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. On May 9, 2010, plaintiff Hephzibah Olivia Lord, 36, who works in mortgaging, was alone with her boyfriend at his home, in Dallas. The Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. View the profiles of people named Dwayne Thompson. Thirty seconds passed as she wept before she added, There are still nights when I drive by our home just to look at it. | Sign In, Verdict Corrections Bring on the Shiplap? The way Lord had described it, she and Burnside were deeply in love, and they had been talking about marriage. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. Thompson, Andie - Thony, Steve > Thompson, Dorothya - Thompson, Elexus > Thompson, Dwanna - Thompson, Dweese > Thompson, Dwayne 1-25 of 112 Contacts Contact Name Thompson asked if there was any chance that Jaffe had been carrying on a secret relationship with Lord. | Advertising You [expletive] shot him! A couple of clerks grinned at him. No, said Quinton, Thompson hadnt mentioned either of those things. 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. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. Thats the exact type of case that might have been portrayed on The First 48, right? Tittle asked. But he stayed in the bedroom, pacing, walking around, yelling at me, screaming, angry. Finally, after he couldnt get her to respond to him, he left the room. Lord claimed that Burnside, who was intoxicated, shot himself.Thompson rejected the theory that Burnside committed suicide and investigated the death as murder. He spoke to her the way a loving father would talk to his daughter. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. 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. Most of Thompsons fellow officers assumed it would be only a matter of time before he was firedand perhaps even indicted. Because that is the only thing that makes sense.. Or, asked Shearin, did Thompson say that Burnside was stressed about owing money to the IRS? He told Thompson that his son had had the most positive personality of anyone he had ever met. 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. Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. I grabbed him and held him.. 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. She had started dating Burnside, the co-owner of a company that retrofitted homes to make them energy-efficient, about a year earlier. Every day, dozens of times a day, I think about that talk and how I wish I could take it all back, she told me. He eventually learned about my arrest, and he was so bothered by what he read that he never called me again. But what did you actually tell Michael during the argument? They can try too hard to make the existing evidence fit their theory as to who is guilty. Just because the words were less strong doesnt mean they were any less true.. It was Lord. The jury watched it. Thompson said he had heard that Burnside was making money. According to Thompson, Rastegar said he had been in bed during the early morning hours of May 9 when he heard screaming in Burnsides front yard. There was something else that didnt seem right: drops of blood leading into another room. He told the jurors that he didnt believe that Lord had shot Burnside. It was a very overwhelming issue., Thompson leaned back in his chair and stared at Lord. In truth, she had called 911 seconds after she had tried to reach Jaffe. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? 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 s Read allWhen 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. Dwayne Thompson has spent over 18 years with the Dallas Police Department. There were too many unanswered questions, he said. 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Jaffe said he had been at the house earlier that evening, helping Burnside install a dishwasher while Lord was painting the doors and baseboards, and that he had left before midnight. But there was one more turn in the story to come. An officer came over to Thompsons cubicle and handed him Lords and Jaffes cellphones. Nevertheless, as far as Thompson was concerned, that did not eliminate her as a suspect. Dwayne Thompson Associate (Antitrust, Competition and Trade) at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer 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. You said he was upset and he hollers and starts getting destructive, and the thing is, you said he gets scary. As for Burnsides relationship with Lord, Jaffe said, It was one of those old-school-type things. The jurors, however, werent buying any of it. Trailer 0:21. Brian, we got a problem, Thompson said. She was Miss Right as far as he was concerned, Jaffe replied. Nor did Burnsides parents invite her to the reception. Shed given her telephone to her aunt, who was screening her calls. Both have worked numerous murders and each has been featured on the popular A&E reality television show, She walked to the front of the chapel to look at Burnside in his casket, and her legs nearly buckled as she said his name. But as the case made its way through the courts, she maintained her innocenceand claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. It was now 5:44 a.m. I went into the kitchen and he was on the floor and there was blood. You fing shot him! he bellowed, nearly coming out of his chair. He called Jaffe, who had also turned against Lord, to see if he could help him locate her. 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.. What other results could you have with the police policing themselves? she said. In a typical suicide, he said, when someone shoots himself in the temple, he points the gun straight at his head and the bullet travels through the brain and exits in a line roughly parallel to the floor. A few days after the funeral, Lord called Burnsides brother to ask if she could retrieve some of her belongings from the house. 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. 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. Dont worry about it. Although the couple appeared to be joking, said Jaffe, you could tell they were serious., At that point, Jaffe said, he decided to leave, and when he returned after getting the frantic phone call from Lord, he found her in the front yard. And then theres Jaffe, Burnsides best friend, who says he remains convinced that Lord is hiding something. Lord shook her head. 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. Lord seemed to be trying to control her breathing. 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. Why wasnt that enough? . | Store According to news reports and witness testimony of what happened in that interrogation room, Thompson suddenly became aggressive in his questioning, yelling accusations at a weeping Lord, things like You shot him! But Detective Thompson couldnt or wouldnt accept that. Tittle said that Thompson allowed a screenplay [of the shooting] in his mind to take over. And thats a dangerous, dangerous thing if youre a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department., Lord took the stand and was overcome with emotion as she described her love for Burnside. I was leaning over my future husbands body, Lord said. Anonymous According to Lord, he became obnoxious and sarcastic, which often happened when he drank. Tired of fighting, she stopped talking to Burnside and went into the bathroom to take off her makeup. And on this morning, Thompson was especially interested in the victimology of Burnside. He studied the call histories on the phones and took some notes. After the service, she told Burnsides friends that she hadnt returned any of their calls because she had been overwhelmed with grief. Nearly a year after the shooting, a grand jury met and heard the evidence. 