Thompson returned to headquarters and took the elevator to the homicide offices on the fifth floor. He said that he couldnt handle disappointing me on top of all the financial stress and tax problems that he was enduring.. Im willing to accept that Mikey might have totally screwed up. An expert witness with expertise as both a retired officer and homicide detective from the same police department, testified on Lords behalf. After the argument was over, Michael stopped being sarcastic and he became quiet and somber. He studied the call histories on the phones and took some notes. Jaffe called Thompson back the next day and said that he had reached Lord. I dont remember the exact words that were used, he told Lundberg. By the first of June, hed put aside Lords file to work on his other cases. And the bullet had exited toward the top of the left side of Burnsides head. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. Why are you doing this to me right now? Lord asked Thompson at one stage during the questioning. Reddit - Dive into anything. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Det. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? By then, a couple of those friends had talked to Thompson, and he had made it clear to them just what he thought of Lord: he said he would stake his career on his belief that she had killed him. | Articles He then worked for a not for profit organization called "One Community" that's premise is to be a middle man between law enforcement and civilians. In his opinion, it was perfectly plausible that in the heat of the argument with Burnside, she had taken his pistol, slipped up behind him, and pulled the trigger. The officer identified him as Brian Jaffe, a thirty-year-old civil engineer who had been Burnsides best friend since high school. I mean, she got no-billed. DallasJustice.com, Law offices of Michael Lowe, For a more complete description of the interrogation, check out Dallas Morning News coverage from the day that the jury was shown the interrogation videotape, Kim Sanders explained that the Lord interrogation was intimidation, Sanders also pointed out Thompsons failure to read Ms. Lord her Miranda rights, Michael Lowes Things to Know if You are Being Investigated for a Crime in Texas, Salinas v. Texas: Your Silence During Police Interrogation Does Not Get 5th Amendment Protection, Can Be Used Against You As Evidence Of Guilt To The Jury. Im still going to suffer for the rest of my life for this, she said. See full summary . We were joking around about somethingI dont remember whatand I said, Hey, wheres your Beretta? And he opened up [a kitchen drawer] and said, Its right here.. Why, for instance, were there bottles of cleaning products scattered on the kitchen floor? January 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? I cant say unequivocally whether the young woman did or didnt do the shooting because I wasnt there., At the same time, Mitchell and other prosecutors in the DAs office were not convinced Thompson had committed any serious wrongdoing. There was no question in her mind, she said, that she and Burnside would soon get married. Every time she tried to answer a question, she said, he cut her off and called her a liar. It was Lord. There were too many unanswered questions, he said. If the review determines that he did nothing wrong, he could be reinstated as a detective. (Jaffe had been drinking Shiner Bock, and Burnside had been having Red Bull mixed with vodka.) She needed pills to go to sleep. I cant undo what hes done.. He was wearing a T-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. She claimed that Thompson show a reckless disregard for her rights in having Plaintiff arrested in 2010 for the shooting death of her boyfriend, Mcihael Brunside. One of his tasks was to take boxes of cold-case files out of the death room, where all homicide files are kept, and haul them to a storage area in city hall. I went into the kitchen and he was on the floor and there was blood. She had desperately run from room to room trying to get better reception. Nevertheless, as far as Thompson was concerned, that did not eliminate her as a suspect. A Dallas County grand jury declined to indict Hephzibah Olivia Lord on a murder charge in connection with the 2010 death of Michael Burnside in his home. . Jaffe and Lord were taken to the station, and Thompson headed inside Burnsides home. At the least, she said, she wanted to make sure his actions were publicly documented so that he could never do to someone else what he had done to her. But Love also acknowledges that he is bewildered at the idea of Burnside shooting himself. City attorneys are defending him, saying he acted in good faith and without malice. Trailer 0:21. Required fields are marked *. Sometimes I want to walk inside, thinking he will be there. Individuals have a right to counsel when they are being questioned, this is part of the Miranda warning. But Lord insisted he had a good heart. The arrest was based upon Thompsons affidavit. He said that based on Burnsides victimology, there was no way that a young man with a bright future would put a bullet in his brain simply because his girlfriend was peeved at him. She had volunteered at an AIDS hospice. Was there a chance he was involved in the shooting? During her twenties, she always seemed to be out and about, a regular at trendy nightspots and concerts. She cooked, she cleaned, he was happy.. On May 11, 2011, in the case of Texas v. Lord, the grand jury returned a no bill. His blood must have dripped off her clothes. The lawyer was reluctant to open the door. And now hes dead, he said. Several