulling over drivers, and ticketing them for not being fluent English speakers. The confusion apparently arose from a drop-down menu item in the computerized ticketing system, which allowed for that option. The problem is, that option only applies to commercial drivers, which Dallas police officers do not typically enforce.

The author of the article states that the main problem is not that the oversight belonged to one, or even two confused officers, but to many, including those who are supposed to supervise the ticketing process. Police Chief David Kunkle has stated that he would “dismiss pending cases and investigate the officers involved.”

That said, the author brings up a good point. With the opening of the new Dallas Arts buildings, how can Dallas be taken seriously as an international travel destination if there are rumblings of racial profiling among the Police force?

What’s your take on the situation? Is it just a slight oversight, or something more serious that needs to be addressed?

A 53-year-old Houston man is innocent and should be released from prison after serving 22 years for a rape and robbery, his lawyer said Friday, because faulty forensics and false testimony from the Houston crime lab secured his conviction.

A jury convicted Gary Alvin Richard in a 1987 attack on a nursing student in a trial based largely on blood-typing evidence from the Houston Police Department crime lab. But, prosecutors and the defense attorney agree, new tests completed Friday show that an HPD analyst misled jurors at Richard’s trial and failed to report evidence that may have helped him.

Based on the new tests, both sides will ask a judge next week to release Richard on bond while they sort out what happened in his case.

“This is a new chapter, among many, of mistakes that were made, of sloppy work at the crime lab,” said Bob Wicoff, Richard’s lawyer. “Most troubling are the results that were not passed on to people who needed them.”

Read the rest of the article.