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