Let's have some smoke with that whitewash

Oh, and you just thought the drama surrounding the killing of Botha Shem Jean by an off-duty Dallas police officer was over. How wrong you were.

In an ongoing attempt to justify the unjustifiable, the Dallas police obtained a search warrant to look for evidence of drugs -- in Mr. Jean's apartment. That's right. Instead of treating Amber Guyger as any other defendant charged with killing someone, the police went to a judge and obtained a search warrant -- signed by a judge -- giving them permission to search Mr. Jean's apartment for drugs. A judge had to read the affidavit and agree that there was probable cause to believe evidence of a crime would be found in Mr. Jean's apartment -- and that said evidence was relevant to the investigation of his murder.

And, of course, once the cops found some marijuana in the apartment, the media were alerted and the stories began popping up around the state that weed had been found in Mr. Jean's apartment.

Now let's step back for just a second here. Any marijuana - or any other illegal items - found in Mr. Jean's apartment are completely irrelevant to the investigation of the killing because Ms. Guyger said the lights were out in the apartment when she entered it and shot and killed Mr. Jean.

She wasn't carrying out a raid. She wasn't executing a search warrant. According to her story she walked into the wrong apartment and shot Mr. Jean thinking he was an intruder in her apartment. Besides, the possession of small amounts of marijuana is a misdemeanor -- it's not a capital offense.

The point in obtaining the warrant was to gather "evidence" that would make Mr. Jean look like a criminal in the public's mind. Suddenly he goes from innocent victim to a black drug user or dealer. Now the cops and prosecutors will point out every time they are asked to comment that illegal drugs were found in Mr. Jean's apartment in an attempt to divert attention away from the facts that an unarmed black man was shot and killed in his own apartment by an off-duty cop.

Such a tactic will also divert the public's attention from the fact that Ms. Guyger was allowed to leave the scene and was free to discard or destroy any evidence of the crime. We will never know if she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol because any evidence of intoxication has already been pissed, sweated and breathed away. I'm sure the cops and the District Attorney would be more than happy if the public would quit paying attention to the ridiculous story Ms. Guyger told investigators and that was subsequently used in the arrest warrant.

No matter what smokescreens the Dallas police erect, never forget that Mr. Jean was in his own apartment minding his own business when a cop entered, barked orders at him and shot him to death.

The only good thing to come from this situation is the public's realization that the police will go to whatever lengths they need in order to cover up for one of their own.

And people still don't understand why Colin Kaepernick knelt.

Whitewashing a police shooting in Dallas

Did y'all hear the one about the off-duty cop who walked into the wrong apartment and then accidentally shot the person who actually lived there? How about the part where she wasn't arrested afterward and was free to go back to her place? And what about the arrest affidavit that was just a retelling of her story?

Hysterical, isn't it?

Amber Guyger is a four-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. On the evening of September 6 she supposedly returned home to her apartment in the Southside Flats. Somehow she ended up on the wrong floor and inside the apartment of Botham Shem Jean. She claims that she inserted her key (which contained an electronic chip) into the lock of the apartment door but the door was ajar. She entered. When she heard someone she yelled at them to stop and then she fired her gun and killed Mr. Jean.

The story is beyond absurd. How did she end up on the wrong floor? She lived there. She knew what floor she was on when she exited the parking garage. Her claim that the door to Mr. Jean's apartment was ajar doesn't hold any water, either. According to the affidavit, when she pushed open the door the lights in the apartment were off. She claims she turned on the lights after shooting Mr. Jean.

So we are to believe that she got confused, went to the wrong floor and then stuck her key in the door of the wrong apartment. Please. Apartment doors have numbers on them. The apartment was in an interior hallway. She claims the lights in the apartment were out and that she heard someone stirring about. Really? Someone's going to leave their door ajar in the middle of the night and rummage around their own apartment in the dark?

Not buying it, Ms. Guyger.

But at least your buddies on the police force did. They let you go home without slapping cuffs on your wrists and taking you in. They allowed whatever substances were in your body to be eliminated before anyone had a chance to make an official observation. Then they bring in the Texas Rangers for cover who draft an arrest affidavit that is nothing but a rehash of your own bullshit story.

After being taken to jail, Ms. Guyger was able to post a $300,000 bond -- meaning someone had to plop down at least $30,000.

And just why does the arrest warrant mention that they police were looking around Mr. Jean's apartment for narcotics? Is it time to paint the victim of a police shooting as a criminal so that white folk can brush their hands of the matter and go on to their white bread world?

Now just imagine had Ms. Guyger not been a police officer. Would she have been allowed to go home? No, she would have been arrested. They certainly wouldn't have been given two or three days to destroy any incriminating evidence. Would the police ask her for her account of what happened and then use that account in their arrest warrant? No, an investigating officer would have noted the facts and would have drawn his or her own conclusions.

In the end it likely doesn't matter because the DA - or whoever presents the case - will tell a grand jury the "facts" as related by Ms. Guyger and will then nod, wink and tell the grand jury to do what they think is right - which is code for no-bill this fucker as quickly and quietly as possible.

Meanwhile Mr. Jean is dead and his family and friends will be left to mourn a life that was taken without reason and without repercussion.

Former Dallas crime lab employee to file whistleblower suit against lab

A former forensic biologist in the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science (SWIFS) lab in Dallas has announced he will file a "whistleblower" lawsuit against the institute, alleging that he was fired in retaliation for pointing out problems with Dallas County's crime lab.

"The evidence may have blood flakes on them or hair and fiber on them," Nulf explained. "If you have a box fan going in the background, those fibers could be blown across the evidence, lost forever or cross-contaminated into someone else's evidence."

