Finally We Can See Surveillance Video of Arsonist

Local police departments have long known the value of releasing surveillance video to the public.

It works.

Time and time again, police show off videos of robberies and other crimes — even fuzzy ones — and tipsters call in with information about the suspect.

The FBI even has a web page dedicated to videos of bank robberies.  The videos are usually posted the same day or the day after the robberies.

So what took the Texas Department of Public Safety so long to release the surveillance video of the arsonist who set fire and did massive damage to the Texas Governor’s mansion? The blaze was June 8th. They finally got around to releasing the video on July 29th. Seven weeks later!

Click here for a link to the video.

The DPS has been under fire for poor training and staffing at the Capitol, and the head guy at DPS recently resigned.  So maybe the long delay should be no surprise.

But in my mind, there’s no excuse for not releasing this video within the first few days of the fire.  Granted it’s not crystal clear and you can’t see his face, but someone who knows the arsonist might have recognized his clothing or stature.

I’ve seen videos solve local crimes over and over.  Sometimes there are legitimate reasons police withold evidence, including videos.  But I don’t understand why they couldn’t and shouldn’t have released this video weeks ago.

How The Great Cookie Caper Crumbled

On Tuesday, when the story first surfaced, it sounded sensational.  So much so it even made headlines nationwide.

18-year-old Christian Phillips was arrested for delivering drug-tainted cookies to North Texas police stations.  He had been on community service for a previous charge, and claimed delivering the cookies was part of his sentence.  Cops at first laughed at that explanation.

One officer called him “an idiot.”

Reporters jumped on the story.  No doubt, this was news, and the cops got the bad guy in jail.  But that was just the first chapter.  Like a good novel, this story had a few surprise twists.

Sophisticated lab tests contradicted earlier field tests, and showed there were no drugs in the cookies after all.  And after a day of confusion, it turned out that his explanation (about the community service) was true.

ASSAULTING A POLICE OFFICER

The tale starts in July 2007 in Watauga.  A bunch of teenagers, including him, threw a loud party in an apartment in Watauga. Someone called the cops.

When officers responded, they say, several teens ran out the back.  Police say Phillips tried to close the front door and got in a brief scuffle with an officer.  He was charged with assaulting the officer.  The officer was not hurt.

It was his first brush with the law. 

A judge sentenced him to 80 hours community service with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  MADD told him to deliver cookies to area police stations.  Cookies for cops, they call it.

DELIVERING COOKIES

Phillips made a list of area police stations and addresses.  He made the cookies and started delivering them, doing exactly what he was supposed to do.

When he got to Blue Mound, police there gladly accepted the cookies.  He left.  Police later noticed the cookies smelled of marijuana.

Police say a field test was positive for marijuana.  An alert went out to other area departments to be on the lookout for this guy with tainted cookies.

ARREST IN LAKE WORTH

The next day, Tuesday, Phillips delivered a basket of cookies to Lake Worth.  Detectives there detained him.

They also said the cookies reeked of marijuana.  They said a drug dog alerted on the cookies, his car, and $2000 cash he had with him.

Then, the first curious twist: A field test in Lake Worth was positive not for marijuana, but LSD.

He denied tainting the cookies and told police his friends may have been smoking marijuana when he was baking the cookies, so that’s why they smelled, police said.

But police didn’t believe him and arrested him. He was charged with tampering with a food product.

CAR SEARCH

Lake Worth Police also obtained a search warrant to look inside his car.

In the trunk, police say they found a scale, plastic baggies, and small traces of marijuana.  But not enough to charge him with possession.

OTHER POLICE DEPARTMENTS REACT

Meanwhile, other police departments began to wonder if he had delivered cookies to them.

Turns out, he had delivered the treats to police in Fort Worth and Watauga and other cities also.  As many as 10 officers in those cities who ate the cookies went for blood tests.  None showed symptoms, and the blood tests were all negative.

FURTHER TESTS

The case began to crumble when more in-depth tests at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office (they have the lab) showed no drugs in the cookies at all.

How could those field tests have turned up positive for marijuana and LSD?  They are called “presumptive” tests, and they are not conclusive.  Apparently they’re not that reliable, and they are not admissible in court.

WHO’S TO BLAME?

His attorney, Patrick Davis, blamed the media on his way out of the Lake Worth police station Wednesday.  “You guys already convicted my client,” he said, refusing to stop.

In fairness to us, we didn’t even know about the caper until he was already in jail.  We reported the news as best we knew it.

And when the news came out that the Medical Examiner’s tests were negative, we reported that as prominently as we did his arrest.

Police say they acted based on the circumstances they knew at the time.

CHARGES DROPPED

Late Thursday afternoon, police dropped all charges against Phillips.  He walked out of jail shortly before 6 pm, got in his father’s car and drove off.  He had nothing to say to waiting reporters.

Asked if he thought he owed Phillips an apology, Lake Worth Police Chief Brett McGuire said any department would have handled the case the same way.

“Am I sorry that this young man was detained for coming up on three days while we went through this? Yes, I certainly am,” McGuire said.

How U.S. Marshals Helped Nab Alleged NorthPark Shooters

The U.S. Marshals usually work behind the scenes to catch dangerous fugitives.  Their work rarely appears in the news, but they have task forces in Dallas and Tarrant counties, made up of federal agents and police officers from various cities.

They are trained to find people who don’t want to be found, often dangerous criminals who are on the run.

So when Dallas Police got the names of two suspects in the high-profile NorthPark Center robbery from last month, in which a woman was shot in the face, they turned the case over to the U.S. Marshals Task Force.

Sure enough, the task force found the suspects within hours.

The detailed press release is below.

The Check Was in the Mail!

As an update to my post last week about being fooled by the IRS letter informing me I would soon receive my stimulus check (I thought it was the actual check until I opened the envelope), well, I finally received the check in the mail yesterday.

