Edit. 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. When Shearin called Lord with the news, she thanked him for all he had done for her, but then she said something else. You were very disappointed. 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. 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. And in Cleveland, an argument among friends spins out of control when one of them makes a deadly decision. Lets make a bad thing right. His fellow detectives nicknamed him D-Train. 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 Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. Wearing a black dress and black heels, Lord came into the courtroom, followed by her friends and family. He says he knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that he got the goods on Lordand she not only avoided prosecution, she made a lot of money. . 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. [4] Was she Miss Right or Miss Right Now? Thompson asked. 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? 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. 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. One of the few black detectives in the unit, Thompson quickly made his mark. I did start dating a guy not long ago, she said after the waiter left. She identified herself as Olivia Lord, Burnsides girlfriend, and said she had just found Burnside lying on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to his head. 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. Sometimes he would think [a gun] was unloaded and he would swing it around, you know, not trying to hurt anybody, just being stupid. She wanted to not only vindicate herself but also make sure the public knew just what Thompson had done to her. During the lengthy interrogation, Thompson repeatedly accused Lord of murdering Michael Burnside, who died in May 2010 from a gunshot wound to the head from his 9 mm Beretta handgun while drunk on vodka and Red Bull. People drink all the time who own guns, Thompson said. She did her own interviews, speaking, for instance, with a firefighter who said he believed he had accidentally kicked the gun away from Burnsides body. 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. 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. When the lab report on the gunshot residue was completed, it wasnt much help either. 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 grabbed him and held him.. She claimed that Thompson show a reckless disregard for her rights in having Plaintiff arrested in 2010 for the shooting death of her . The arrest affidavit had never mentioned that Rastegar had backed off during his interview. Olivia, youre not telling me the truth, Thompson told her. But Detective Dwayne Thompson. And now that he had a witness who was going to provide bombshell testimony about what had really happened that night, he was ready to go to trial. Theres no way my son shot himself,John said. Thompson and Lundberg started talking. Comments are welcomed here and I will respond to you -- but please, no requests for personal legal advice here and nothing that's promoting your business or product. She certainly had not used them to wash herself off, she said. Reddit - Dive into anything. Mitchell realized that the evidence against Lord was weak, but she wasnt prepared to say that Lord was innocent. Hed been as tall as Thompson, with a lean, athletic build. Thompson said he had heard that Burnside was making money. Thompson also had not told the Burnsides that he had misread a crucial piece of evidence. Because that is the only thing that makes sense.. Dwayne Thompson (I) IMDbPro Starmeter. Ill tell you this about Mikey: his motto was I love my life. Every time something worked out, hed be like, I love my life. In fact, Jaffe said, Burnside had used that very phrase that evening because his company was about to bill $70,000 for work it had done in a single week. I had the impression that she told me that [Burnside] had nothing to do with it and she did it. But he refused to say, like he had said on his porch, that he had definitely heard Lord confess to the shooting. Lord spent the next four days at her mothers home in the Dallas suburbs, lying in bed, taking sleeping pills. He was confident and charming, she said. He called Jaffe, who had also turned against Lord, to see if he could help him locate her. In Lords case, while she was arrested by Dallas police it was soon shown that there was no murder; her boyfriend had committed suicide. She said Burnside had been drinking heavily, and at some point, in the midst of the fight, he had walked into the kitchen and shot himself. She had then grabbed the bottles of cleaning products from under the sink to wash away the blood and the gunpowder residue, which would account for the chemical odor he thought he had smelled on her. Facebook gives people the power. Thompson looked at his notebook, where he had written down the calls Lord had made on her cellphone. That doesnt mean they kill themselves.. Filing in behind him were at least a dozen of his fellow homicide detectives, there to show support. Then she looked at Thompson. I cant say any more, but its insane.. 