I was picking at him all night long about that, she said. He was confident and charming, she said. W.D. 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. And a handful of Burnsides friends have reunited with Lord, saying they now believe that she had nothing to do with his death. I hope you die in jail and burn in hell!. Yes. An expert witness with expertise as both a retired officer and homicide detective from the same police department, testified on Lords behalf. Sipping coffee at a Starbucks one afternoon, he went through various scenarios of what he thinks could have taken place after he left Burnsides home. And in Cleveland, an argument among friends spins out of control when one of them makes a deadly decision. Theres no way my son shot himself,John said. Lundberg paused again. Had she washed up with towels before the paramedics and police arrived? He was wearing a T-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. Several months later, when he called Lord to refinance his home, their other relationships had ended. Why, for instance, were there bottles of cleaning products scattered on the kitchen floor? The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved a settlement of more than $1 million to a . There was no question in her mind, she said, that she and Burnside would soon get married. And if the young man had shot himself, wouldnt the gun have landed closer to his body? She needed pills to go to sleep. When she flew back to Dallas, she went straight to Shearins office. I was leaning over my future husbands body, Lord said. He told Lundberg that he wasnt sure this was a suicide. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. In fact, she had purchased the airline tickets for herself, her nieces, and her nephew to go to California thirteen days before the arrest warrant had been filed. Yes. He asked Thompson if he had told one of Burnsides friends that this was the case of a lifetimethe kind of case that could make him famous. She had started dating Burnside, the co-owner of a company that retrofitted homes to make them energy-efficient, about a year earlier. "The goal is to arrive at the truth." Detective Dwayne Thompson quietly retired from Dallas PD. What he didnt say was that the case was going nowhere. But, said Lundberg, there was no sign of blood spatter on Burnsides right hand or arm. Lundberg conducted the interview because Thompson had a prior commitment to teach a class at the police academy. Olivia kept saying, I wasnt going to leave him. A bullet hole was in a wall near the ceiling. Based on what we see, it looks like you got upset and shot him. Whos that? Thompson asked, pointing to a man kneeling beside Lord in the front yard. Reddit - Dive into anything. He wasnt stressed-out, Thompson said. Im willing to accept that Mikey might have totally screwed up. These actions are allowed constitutionally under their police powers; however, what can happen during a police interrogation is supposed to follow certain legal requirements and more often than not, they are undertaken while being recorded via video or audio. That doesnt mean they kill themselves.. | Link Errors I want him held accountable. | Recent Lawyer Listings Individuals have a right to counsel when they are being questioned, this is part of the Miranda warning. But she maintained her innocence and claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. A jury in federal civil court ruled Friday that a Dallas homicide detective, Dwayne Thompson, violated Lord's civil rights by maliciously having her arrested for a killing she didn't commit,. Thompson sat in another chair and asked about Burnside. Of course not, she said. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. "You look at that. Required fields are marked *. Maybe, Jaffe speculated, when Burnside and Lord had started arguing, he had declared that he was never going to marry her, which sent Lord into a tailspin and led her to grab the gun. I loved my boyfriend.. A team of U.S. marshals found her at her fathers home in Palmdale, about an hour north of Los Angeles, and Lord was held in custody for nine days. Thats what you did! he told a stunned and confused Lord, who protested her innocence. Tittle maintains that Thompson never considered the idea that Burnside may have accidentally shot himself, despite evidence that he was drunk at the time and had a history of being reckless with firearms. Look at it! Lets solve some murders, my brothers, he would cheerfully bellow as he barreled into the office at the beginning of his shifts. Sometimes I want to walk inside, thinking he will be there. And, Thompson guessed, she had wiped down her hands and arms with the towels he had seen on the kitchen floor. 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. Something is definitely not adding up, Thompson thought, as he walked into one of the interview rooms where Brian Jaffe was waiting. In this trial, Lord was definitely the underdog. After the argument was over, Michael stopped being sarcastic and he became quiet and somber. I wasnt in the room when that young man got shot, she would later say in an interview. Political career [ edit] In 2014, Thompson ran for election to represent District 10 in the Tennessee House of Representatives, but lost to Republican incumbent Steve McManus. 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. In truth, she had called 911 seconds after she had tried to reach Jaffe. 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. For more information, see Michael Lowes Things to Know if You are Being Investigated for a Crime in Texas and our blog postSalinas 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.. Leave them blank to get signed up. Tittle then asked about Rastegar. And its going to come out.. Not only that, Sanders also pointed out Thompsons failure to read Ms. Lord her Miranda rights including specifically her right to remain silent after it was clear that Thompson considered Lord to be a suspect in a crime. Thompson looked at his notebook, where he had written down the calls Lord had made on her cellphone. Dwayne Thompson (I) IMDbPro Starmeter. Lord spent the next four days at her mothers home in the Dallas suburbs, lying in bed, taking sleeping pills. HEPHZIBAH OLIVIA LORD For Thompson, there was no question about it: Lord was on the run. I wasnt going to leave him. You think they are going to accept this bullshit you are giving me?, For the next hour, Thompson continued to berate Lord, trying to get her to crack. In August, three months after the shooting, Shearin requested an examining trial, a legal procedure in which a police officer must appear in a magistrates court to lay out the probable cause for the arrest of a suspect in a felony case. He said when he came up to Lord in the yard, she fell to her knees and said something to the effect of Hes dying. Rastegar told Lundberg, I got the impression she was trying to tell me it was accidental. | Editor And thats hurtful. She was so hysterical he could not understand what she was saying. Im trying to figure out how to move on with my life, she said recently, sitting at a back table at an Italian restaurant in North Dallas. At around twelve-thirty, the officer continued, a woman had called 911 from the house. She was so in love with him that she was always able to forgive him when he screwed uplike the night of her birthday, when he got rip-roaring drunk, staggered around the restaurant, and didnt even pay for dinner. But Detective Dwayne Thompson. Im still going to suffer for the rest of my life for this, she said. 