And thats hurtful. She works at a clothing shop, making $14 an hour, far less than what she was earning when she was in the mortgage business. The officer flipped a page in his notebook. Tittle then asked about Rastegar. Thompson stormed out of the room and asked Lundberg to see what he could get out of Lord. Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Lord seemed shocked. Burnsides father showed up to let her in, and when Lord tried to tell him she had not murdered his son, he cut her off. 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? For the rest of the month, Burnsides father regularly called Thompson to get updates on the investigation. 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. IMDbPro. He wasnt stressed-out, Thompson said. Both have worked numerous murders and each has been featured on the popular A&E reality television show, She was so hysterical he could not understand what she was saying. 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. Thompson, a 21-year veteran of the Police Department, has been a homicide detective since 2006. The officer pointed to a woman sitting on a chair in the front yard, her face in her hands. Dwayne Thompson (I) IMDbPro Starmeter. 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. (Thompson still hadnt told anyone outside his office about the discrepancy.) As Tatia Wilson, one of the City of Dallas attorneys representing Thompson, explained to the jury in her opening statement, Sometimes homicide detectives may make mistakes in their evaluation of the evidence. Another detective, Dwayne Thompson, charged into the interrogation room. The report could be interpreted several ways: Maybe, as Shearin believed, after Burnside had pulled the trigger, some of the gunshot residue had been transferred onto Lord when she held him in the kitchen. The Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. But Lords attorney, Don Tittle, said the detective was wrong that police records show she called 911 immediately after trying to reach the friend. Dwayne Thompson Associate (Antitrust, Competition and Trade) at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Lundberg gently brought up the bloodied towels in the kitchen, asking if she had used them to wipe blood off her body. Of course not, she said. Lundberg conducted the interview because Thompson had a prior commitment to teach a class at the police academy. Nearly a year after the shooting, a grand jury met and heard the evidence. The Reid method has been challenged as being primed for pushing people to give false confessions and many argue that it should not be used by law enforcement agencies. Dwayne Thompson (born October 6, 1950) is an American politician. If I discover anything that substantiates what I believe, Im going to charge you with murder., He glared at her for a moment. And then she burst into tears. 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. And, Thompson guessed, she had wiped down her hands and arms with the towels he had seen on the kitchen floor. A few days after the funeral, Lord called Burnsides brother to ask if she could retrieve some of her belongings from the house. . Im still going to suffer for the rest of my life for this, she said. Thompson testified that Lord had little blood on her hands and that she smelled of cleaning solution, which led him to believe she had washed her hands. The towels had been on the floor to soak up the water that had spilled when the dishwasher valve broke. And then theres Jaffe, Burnsides best friend, who says he remains convinced that Lord is hiding something. At Christmas, you thought you were going to get a ring. I heard what I thought was glass shattering really loud, Lord said. But what did you actually tell Michael during the argument? View the profiles of people named Dwayne Thompson. All we want is for Olivia to go through a criminal trial, said John Burnside, sitting with Cindi in their East Dallas home. But we at least have the right to know that. 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. She told Thompson that she too had been drinking that night, a mix of vodka and sweet tea. Thompson acknowledged that without the statement regarding Lords confession, I wouldnt have filed a case. Tittle asked Thompson a series of questions about when he had actually written his arrest affidavit, which described Rastegar as making a recorded interview to the police about Lords excited utterance. Thompson was eventually forced to admit that he had typed up the affidavit before Rastegar had come down to the homicide offices to make his statement. Im willing to accept that it might have been an accident. | Store He had on a dark fedora, a dark suit, a white shirt with a tie, and dress shoes. When she flew back to Dallas, she went straight to Shearins office. Rastegar again tried to explain what he had heard Lord say that night. 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,. In this trial, Lord was definitely the underdog. Something happened there tonight, and it doesnt make sense., The only thing I can think of is that he was careless sometimes with guns, Jaffe said. Shearin questioned Lord about the drops of blood around the house. Why the bottles of cleaning products and the bloody towels? As Lord hugged Tittle and members of her family, Thompson stood at the defense table, his mouth open. Edit. Shearin paid a visit to Reade Quinton, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Burnside, to ask him why, just prior to Lords arrest, he had changed his ruling about the cause of death from pending to homicide. Quinton replied that Thompson had informed him about the statement made by Rastegar. Comments: Editor's Note: Plaintiff will probably file an application for attorney's fees and costs, which will be substantial. When Shearin asked if he had told anyone that there was blood spatter on Lords clothing, he replied, I may have said it, but I dont know whether I said it or not. Shearin then asked about the trajectory of the bullet through Burnsides skull. Dressed in one of his dark suits, Thompson strode toward his seat. Add a bio, trivia, and more. 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. It was so hard for us to believe that she was doing this, said Jaffe. But she maintained her innocence and claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. Every time she tried to answer a question, she said, he cut her off and called her a liar. When Shearin called Lord with the news, she thanked him for all he had done for her, but then she said something else. I loved my boyfriend.. But there was no corruption involved. . 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. Had she washed up with towels before the paramedics and police arrived? After the service, she told Burnsides friends that she hadnt returned any of their calls because she had been overwhelmed with grief. No, said Lord. It was Lord. Only Burnside and Lord were in the apartment where they lived at the time. He actually turned to Lord and said, I know you didnt do it. He turned back to the jury and continued, But thats not the issue in this trial. The trial finally began in a federal courtroom in downtown Dallas this past Januarynearly four years after the shooting. On August 6 Brown signed the report, and Thompson was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Why wasnt that enough? . He took her to dinner, and the date lasted the entire weekend. Personal details. Lord was charged with murder a month after her boyfriend shot himself. Thats the exact type of case that might have been portrayed on The First 48, right? Tittle asked. Jaffe told him that Mikey was a good ol boy who liked hunting and fishing. You fing shot him! he bellowed, nearly coming out of his chair. 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. She wanted to not only vindicate herself but also make sure the public knew just what Thompson had done to her. How are you going to explain that to his family? Believe me, she adored Michael with all of her heart. If the detectives thought they had noticed the smell of chemicals on her, it must have come from the paint thinner and the floor stripper that she and Burnside had been using that day. texasmonthly.com And youd say, you know, Thats not a toy., Jaffe said that Burnside had pulled out a gun that night. 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. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. And even if he took a shortcut or two, he adds, he didnt hide or invent evidence. Her parents hired an attorney named Joe Shearin, a former guard for the University of Texas Longhorns who had played in the NFL before becoming one of Dallass most prominent criminal defense lawyers. 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. In the video, Rastegar initially seemed to confirm what he had supposedly told Thompson and Lundberg on the porch. I want him brought down.. HEPHZIBAH OLIVIA LORD Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Wearing a black dress and black heels, Lord came into the courtroom, followed by her friends and family. Case Style: Hephzibah Olivia Lord v. Dwayne Thompson, Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Dallas County), Defendant's Attorney: James Carroll Butt, J.G. 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