You were very disappointed. 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. Yes you did!. He took her to dinner, and the date lasted the entire weekend. Burnside had been involved in a couple of accidents. 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. Hephzibah Olivia Lord, age 36, sued Dallas homicide detective Dwayne Thompson on civil rights violation theories under 42 U.S.C. His voice got even softer. Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. He allowed a few seconds to pass. It was now 5:44 a.m. She helped him with his finances, reminding him to pay his bills and to keep his spending in line. She fell to her knees and said it was an accident and that she didnt mean to shoot him. Shearin then asked if she was included in Burnsides will or his life insurance policy. The lawyer was reluctant to open the door. He also had the medical examiner testify about what Thompson supposedly told him about the blood spatter on Lords clothes. Im innocent, Lord kept saying. 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. Testimony continues Friday, during which Lord may take the witness stand. What do you guys think? Something did not add up. The officer pointed to a woman sitting on a chair in the front yard, her face in her hands. 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. Dwayne Thompson has spent over 18 years with the Dallas Police Department. But as the case made its way through the courts, she maintained her innocenceand claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. Thompson, a 21-year veteran of the Police Department, has been a homicide detective since 2006. In October 2008 a mutual friend introduced her and Burnside at a small bar on Dallass Lower Greenville Avenue. The officer identified him as Brian Jaffe, a thirty-year-old civil engineer who had been Burnsides best friend since high school. I cant say unequivocally whether the young woman did or didnt do the shooting because I wasnt there., At the same time, Mitchell and other prosecutors in the DAs office were not convinced Thompson had committed any serious wrongdoing. If I had killed Michael, then doesnt it make sense that I would have walked away after I had gotten no-billed by the grand jury? He studied the call histories on the phones and took some notes. Lord said that she and Burnside had gotten into an argumentsomething about a birthday party. 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 was one of the most-watched episodes in The First 48s run, drawing 2.3 million viewers, and the producers told Thompson that they wanted to do more shows with him. | Sign In, Verdict Corrections 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 arrest affidavit had never mentioned that Rastegar had backed off during his interview. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); With more than 150 jury trials under his belt, Michael Lowe has strong and varied courtroom experience. I want him brought down.. 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. He knew it. Yes. Then Jaffe added one more detail. Tittle then asked about Rastegar. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said he brought thousands of offenders to justice, bringing closure to victims and their families. But Sunday night, the deadly virus claimed his life. 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. 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 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. A Shooting on Spring Grove Ave: When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home in 2010, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend had pulled the trigger. When the paramedics arrived, Burnside had faint vital signs, but he died shortly after reaching the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Finally, after Thompson barked at him, he stepped onto the front porch and told a flabbergasting story. "The goal is to arrive at the truth." And he knew she was hiding something, he said. Wearing a black dress and black heels, Lord came into the courtroom, followed by her friends and family. After The First 48. Whats more, she didnt want him to go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Thompson just happened to be standing at the detectives desk, and he was more than happy to talk to Shearin. Required fields are marked *. He stabbed the photo of the victim with his index finger. The officer looked at the notes he had jotted down. A 9mm Beretta was also on the floor about five feet from where Burnsides body had been. After the argument was over, Michael stopped being sarcastic and he became quiet and somber. I asked Lord if she had said anything to Burnside that night that would have led him to believe that the relationship was over. 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. The only thing I can tell you that might make any sense to anybody is that when hes drunk, hes very irrational, she said. But the man I loved is gone forever. Just because the words were less strong doesnt mean they were any less true.. Sometimes he would think [a gun] was unloaded and he would swing it around, you know, not trying to hurt anybody, just being stupid. 