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. She helped him with his finances, reminding him to pay his bills and to keep his spending in line. Thats the exact type of case that might have been portrayed on The First 48, right? Tittle asked. Lord claimed that Burnside, who was intoxicated, shot himself.Thompson rejected the theory that Burnside committed suicide and investigated the death as murder. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide Read allWhen 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. Thompson also had not told the Burnsides that he had misread a crucial piece of evidence. I asked Lord if she had said anything to Burnside that night that would have led him to believe that the relationship was over. I did start dating a guy not long ago, she said after the waiter left. The judge ruled that there had been probable cause to arrest Lord, though the testimony in the examining trial did little to prove or disprove Lords guilt. And whats really frightening is that Thompson could come back after me, plant some new fake evidence, and arrest me for murder again. By the end of the interview, Thompson had returned from his lecture and walked into the room. Was there a chance he was involved in the shooting? Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. If he had wanted to go after that girl, he could have made stuff up, trumped up reports, and hidden the Rastegar tape. Lord shook her head. When Quinton studied the gunshot residue report, he concluded that the trace amounts of residue on Lord did not necessarily indicate handling or firing the weapon. But he couldnt say for sure that she didnt fire the Beretta. Its terrifying., Lords claim of innocence has been bolstered by Rastegar, who told me that he never said to Thompson or Lundberg, not even on his front porch, that he had heard her confess to shooting Burnside. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. Olivia, everyone we talked to said one consistent thing about Michael: that he loved life., He did love life. In his free time, he read Civil War history and played Internet chess. You fing shot him! he bellowed, nearly coming out of his chair. . 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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. He is a Democrat representing District 96 in the Tennessee House of Representatives . The arrest was based upon Thompsons affidavit. In this interrogation method, its deemed acceptable to manipulate through accusations of guilt through an aggressive protocol of nine steps. After she graduates, she hopes to go to law school and perhaps someday work for the Innocence Project. Thats Olivia Lord, he told Thompson. Dressed in one of his dark suits, Thompson strode toward his seat. In his lectures, he often told other officers that to find out why a killing had taken place, it was as important to study the life of the victimvictimology, he called itas it was to study the behavior of the criminal. Every day, dozens of times a day, I think about that talk and how I wish I could take it all back, she told me. Thompson misrepresented any facts or falsified any government documents. They also declared that there was no evidence that Det. But she was pointedly not invited to a get-together that Burnsides friends were throwing after the service at one of his favorite bars. Lord said that she and Burnside had gotten into an argumentsomething about a birthday party. It was now 5:44 a.m. And in Cleveland, an argument among friends spins out of control when one of them makes a deadly decision. However, the police may or may not let the person know about this right (remember the experts concerns that Thompson had not told Lord about her right to a lawyer). Description: Hephzibah Olivia Lord, age 36, sued Dallas homicide detective Dwayne Thompson on civil rights violation theories under 42 U.S.C. He studied the call histories on the phones and took some notes. Thompson stormed out of the room and asked Lundberg to see what he could get out of Lord. He called the tone and line of questioning a formula for a false confession. And Sanders questioned why Thompson did not read Lord her right to remain silent after the point in which he clearly considered her a murder suspect during the interview. Thompson started his career in law enforcement as a corrections officer in a maximum-security prison in South Carolina. Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. In the video, Rastegar initially seemed to confirm what he had supposedly told Thompson and Lundberg on the porch. Summary: Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson and the homicide team investigate the brutal double murders of two friends shot and burned beyond recognition in the trunk of a car. Jaffe said he had been at the house earlier that evening, helping Burnside install a dishwasher while Lord was painting the doors and baseboards, and that he had left before midnight. The way Lord had described it, she and Burnside were deeply in love, and they had been talking about marriage. But there was no corruption involved. (Jaffe had been drinking Shiner Bock, and Burnside had been having Red Bull mixed with vodka.) He remains convinced that he got a raw deal at the civil trial and that Tittle played the video of his interrogation of Lord only to plant in jurors minds the idea that he was an intimidating black man taking advantage of a grieving, attractive white woman. 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. Thompson left the room, walked down the hall, and opened the door to another interview room. At Christmas, you thought you were going to get a ring. Had she touched her boyfriends gun? Shed given her telephone to her aunt, who was screening her calls. Why, he wanted to know, would a man suddenly shoot himself after what seemed to be a routine argument with his girlfriend? Please E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to Kent@MoreLaw.Com. The First 48 (2004- ) In Dallas, when a good Samaritan is gunned down trying . She was wearing a blue T-shirt and gray sweatpants, her knees stained with blood. On May 14, five days after the shooting, Lord finally left her mothers house to attend Burnsides funeral with her family and friends. What he needed was irrefutable evidence pointing to Lords involvement in the shooting. She wanted to know why they were there. It was a very overwhelming issue., Thompson leaned back in his chair and stared at Lord. His voice got even softer. 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. She also said that when he got angry, he could be a little scary and that he threw stuff in the house. She would usually ignore him when he got into one of his moods, but this time it had only made him angrier. Thompson had also told him that he believed there was blood spatter from the gunshot on Lords clothes, which meant that she could not have been in the bathroom at the time of the shooting, despite what Lord had said in her interview. He saw no high-velocity blood spatter. Thompsons interrogation of Lord was videotaped. Lord, who is now 37 years old, still lives in the same apartment, and she has barely spent any of the money she won in her lawsuit. I cant say any more, but its insane.. Michael Lowe is Celebrating Over 20 YEARS of Service. 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