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. Or he mistakenly pulled the trigger thinking the Beretta was unloaded., Jaffe shook his head. She had loved dogs and painting. But Lords attorney, Don Tittle, said the detective was wrong that police records show she called 911 immediately after trying to reach the friend. City attorneys are defending him, saying he acted in good faith and without malice. I loved my boyfriend.. 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. 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. In truth, she had called 911 seconds after she had tried to reach Jaffe. 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. Her fight for justice here began around 3 years ago and ended with last weeks jury verdict. He can go so far as to lie to a suspect to try to obtain a confession. 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. He also had the medical examiner testify about what Thompson supposedly told him about the blood spatter on Lords clothes. If I was guilty, would I really have gone out and filed a lawsuit, knowing everything would be brought up again, giving Thompson and all the other naysayers one more chance to come after me?, A few weeks later, I called Lord and asked her again about Burnsides death. Self - Detective; 2009-2014 2 eps; Credits. S8, Ep2 8 Jan. 2009 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. He was simply doing his job, he tells his friends, hunting for answers about a mysterious death. She claimed that Thompson show a reckless disregard for her rights in having Plaintiff arrested in 2010 for the shooting death of her boyfriend, Mcihael Brunside. (For a philosophy class, she wrote a paper on Socrates being sentenced to death under false charges.) Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. John said that was impossibleJaffe would have never betrayed Michael. Dressed in one of his dark suits, Thompson strode toward his seat. In Texas, both federal and state laws exist to protect people like Hephzibal Olivia Lord from being overwhelmed and mistreated by police during criminal investigations. Thompson misrepresented any of the facts that were provided by Witness Rastegar and that there were no signs of a criminal offense. Indeed, the report continued, Thompson did have probable cause to arrest Suspect Lord.. 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. 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. I dont work cases for the sexiness of them, Thompson snapped. He said that Michael had called earlier in the week, telling his mother, Cindi, that he was looking forward to coming over to their home for lunch on May 9, which was Mothers Day. Olivia kept saying, I wasnt going to leave him. . Jaffe called Thompson back the next day and said that he had reached Lord. Testimony. After the argument was over, Michael stopped being sarcastic and he became quiet and somber. The detective was 47 years old and built like a linebacker at six feet two inches and 230 pounds. 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. Kim Sanders, a more than 30-year veteran of the department who served as a homicide detective, said the interview amounted to intimidation. If I discover anything that substantiates what I believe, Im going to charge you with murder., He glared at her for a moment. Thompson asked if there was any chance that Jaffe had been carrying on a secret relationship with Lord. 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 had always insisted that she had not fled from the police. After she graduates, she hopes to go to law school and perhaps someday work for the Innocence Project. I work cases because thats what I get paid to do., Tittle asked Thompson why he didnt seem particularly disturbed that Burnside was drunk and had showed off his Beretta on the night of the shooting. Im willing to accept that it might have been an accident. She said that she had phoned Jaffe because she initially thought Burnside had fallen and was hurt. He sustained a fatal contact gunshot wound to the right temple. There was no way a person with an IQ above 65 could have concluded that Olivia had shot Michael.. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. Another detective, Dwayne Thompson, charged into the interrogation room. When he wasnt solving murders, Thompson restored sports cars and tooled around in a black Corvette convertible. 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. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). Burnside had been involved in a couple of accidents. Shearin asked if Thompson had mentioned that an inebriated Burnside had shown the Beretta to his friend that night. I went into the kitchen and he was on the floor and there was blood. Tittle next called to the stand a retired Dallas homicide detective named Kim Sanders, who said that Thompsons interrogation of Lord was outlandish and that he left out key evidence in his arrest warrant. It was now 5:44 a.m. . Lundberg gently brought up the bloodied towels in the kitchen, asking if she had used them to wipe blood off her body. Then Tittle fired back. 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. Both have worked numerous murders and each has been featured on the popular A&E reality television show, You realize, dont you, that if I didnt have money from my family to fight back, I could have been wrongfully convicted, fighting this from prison. Then U.S. district judge Barbara Lynn gaveled the court to order. 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