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. 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. Thompson is the one whos gotten away with the crime., Lord told me that she was not surprised to hear that the police departments Public Integrity Unit had ignored the civil jurys verdict and cleared Thompson. I hope you die in jail and burn in hell!. Self - Detective; 2009-2014 2 eps; Credits. texasmonthly.com The idea that she would put a gun to his head and pull the trigger is just unfathomable.. But after her arrest, Lord read The Count of Monte Cristo, the Alexandre Dumas novel about a wrongfully imprisoned man who seeks revenge against those responsible for his imprisonment, and she memorized one of the books famous lines: May the god of vengeance now permit me to punish the wicked! That was her goal, she said. 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. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. Lord seemed shocked. City attorneys are defending him, saying he acted in good faith and without malice. She said that she had phoned Jaffe because she initially thought Burnside had fallen and was hurt. Seven minutes is a long time, Thompson told her several times on the video. Im willing to accept that it might have been an accident. She wanted to know why they were there. After Jaffe went home, the argument escalated. They had not laid eyes on each other since he had interrogated her. She had desperately run from room to room trying to get better reception. Jaffe and Lord were taken to the station, and Thompson headed inside Burnsides home. The trial finally began in a federal courtroom in downtown Dallas this past Januarynearly four years after the shooting. Of course not, she said. Raised in Ohio, Thompson spent five years in the Army, earning the rank of captain and commanding a military police unit in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. 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. John, who had already been informed by Jaffe about the incident, could barely maintain his composure. Im innocent.. As for the question of blood spatter on Lords clothes, however, Quinton did have a definite opinion. Several months later, when he called Lord to refinance his home, their other relationships had ended. Kim Sanders, a more than 30-year veteran of the department who served as a homicide detective, said the interview amounted to intimidation. He then asked them to ride down to Dallas police headquarters in separate squad cars to give their statements. | Privacy Statement. The detective was 47 years old and built like a linebacker at six feet two inches and 230 pounds. "It was a good experience," Thompson says, "It kind of launched me into police work." And youd say, you know, Thats not a toy., Jaffe said that Burnside had pulled out a gun that night. And if the young man had shot himself, wouldnt the gun have landed closer to his body? 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. I wondered about the story Jaffe had told Thompson about finding her in the front yard, desperately saying, I wasnt going to leave him. She was on an airplaneon her way to California. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. Thompson misrepresented any facts or falsified any government documents. They also declared that there was no evidence that Det. 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. Lord has just been awarded $800,000 in a jury verdict from a Dallas jury that has found Lord to be the victim of false arrest. How are you going to explain that to his family? Then Shearin got his big break. . After she graduates, she hopes to go to law school and perhaps someday work for the Innocence Project. During her twenties, she always seemed to be out and about, a regular at trendy nightspots and concerts. 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.. Rastegar again tried to explain what he had heard Lord say that night. Im still going to suffer for the rest of my life for this, she said. 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. 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 his tasks was to take boxes of cold-case files out of the death room, where all homicide files are kept, and haul them to a storage area in city hall. . If he had wanted to go after that girl, he could have made stuff up, trumped up reports, and hidden the Rastegar tape. Not only that, Sanders also pointed out Thompsons failure to read Ms. Lord her Miranda rights including specifically her right to remain silent after it was clear that Thompson considered Lord to be a suspect in a crime. Lord was 33 years old and worked as a loan officer for a mortgage company. But, Jaffe added, Burnside didnt wave the gun around. When Quinton studied the gunshot residue report, he concluded that the trace amounts of residue on Lord did not necessarily indicate handling or firing the weapon. But he couldnt say for sure that she didnt fire the Beretta. And then she burst into tears. Sometimes I want to walk inside, thinking he will be there. They make honest, reasonable mistakes. Schuette and Tatia R. Wilson. 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. We loved our life together.. Five years later, Lord clearly remains tormented by that conversation, haunted by the idea that she might have said something that pushed her boyfriend into committing an impulsive act that no one could have imagined him doing. As one Dallas County prosecutor put it, They can, even for the most well-intentioned of reasons, get too focused on making an arrest at the detriment of the true story., Mitchell began evaluating Thompsons case against Lord. In early May, word spread that the departments Public Integrity Unit had launched an investigation of Thompsons work on the Lord case. See full summary . Required fields are marked *. Thompson just happened to be standing at the detectives desk, and he was more than happy to talk to Shearin. He can go so far as to lie to a suspect to try to obtain a confession. 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. She certainly had not used them to wash herself off, she said. These laws are especially important when those being questioned are already emotionally reeling from the events themselves like Ms. Lord who first dealt with the discovery of her boyfriends body, calling 911 for help, and that loss then to face questioning by police while vulnerable and upset like Lords being questioned by Thompson as if she had committed a crime for several hours. Personal details. Im willing to accept that Mikey might have totally screwed up. He was the life of the party.. Its psychological pressure as opposed to physical force, however many believe that the result, coercion, can be the same even though no blows are struck. Thompson thanked John and told him he would be back in touch. Mikey said, Im not going to cheat on you in Vegas. 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.. 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