months later, when he called Lord to refinance his home, their other relationships had ended. When Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must solve without the victim's body. A bullet hole was in a wall near the ceiling. Weve been detectives for a long time, and we understand that sometimes things happen and we cant always control the situation, he said. And he knew she was hiding something, he said. In fact, when Tittle asked Thompson, Is it still your belief that Olivia Lord murdered Michael Burnside? the detective didnt hesitate. Compared with Thompson, Lundberg was a quiet man who wore glasses and spoke slowly. He was the life of the party.. Finally, after Thompson barked at him, he stepped onto the front porch and told a flabbergasting story. Lord was slumped over in a chair, still wearing her blood-stained clothes. There was no way a person with an IQ above 65 could have concluded that Olivia had shot Michael.. Nearly a year after the shooting, a grand jury met and heard the evidence. The day after the verdict, Thompson was placed on desk duty. Strapped around his shoulders was a thick brown leather holster that held his department-issued pistol, a 9mm Sig Sauer. Jaffe was sitting in a plastic chair next to a small table pushed against a wall. But as the case made its way through the courts, she maintained her innocenceand claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. If I was guilty, would I really have gone out and filed a lawsuit, knowing everything would be brought up again, giving Thompson and all the other naysayers one more chance to come after me?, A few weeks later, I called Lord and asked her again about Burnsides death. Shearin called a friend in the homicide unit to ask about Thompson, whom he had never met. Some are arguing that Lord has won this jury verdict because Detective Thompson used a controversial form of interrogation method called the Reid method of questioning. A light drizzle was falling in the early morning hours of May 9, 2010, when detective Dwayne Thompsonpulled up in front of a modest home on Spring Grove Avenue, in a tree-lined neighborhood in North Dallas. Okay, fine. Dwayne Thompson Associate (Antitrust, Competition and Trade) at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer See production, box office & company info. Perhaps sensing that the jury had turned against the detective, Jason Schuette, another attorney for the City of Dallas, resorted to a surprise tactic in his final arguments. The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved a settlement of more than $1 million to a . Hed been as tall as Thompson, with a lean, athletic build. He stabbed the photo of the victim with his index finger. Alternative . We loved our life together.. Testimony. In 2008, when the producers of The First 48, a reality series on the A&E network about homicide detectives in big-city police departments, came to Dallas to film some episodes, they were riveted by Thompson. Burnside had been involved in a couple of accidents. Lord said that she and Burnside had gotten into an argumentsomething about a birthday party. Whats more, she didnt want him to go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. texasmonthly.com Who do you think you are? On July 15, the Public Integrity Units report landed on the desk of Dallas police chief David Brown. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). I loved my boyfriend.. Shearin made his own presentation, about 25 minutes in length, laying out the case for his clients innocence. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. See rank. They returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Lord, and ultimately the city had to pay her $1.2 million, which reportedly was the largest judgement of its kind in Dallas. It was so hard for us to believe that she was doing this, said Jaffe. If you have or may be questioned by the police, know your rights. And Im a person who thinks your behavior tonight doesnt add up. He pointed his finger at her. "The goal is to arrive at the truth." He often said that victimology was the most overlooked part of a homicide investigation even though it could help explain whether a suspect was guilty or innocent. Toward the end of the year, he finally saw the video recording of Rastegars interview at police headquarters. That was one of the most-watched episodes in The First 48s run, drawing 2.3 million viewers, and the producers told Thompson that they wanted to do more shows with him. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. For someone to say Dwayne maliciously would go after Miss Lord and try to set her up, I would say, You have the wrong guy, said Andrea Handley, one of the offices senior prosecutors. Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. Lundberg walked into the interview room, pulled his chair close to Lord, and played the role of the good cop. Something is definitely not adding up, Thompson thought, as he walked into one of the interview rooms where Brian Jaffe was waiting. Thompson repeatedly asked Lord during the interview why she waited seven minutes to call 911 after trying to reach a friend of Burnsides by phone. | Privacy Statement. Mitchell eventually told Shearin that she was willing to dismiss the charges against Lord. She did her own interviews, speaking, for instance, with a firefighter who said he believed he had accidentally kicked the gun away from Burnsides body. After being honorably discharged, in 1991, while stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he joined the Dallas police. Shearin then asked if she was included in Burnsides will or his life insurance