I still wonder why the IRS wasted the time and money to send the letters when everyone knew the check was on the way.

Just send the check!

Anyway, now I have to figure out where to spend it!

Human Hands or the Makings for Menudo?

File this story under “you can’t make this stuff up!”

Reporters flocked to a house near Fort Worth’s hospital district on the 4th of July after police were called to investigate two human hands found in a freezer.

A man was cleaning out a duplex and found the “hands” in the freezer.  He called police.

Homicide detectives and the medical examiner responded to the scene.

Turns out they weren’t human hands, but latex gloves filled with ground up animal intestines.  The family who lived there before were Mexicans, and had apparently used the gloves to store the makings for menudo.

Check out the press release from Fort Worth Police Lt. Paul Henderson, who didn’t lose his sense of humor on his recent vacation:

Hands or Not, It’s Still Plain Weird

FORT WORTH, TX –  I’m back from vacation and what a way to re-enter.  Two suspicious items resembling frozen hands were found today which prompted a call to the police.  It happened around 1:30 p.m. at a duplex located in the 1100 block of Grainger.  A man was cleaning out a garage apartment in anticipation of moving into his new pad when he noticed a plastic grocery sack in the freezer.  Being curious the man opened the sack and got the surprise of a lifetime when he found what he believed to be two mangled up frozen hands.  When officers arrived they took a look and agreed that they resembled hands however upon close inspection by a homicide detective they may not be hands after all.  It is a distinct possibility that they could be nothing more than sausage or some other kind of meat product stuffed into clear plastic gloves making them look human.  The Medical Examiner will make the final determination as to the item’s nature and origin.   Until then, our hands are tied on this one.

 

Medstar Heroes

The story I did tonight on a 2-year-old Haltom City girl who nearly drowned is one that will touch anyone’s heart.

I hope you’ve had a chance to listen to the gripping 911 call.  Here is a link to the entire call. It tells the story better than the best reporter could have written.

Little Aliyah somehow climbed into the family’s above-ground swimming pool while her parents were distracted making dinner.

When her parents found her, she was face down in the water.

Her father, Shannon Bartley, got her out and immediately started CPR.  Her mother, Ashley Artiaga, frantically called 911.

A Medstar operator, Conrad Almance, did a great job coaching them through what to do.

Medstar paramedic Ryan Hayes and EMT Mike Callahan were at the end of their shift when the heard the call go out.  They volunteered to stay on duty and go.  The were several miles closer than the next closest ambulance.

Haltom City firefighters arrived first in about three minutes.  The Medstar crew got there a few minutes after that.

Incredibly, Aliyah started breathing short breaths as the rescuers arrived.  She remained unconscious, though, and didn’t open her eyes until the next day.

Doctors now tell the family she’s just fine, with no lasting damage.

Her parents call it a miracle.

It’s a good reminder about the hard-working paramedics and firefighters who make such a difference every day.

In this case, it’s no exaggeration to say they saved a little girl’s life.

Stupid Criminal of the Week

Somehow I never got around to blogging about the guy a few weeks ago in North Fort Worth who allegedly robbed a bank. It seems he apparently forgot about a key part of any bank robber’s plan — the getaway car.

Police say he apparently took a taxi to the bank, then tried to carjack a woman outside, but was unlucky enough to do it in front of two soldiers, who jumped on him, took away his gun, and held him until police arrived.

But that’s old news now…

I have a new nominee for stupid (alleged) criminal of the week.

Police say a Hurst woman was driving so erratically in Watauga, another driver called 911.  Police say the woman literally drove right in front of the Watauga police station — weaving through lanes and driving through stop signs.

The officer who stopped her reported she was sweating profusely even though her air conditioner was on full-blast and appeared very nervous.

The officer also noticed a chemical odor coming from her car.

He arrested her on traffic violations and inside her car, found a mobile drug lab. Police say she was making GHB, the so-called “date rape” drug, which officers say is making a comeback in parts of Tarrant County.

Finally, My IRS Check — Not!

Like millions of Americans, I’ve been patiently waiting for my “economic stimulus” check from the IRS.

On my way to work today, I checked the mail.

There it was: An official-looking IRS envelope.

Yahooo, I thought.

I opened it but something was missing.  The check!

It was a letter explaining the check was on the way and should arrive in the next few weeks.

False alarm!  And, I must say, what a waste of paper.  Why not just send the check when it’s ready?

Ross Perot Is Back

Ross Perot, the Dallas billionaire and unsuccessful independent presidential candidate in 1992, is back with a website aimed at one of his favorite topics — the federal deficit.

Perot hasn’t been real visible on the public stage in recent years, but the website features a video of him in his Texas twang warning about the dangers of government spending run amok.

If you’re interested in checking out his website, click here.

Mother Who Waited Hour for Help Wants to be Ambulance Director

Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in my TV stories to get all the tidbits I would like to include, so thank goodness for this blog!

Nancy Milliken, the mother who waited almost an hour for an ambulance to arrive at her West Fort Worth home after her baby had a seizure, wants to be on the board of directors for Medstar.

My story tonight focused on Medstar managers ordering paramedics to work mandatory overtime to make up for a staffing shortage.  That move comes after a consultant criticized Medstar managers for not having a “sense of urgency” to improve performance.

Anyway, Milliken has been going to Medstar board meetings and trying to get to the bottom of the problems herself.  She discovered that several board members’ terms have expired, and she says the board needs new blood.

By the way, another tidbit I didn’t have time to fit in…. Medstar forgave her bill, which would have been nearly $2000.  Probably the right thing to do, given how long it took the ambulance to arrive.

Milliken has a lot of energy and I have a feeling Medstar hasn’t heard the end of her yet.