According to Dallas County officials, Chris Nulf, Ph.D., was fired from SWIFS for insubordination, unsatisfactory progress, being unproductive and not following procedures. Dr. Nulf begged to differ.

Dr. Nulf, in a lawsuit to have been filed today, noted the following problems in the lab:

• an outdated protocol manual used by analysts to conduct their daily work;

• equipment that isn't calibrated;

• analysts using expired chemicals;

• criminal case files stored in an unsecured hallway; and

• a box fan which blew over areas where evidence is examined.

Dr. Nulf and his attorney, Raul Loya, believe that cross-contamination and improperly maintained equipment raise questions about convictions obtained largely as a result of testing performed at SWIFS.

5th Circuit overturns murder conviction

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the murder conviction of Jonathan Bruce Reed, who has sat on Texas' death row for almost 30 years.  The Court sided with Mr. Reed who argued that the systematic exclusion of blacks from juries in Dallas County was a violation of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to trial by a jury of his peers.

Mr. Reed is white.

In so ruling, the Court is saying that the systematic exclusion of any group from service on a jury is a violation of a citizen's right to trial by jury, per Batson v. Kentucky, regardless of the citizen's sex, race or ethnic background.

The decision also serves to define jury of one's peers to mean a jury made up of a cross-section of a geographic community.

See also:

• Appellate brief in Reed v. Quarterman.
  
• Houston Chronicle account of the reversal.
  

Some quick hits for a Thursday afternoon

Houston's own Katherine Scardino posted this entry on Women in Crime Ink regarding a confession actually being tossed out by a Federal Appellate Court.

Dallas County is hoping that humiliation will persuade people to pay overdue fines and fees from Class C misdemeanor cases.  Here's Grits' take...

Congratulations to Danalynn Recer of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center (GRACE) who was named by the Houston Press as the Best Criminal Defense Attorney in their annual Best of Houston issue.

In an earlier posting I told you why you shouldn't tell an officer how much you've had to drink, now, courtesy of New Hampshire DWI attorney Mark Stevens, here's something to think about if you've been taking prescription medications.

Finally, in you're confined to a wheelchair in Georgia you might think twice about that drink.

Is a Public Defender's Office the answer?

For those of ya'll clamoring for a public defender's office here in Harris County, take a look at the first blog entry from two former Dallas County PD's, Mike Howard and David Woodruff, who resigned and started up their own firm:

On my first day at the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office I knew I had found my place. I am one of those idealists who went to law school looking to help people. And not just anybody, but the people who most people don’t care about helping. The poor...the uneducated...the outsiders. And you can’t find a group more outside mainstream American society than people charged with breaking the law. I jumped right into my job and loved it. I blogged about it for a while until that became hazardous to my job. But all in all things were great. I had the job of a lifetime -where I’d retire someday.

A while back the county commissioners’ court started making life difficult for the PDs for seemingly no reason. We had always been required to keep monthly stats on our docket (number of cases appointed, pending cases, cases disposed by trial, plea, revocation, et cetera) and that was okay. But then the commissioners wanted weekly stats. Why? Who knows. I mean all you have to do is divide our monthly
stats by four and you have a pretty good idea what we did on a weekly basis. And because they wanted them in different formats, it meant keeping two sets of stats. And then they wanted us to use an absolutely worthless case management program. So with stats and the new program, every time I did anything, it took about three times as long as it should. When you add that on top of the legendary heavy caseload a PD juggles, it’s a recipe for disaster.

And that brings us to the caseload. Until a few months ago, there was no written rule about how many cases we had to carry. But supposedly some people weren’t carrying their weight. But instead of addressing those specific problems (if there were problem people not carrying their weight the commissioners would’ve known just who they were based on the various stats they kept), they upped the number of cases we all had to take. First it was 30 new cases a month for felony attorneys. Then 35. Then 40. 40! 40 felonies a month. And many of us handled little or no “easy” cases like probation violations. Try handling 40 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree felonies a month. All my friends outside the PDs office recognized it for what it was: madness. So all this built up until David and I couldn’t take it. We resigned because we knew we couldn’t give all our clients the representation they deserved with the way the office was headed. And we weren’t alone. In the past month or so five attorneys have resigned. One was even board certified in criminal law. I love the PDs office with all my heart. I respect the attorneys up there and hope they’re able to right the ship. It’s a tragedy that is absolutely pointless if you ask me.
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UPDATE:
A PD friend reminded me about the paysheets. How could I forget the paysheets?! For the uninitiated (lucky you) in all this post Brad Lollar mess, the commissioners court accused the PDs office of being inefficient. Everyone with any knowledge of the system knew this was an absurd accusation, but the commissioners were serious. To prove their efficiency, the PDs had to turn in fake paysheets like the private attorneys who receive court appointments. The private attorneys turn in a paysheet at the disposition of any court appointed case in order to be paid for their work. The PDs, who are not paid for each case, of course never did this. So now, on top of the double stats and the worthless case management program, PDs are turning in a third form of stats. The whole thing seemed to be an exercise in futility to me: the commissioners could’ve easily determined “efficiency” based on the stats PDs were already turning in. So this morning I hear from a little birdie that the fake paysheets have been suspended. If you ask me it’s past time to do this. I’m happy for my former co-workers since this will save them some precious time otherwise wasted on paperwork.

Here are some other interesting tidbits regarding the Dallas County PD's Office:

• Texas Lawyer: Common Clashes: Politics, Pressure and the Public Defender's Office
• Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense: Review of Dallas County Public Defender
• Grits for Breakfast: Dallas Public Defender purge raises legal and policy concerns