Lord was released. Come on., Lord closed her eyes when I asked her about those detractors who continue to believe shes hiding something. What other results could you have with the police policing themselves? she said. Michael Lowe is Celebrating Over 20 YEARS of Service. And who knows? 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. He had been a good-looking young man, with a magnificent, wide grin. Lundberg also took the stand, testifying that he too remained convinced that Lord was guilty of murder. Seven minutes is a long time, Thompson told her several times on the video. He then worked for a not for profit organization called "One Community" that's premise is to be a middle man between law enforcement and civilians. In October 2008 a mutual friend introduced her and Burnside at a small bar on Dallass Lower Greenville Avenue. According to Jaffe, Lord overheard the conversation and started to get upset. She told Burnside she was hurt that he would go to the trouble of organizing a friends birthday party when he had done next to nothing for her own birthday a few months earlier. She had loved dogs and painting. An expert witness with expertise as both a retired officer and homicide detective from the same police department, testified on Lords behalf. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said he brought thousands of offenders to justice, bringing closure to victims and their families. After telling Lord and Jaffe that he was sorry for their loss, Thompson asked them to sign releases agreeing to gunshot residue testsroutine procedure, he assured them. Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. Olivia, youre not telling me the truth, Thompson told her. He was so compelling in front of the cameracajoling witnesses to open up and then lashing out at a suspectthat he looked like a television actor playing a detective. Another detective, Dwayne Thompson, charged into the interrogation room. And he knew she was hiding something, he said. She wanted to not only vindicate herself but also make sure the public knew just what Thompson had done to her. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? Shearin made his own presentation, about 25 minutes in length, laying out the case for his clients innocence. No, Lord said. Description: Hephzibah Olivia Lord, age 36, sued Dallas homicide detective Dwayne Thompson on civil rights violation theories under 42 U.S.C. Thompsons interrogation of Lord was videotaped. Lundberg conducted the interview because Thompson had a prior commitment to teach a class at the police academy. Testimony. Thompson returned to headquarters and took the elevator to the homicide offices on the fifth floor. And then theres Jaffe, Burnsides best friend, who says he remains convinced that Lord is hiding something. He wasnt stressed-out, Thompson said. Ive never seen anything like it, Sanders said. 4. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. . For Thompson, there was no question about it: Lord was on the run. When Thompson asked why he didnt immediately tell that story to the police, Rastegar replied that the uniformed officers who first arrived at the scene had rudely ordered him to go back to his home before he had a chance to say anything. Join Facebook to connect with Dwayne Thompson and others you may know. Then U.S. district judge Barbara Lynn gaveled the court to order. They liked to say that when he pursued a suspect, he was as unstoppable as a locomotive. Lord was 33 years old and worked as a loan officer for a mortgage company. John, who had already been informed by Jaffe about the incident, could barely maintain his composure. He told Thompson that his son had had the most positive personality of anyone he had ever met. By the first of June, hed put aside Lords file to work on his other cases. I wasnt in the room when that young man got shot, she would later say in an interview. Perhaps sensing that the jury had turned against the detective, Jason Schuette, another attorney for the City of Dallas, resorted to a surprise tactic in his final arguments. What do you guys think? Add a bio, trivia, and more. Lord continued to deny involvement in the death during questioning, saying she was in the bathroom when she heard the shot and called 911. And, Thompson guessed, she had wiped down her hands and arms with the towels he had seen on the kitchen floor. Kim Sanders, a more than 30-year veteran of the department who served as a homicide detective, said the interview amounted to intimidation. 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. 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. We loved our life together.. View the profiles of people named Dwayne Thompson. The officer identified him as Brian Jaffe, a thirty-year-old civil engineer who had been Burnsides best friend since high school. He was the life of the party.. Sometimes he would think [a gun] was unloaded and he would swing it around, you know, not trying to hurt anybody, just being stupid. Prosecutors are also aware that detectives can develop a kind of tunnel vision about a case. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. Lord explained that Burnside had taken them out from underneath the sink when he was trying to install the dishwasher. He also said he had seen Burnside act recklessly with a gun only two or three times over the past fifteen years. And youd say, you know, Thats not a toy., Jaffe said that Burnside had pulled out a gun that night. The officer pointed to a woman sitting on a chair in the front yard, her face in her hands. Both have worked numerous murders and each has been featured on the popular A&E reality television show, Still, Thompson had only a theory. When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home four years ago, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend, Olivia Lord, had pulled the trigger. Your email address will not be published. Im devastated., Thompson bore down. John said that was impossibleJaffe would have never betrayed Michael. For her part, Lord said that she would gladly give up any money in return for Thompsons being sent to prison. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). Only Burnside and Lord were in the apartment where they lived at the time. Shearin questioned Lord about the drops of blood around the house. 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. 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. No, said Lord. "When I work my cases, I don't have a dog in the fight," said Thompson, a homicide detective since 2006. In his free time, he read Civil War history and played Internet chess. Theres no way my son shot himself,John said. Yes you did! 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. Scattered around the floor were a few bottles of household cleaning products. 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.. The detective was 47 years old and built like a linebacker at six feet two inches and 230 pounds. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. Was there a chance he was involved in the shooting? At around twelve-thirty, the officer continued, a woman had called 911 from the house. But Detective Dwayne Thompson. How are you going to explain that to his family? We were joking around about somethingI dont remember whatand I said, Hey, wheres your Beretta? And he opened up [a kitchen drawer] and said, Its right here.. After being honorably discharged, in 1991, while stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he joined the Dallas police. Reddit - Dive into anything. Nor did Burnsides parents invite her to the reception. Shearin called a friend in the homicide unit to ask about Thompson, whom he had never met. Lord glanced at Thompson and he glanced back. But Lord wanted her arrest to be permanently removed from her record, which would require her to be no-billed by a grand jury, a finding in which the jurors refuse to indict a suspect, primarily for a lack of evidence. Look at it! In the taped interrogation, the detective asks Lord some general questions about what happened on the night that her boyfriend died then Thompson changed things up. Finally, after Thompson barked at him, he stepped onto the front porch and told a flabbergasting story. A citizen filing a lawsuit for false arrest must prove that the officer acted with malice, which is difficult to do. Of course not, she said. (Thompson still hadnt told anyone outside his office about the discrepancy.) Shearin then asked if she was included in Burnsides will or his life insurance policy. Thompson formed his hand into the shape of a gun and pointed at his jawline, aiming upward at a 70-degree angle, which infuriated Shearin, who accused Thompson of wildly exaggerating the location and angle of the shot. But, he added, his friend wasnt the type to get married at any point.. | Privacy Statement. And Im a person who thinks your behavior tonight doesnt add up. He pointed his finger at her. Can you possibly understand how I feel?. Rastegar again tried to explain what he had heard Lord say that night. Then Shearin got his big break. Dallas homicide Detective Dwayne Thompson sits at his desk in 2010, looking over material he collected in the death of a 42-year-old mother who was shot in front of her home. Although Thompson would not consent to my request for an interview, people who have talked to him say he feels that he has done nothing wrong. 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. Shearin went to see Brandi Mitchell, a prosecutor with the Dallas County district attorneys office who was in charge of the Burnside case, and claimed that Thompson had perjured himself. She fell to her knees and said it was an accident and that she didnt mean to shoot him. He had on a dark fedora, a dark suit, a white shirt with a tie, and dress shoes. Or maybe the two had struggled for the gun before it went off, leaving residue on both of them. Lundberg then brought up the trajectory of the bullet through Burnsides brain. After the service, she told Burnsides friends that she hadnt returned any of their calls because she had been overwhelmed with grief. Who cares? See production, box office & company info. Burnside died from a gun shot wound from a 9 mm Beretta handgun. Strapped around his shoulders was a thick brown leather holster that held his department-issued pistol, a 9mm Sig Sauer. The lawsuit claimed that Thompson had violated Lords civil rights by engaging in malicious prosecutionin particular, that he had intentionally misrepresented the facts about Burnsides shooting and omitted significant exculpatory information that would have proved Lord innocent of any wrongdoing. Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson hunts for a band of carjacking killers that are terrorizing a neighborhood. They had not laid eyes on each other since he had interrogated her. Whats more, he said, Thompson had left out of the affidavit the fact that Burnside, who was right-handed, had been shot at point-blank range in his right temple, which would give a judge another reason to believe he had committed suicide. She called Thompsons interrogation of her a mental rape and characterized her days in jail as torture. Even now, she said, she felt like an outcast, afraid to go out in public. Thompson misrepresented any facts or falsified any government documents. They also declared that there was no evidence that Det. And then Thompson pounced. Thompson looked at his notebook, where he had written down the calls Lord had made on her cellphone. Dwayne Thompson has spent over 18 years with the Dallas Police Department. 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. Lord was charged with murder a month after Burnsides death, based on Thompsons affidavit, and spent nine days in jail. By that time, Lord was working as a loan officer, and although they were both romantically involved with other people, they were clearly attracted to each other. In this interrogation method, its deemed acceptable to manipulate through accusations of guilt through an aggressive protocol of nine steps. Jurors in a civil trial on Thursday got to watch a dramatic video of that tense and aggressive interrogation of Lord, who is now suing Thompson for false arrest in a federal civil trial. She certainly had not used them to wash herself off, she said. A police officer receives a high degree of protection when he conducts a criminal investigation. 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. A light drizzle was falling in the early morning hours of May 9, 2010, when detective Dwayne Thompsonpulled up in front of a modest home on Spring Grove Avenue, in a tree-lined neighborhood in North Dallas. Stars Heaven Bellinger Linda Carden Sheila Cooks See production, box office & company info Watch on A&E After Jaffe went home, the argument escalated. Who do you fing think you are?. He sustained a fatal contact gunshot wound to the right temple. Lord was slumped over in a chair, still wearing her blood-stained clothes. Based on what we see, it looks like you got upset and shot him. How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire. Individuals have a right to counsel when they are being questioned, this is part of the Miranda warning. Dwayne Thompson (I) IMDbPro Starmeter. Texas law enforcement officers (troopers, police officers, deputies) arrest people then interrogate them and take people into interrogation rooms for questioning as part of crime investigation routinely. On May 9, 2010, plaintiff Hephzibah Olivia Lord, 36, who works in mortgaging, was alone with her boyfriend at his home, in Dallas. On the floor was a pool of blood along with bloody towels. 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. That doesnt mean they kill themselves.. She works at a clothing shop, making $14 an hour, far less than what she was earning when she was in the mortgage business. 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. When the paramedics arrived, Burnside had faint vital signs, but he died shortly after reaching the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Something did not add up. Thompson left the room, walked down the hall, and opened the door to another interview room. Thompson studied Lord and Jaffe for a moment, then walked over to them. A uniformed officer walked over and told Thompson that the house belonged to a man named Michael Burnside, age thirty. When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home after an argument with his girlfriend, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend, Olivia Lord, had pulled the trigger. It was a very overwhelming issue., Thompson leaned back in his chair and stared at Lord. Edit. Thats what you did! he told a stunned and confused Lord, who protested her innocence. She had always insisted that she had not fled from the police. Prior to her arrest, Lord had been known for her good-natured personality. The officer looked at the notes he had jotted down. But she never did: she kept saying that she loved her boyfriend, that they were happy together, and that he had taken his life for reasons she could not imagine. When the lab report on the gunshot residue was completed, it wasnt much help either. 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