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“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Attorneys in Dallas police false-arrest trial make final cases



the death of a 42-year-old mother who was shot in front of her home. (Jim Mahoney)

By KEVIN KRAUSE

KEVIN KRAUSE The Dallas Morning News
Hephzibah Olivia Lord heard on Wednesday the words she had been waiting a long time for, and they released in her a flood of emotion.
Jason Schuette, an attorney for the Dallas homicide detective who had her arrested for murder, looked directly at Lord in court and told her he didn’t think she killed her boyfriend, Michael Burnside, in 2010.

Schuette made the comment during his closing arguments in the federal civil trial of his client, Dwayne Thompson, whom Lord is suing for false arrest. After more than two years of litigation, it was the first time anyone from the defense said they thought Lord was innocent, and it prompted her to cry out and sob briefly in court.
Thompson said during testimony Tuesday that he still believes she committed murder.
Lord, 36, claims Thompson, 51, violated her civil rights by lying about some evidence and omitting other information favorable to her, which persuaded a judge to issue an arrest warrant. Lord spent nine days in jail. A Dallas County grand jury later declined to indict her.
Because few false-arrest claims make it to trial, this case offers a rare opportunity for someone to question the decisions of a police officer who had her arrested.
Jurors began deliberating Wednesday after four days of evidence and testimony. They will continue to deliberate Thursday morning.
Schuette, a city attorney, told jurors it’s impossible not to feel sympathy for Lord but that sympathy shouldn’t factor into their decision. The issue, he said, is not whether Lord killed Burnside but whether a reasonable officer could have believed there was probable cause at the time to arrest her.
Thompson, he said, did have enough probable cause. The city is defending Thompson, a 22-year veteran, saying he acted in good faith and without malice.
“He’s not being sued because he was loud in an interview,” Schuette said about a dramatic interrogation video in which Thompson aggressively grilled Lord.
Supporters of each side filled the courtroom during closing arguments, including Dallas police officers who sat behind Thompson.
Burnside, 30, died in 2010 from a gunshot wound to the temple from his 9 mm Beretta handgun while drunk on vodka and Red Bull. He and Lord were alone in his house and had argued. Lord said she was in the bathroom when she heard the shot and called 911.
Lord’s attorney, Don Tittle, told jurors during his closing arguments that a verdict for his client would curb future police abuses and reduce the chances of someone being arrested for murder when the evidence isn’t there.
“That’s where you can let them know your voice,” Tittle told jurors about the punitive damages his client is seeking. Tittle said he thinks it should be a seven-figure sum.
But Schuette told the jurors that the real effect of such a verdict would be to make police officers think twice before making an arrest. They may not want to risk their careers or the financial ruin from a similar lawsuit, he said.
“Good luck next time you call the police,” Schuette told them.
Tittle also talked about the dramatic videotape of Thompson’s aggressive interrogation of Lord hours after her boyfriend died. He said the detective “brutalized her in that video,” and he dismissed Thompson’s explanation that he was merely employing a technique he learned during training.
He reminded the jury that Thompson told a distraught Lord that she meant nothing to Burnside — while she sat there with his blood still smeared across her clothing.
“What kind of technique was that?” Tittle asked.
Tittle also questioned testimony from a witness Thompson relied on for the arrest. The witness said he spoke to Lord shortly after the shooting and got the impression that she said she didn’t mean to shoot him. But the witness later wavered and said he couldn’t remember the exact words.
“They should have slammed on the brakes,” Tittle said. Instead, it was “full steam ahead,” he said.
Tittle told jurors Lord’s fear of Thompson is real and that he’s capable of coming up with another witness and taking it to another grand jury.
“You think he couldn’t settle the score?” Tittle asked. “He still thinks she’s a murderer.”
Schuette acknowledged fearing that the jurors could be swayed by watching the interrogation video and seeing a large African-American detective with a “big booming voice” facing off against a younger, attractive white woman. He told the jurors some of them may even hate Thompson for it.
“That’s how it’s done,” he said about the interview technique. “You push, escalate.”
Schuette said that he didn’t think Lord was trying to trick anyone by leaving out some details in her account, but that Thompson had to go with what he had at the time.
“It’s called not having all the information,” he said. “He tried to do it right. It didn’t work out. It happens. But you don’t punish him just for being wrong.”