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. There were too many unanswered questions, he said. Lord told her friends and family that Burnside definitely liked to have a good time. Thirty seconds passed as she wept before she added, There are still nights when I drive by our home just to look at it. Theres no way my son shot himself,John said. We understand that people get upset, get scared, get angryand when all those emotions are happening at once, people do things., He paused and kept his eyes on Lord. Strapped around his shoulders was a thick brown leather holster that held his department-issued pistol, a 9mm Sig Sauer. You [expletive] shot him! Thompson asked if there was any chance that Jaffe had been carrying on a secret relationship with Lord. But what did you actually tell Michael during the argument? I dont remember the exact words that were used, he told Lundberg. He had been a good-looking young man, with a magnificent, wide grin. | Editor See rank. 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. Thats what you did! he told a stunned and confused Lord, who protested her innocence. 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. And its going to come out.. The Dallas Police Department is featured in a national reality TV show on the A&E network called The First 48, (maybe youve seen it if not, watch episodes here) and the detective who interrogated Hephzibah Olivia Lord in a manner that justified Lords civil suit for damages was Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson, who has been seen frequently on this A&E show. Basing an opinion on over 30 years with the Dallas Police Department, Kim Sanders explained that the Lord interrogation was intimidation, not questioning, and as Thompson handled the questioning it was a textbook example of how police can get false confessions. . If the review determines that he did nothing wrong, he could be reinstated as a detective. I had to cover my mouth I was so appalled, Judy Durbin, an accountant who was the foreman of the jury, would later recall. The Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. 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. John said that was impossibleJaffe would have never betrayed Michael. Both have worked numerous murders and each has been featured on the popular A&E reality television show, In the video, Rastegar initially seemed to confirm what he had supposedly told Thompson and Lundberg on the porch. Dwayne Thompson (I) IMDbPro Starmeter. He asked her about some of the puzzling physical evidence that had been found at Burnsides home the night of the shooting. Do I feel an overwhelming feeling of guilt because I may have provoked something? Anonymous No, Lord said. Thompson looked at his notebook, where he had written down the calls Lord had made on her cellphone. And in Cleveland, an argument among friends spins out of control when one of them makes a deadly decision. 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. Dressed in one of his dark suits, Thompson strode toward his seat. She had told Jaffe she had driven past Burnsides house before leaving and had seen crime scene investigation vehicles parked outside. 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. 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? 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. In this interrogation method, its deemed acceptable to manipulate through accusations of guilt through an aggressive protocol of nine steps. In that small house, she mistook the sound of a pistol shot for a glass falling to the floor? Look at it! No, said Lord. Ive talked to her many, many times, and if she is lying about what happened, shes a hell of an actress, said one friend, Eric Love. Several months later, when he called Lord to refinance his home, their other relationships had ended. 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.. Another detective, Dwayne Thompson, charged into the interrogation room. (The autopsy report revealed that he had at least a .17 blood alcohol level when he diedtwice the legal limit to drive a vehicle.) In truth, she had called 911 seconds after she had tried to reach Jaffe. She said that she had phoned Jaffe because she initially thought Burnside had fallen and was hurt. 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. A bullet hole was in a wall near the ceiling. Most of Thompsons fellow officers assumed it would be only a matter of time before he was firedand perhaps even indicted. Its insane, he was overheard saying one afternoon at a restaurant near the police department. Of course not, she said. 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. Nevertheless, as far as Thompson was concerned, that did not eliminate her as a suspect. 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. Lord was released. But there was no corruption involved. | Store Lord spent 9 days in jail before a Dallas Grand Jury refused to indict her for the crime. But, he added, his friend wasnt the type to get married at any point.. For the rest of the month, Burnsides father regularly called Thompson to get updates on the investigation. And who knows? Why, he wanted to know, would a man suddenly shoot himself after what seemed to be a routine argument with his girlfriend? 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. We loved our life together.. I hope you die in jail and burn in hell!. It was Lord. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? She needed pills to go to sleep. She was arrested in 2010 for the . Thats Olivia Lord, he told Thompson. 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. 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. An expert witness with expertise as both a retired officer and homicide detective from the same police department, testified on Lords behalf. 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. Or he mistakenly pulled the trigger thinking the Beretta was unloaded., Jaffe shook his head. 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