policy. Thompson asked Lundberg if he thought it was possible that a person who was much shorter than Burnsidesomeone, say, who was five feet two inches tall, the height of Olivia Lordcould have aimed the Beretta at a 45-degree angle toward Burnsides head and pulled the trigger? Lord has just been awarded $800,000 in a jury verdict from a Dallas jury that has found Lord to be the victim of false arrest. Another detective, Dwayne Thompson, charged into the interrogation room. A uniformed officer walked over and told Thompson that the house belonged to a man named Michael Burnside, age thirty. View the profiles of people named Dwayne Thompson. Edit. But after her arrest, Lord read The Count of Monte Cristo, the Alexandre Dumas novel about a wrongfully imprisoned man who seeks revenge against those responsible for his imprisonment, and she memorized one of the books famous lines: May the god of vengeance now permit me to punish the wicked! That was her goal, she said. Or maybe in the midst of the argument, Burnside had pulled the Beretta out of the kitchen drawer for a second time, handed it to Lord, and said, in an effort to be dramatic, If you hate me so much, then just shoot me. And she did. IMDbPro. At Christmas, you thought you were going to get a ring. Lundberg paused again. If I discover anything that substantiates what I believe, Im going to charge you with murder., He glared at her for a moment. I had to cover my mouth I was so appalled, Judy Durbin, an accountant who was the foreman of the jury, would later recall. And now you have this thing where he was spending a lot of money on his friend, but he didnt spend near as much money on your birthday. I wasnt going to leave him. After arriving at his house, which was a ten-minute drive away, he had received a call from Lord. The case was then sent to the Internal Affairs division for an administrative review. If the review, which is ongoing as of press time, finds that Thompson violated departmental policies, he could be fired, suspended, or demoted. He wasnt stressed-out, Thompson said. As for the question of blood spatter on Lords clothes, however, Quinton did have a definite opinion. At the end of the interrogation, he had discarded her like trash.. W.D. I wondered about the story Jaffe had told Thompson about finding her in the front yard, desperately saying, I wasnt going to leave him. She claimed that Thompson show a reckless disregard for her rights in having Plaintiff arrested in 2010 for the shooting death of her . Cameras followed him as he solved a murder case in which the body was never found. The jury determined Friday that Dallas homicide Detective Dwayne Thompson showed a reckless disregard for the civil rights of 36-year-old Hephzibah Olivia Lord. Why, he wanted to know, would a man suddenly shoot himself after what seemed to be a routine argument with his girlfriend? February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? On the floor was a pool of blood along with bloody towels. The detectives in charge of the investigation had concluded that there was no evidence to substantiate that Det. Thompson left the room, walked down the hall, and opened the door to another interview room. I was picking at him all night long about that, she said. Dont worry about it. Although the couple appeared to be joking, said Jaffe, you could tell they were serious., At that point, Jaffe said, he decided to leave, and when he returned after getting the frantic phone call from Lord, he found her in the front yard. He also had run up some debt: he owed a rental car company money for crashing one of its vehicles, and he had received letters from the IRS demanding that he pay more than $50,000 in back taxes. Thats Olivia Lord, he told Thompson. Or maybe, as Thompson theorized, Lord had missed some of the residue on her hand and her shirt when she cleaned herself up after pulling the trigger. Whos that? Thompson asked, pointing to a man kneeling beside Lord in the front yard. And a handful of Burnsides friends have reunited with Lord, saying they now believe that she had nothing to do with his death. Comments are moderated and these will not be published. Lord was accused of murder countless times, and she always denied it. Mitchell realized that the evidence against Lord was weak, but she wasnt prepared to say that Lord was innocent. When Thompson took the stand, he seemed utterly likable as he described his history as a detective. Olivia kept saying, I wasnt going to leave him. But she maintained her innocence and claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. Why did you let my son bleed to death on his own kitchen floor? Tittle then had the jurors watch Thompsons interview with Lord and Lundbergs interview with Rastegar. After the First 48 (2008- ) More at IMDbPro. When Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must solve without the victim's body. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Yes you did!. What this trial is about is whether this detective had probable cause to believe that she did it. Then Schuette began listing all the reasons that would make a detective like Thompson believe Lord had killed her boyfriend. Edit. They can try too hard to make the existing evidence fit their theory as to who is guilty. Raised in Ohio, Thompson spent five years in the Army, earning the rank of captain and commanding a military police unit in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. She glanced around the dining room. On August 6 Brown signed the report, and Thompson was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
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