The widow of an executed killer has dropped the lawsuit against a criminal appeals judge.
A day after filing, Marsha Richard withdrew the suit, which accused Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of causing the inmate's Sept. 25 lethal injection. The lawsuit said Keller violated Michael Richard's due process rights when she ordered the court clerk's office to close promptly at 5 p.m. on Sept. 25 before his lawyers could file an appeal.
A jury decided Thursday that The Galleria and its security company must pay a rape victim more than $3.5 million, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Jurors determined that the shopping center did not do enough to protect the woman from the attack in the summer of 2003.
Although it wasn't a unanimous decision, the jury found that the victim should be paid damages for mental and physical pain and anguish.
The wife of a man executed in September sued a judge who prevented his state appeal from being filed by not extending the office hours of Texas' highest criminal court on the day he died.
The federal lawsuit by Marsha Richard against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, filed Wednesday in Houston, accuses Keller of violating the rights of Michael Richard by preventing his attorneys from filing an appeal hours before his execution.
Keller refused to allow the court to stay open past 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, even though attorneys for Richard had called and asked for extra time to file their appeal.
DAVID TEMPLE
The defense began calling witnesses Tuesday in the murder trial of former Alief ISD football coach David Temple.
In all, 14 witnesses took the stand for the defense in a bid to portray the accused as a loving husband, not a killer who got rid of his pregnant wife to be with another woman.
Temple’s wife, Heather, was the third witness of the day.
Heather Scott Temple had already taken the stand as a witness for the prosecution a few weeks ago in testimony that revealed lurid details about her adulterous relationship with Temple in the weeks prior to Belinda Temple’s death.
Fireworks erupted between defense attorney Dick DeGuerin and prosecutor Kelly Sigler over the hundreds of text messages exchanged by David and Heather.
Belinda Temple was eight months pregnant when she was fatally shot in the head at the couple’s Katy home about eight years ago.
Prosecutors are relying on mostly circumstantial evidence to prove that David Temple killed Belinda to be with Heather.
The defense planned to continue calling witnesses Wednesday. It was unclear if David Temple would be among them.
When Oprah Winfrey first heard reports that students were being abused at her $47 million school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa, she wept.
Then the media mogul and philanthropist pulled herself together and called Dr. Bruce Perry, a child psychiatrist who lives and works in Houston.
Perry, a renowned researcher in the field of childhood trauma, accompanied Winfrey to South Africa shortly after she learned of the problems at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg. Winfrey spoke of Perry's help at a dramatic Monday morning news conference in which she acknowledged that former dormitory matron Tiny Virginia Makopo had been dismissed amid allegations of abuse, assault and soliciting underage girls to perform indecent acts.
A government audit finds CareFlite overcharged the federal government nearly $2 million to evacuate sick or injured people during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
An audit by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services questioned some $2 million of the $5.7 million the medical transport service billed.
The audit said there were times Grand Prairie-based CareFlite used its own aircraft to transport evacuees when it could have looked for less expensive transportation.
However, CareFlite and the Health and Human Services Department defended the costs, saying the contract didn’t require CareFlite to seek subcontractors with lower rates.
Subcontractors were used when CareFlite’s own fleet wasn’t available or when patients were located outside the 1,000-mile range of aircraft in use.
The audit recommended CareFlite refund more than $68,000 of the cost required to transport 11 patients.
It also suggested the Health and Human Services Department work with CareFlite to determine how much can be allowed of the $1.97 million billed without seeking subcontractors.
But Martin J. Brown, Health and Human Services deputy assistant secretary for acquisition management and policy, indicated the agency saw no reason to challenge the charges.
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This reminds me of a situation in New Orleans where Slimy Mac-P, a political operative and former restaurateur had his hands in the City's cookie jar.
A member of the House Judiciary Committee this week made a formal request that the committee begin an investigation into sexual-harassment allegations against U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent of Galveston.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, wrote a letter Wednesday to Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., asking that an “investigative file” be opened into the Kent affair.
Jackson-Lee also asked that members of the public be allowed to make allegations against Kent to the committee “as they pertain to this case.”
“The chairman is looking at this very seriously and will work with Rep. Jackson-Lee and others on this matter,” a statement from the Judiciary Committee staff said.
Kent was reprimanded in September by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals after The Daily News reported that an employee of the court, Cathy McBroom, complained that he had sexually harassed her by touching her in ways she didn’t want.
Billions of dollars will be at stake when Texas voters head to the polls on Tuesday, KPRC Local 2 reported.
The election could impact everything from your home and your health to how you get around the state.
Putting a cap on property appraisal hikes has been the holy grail of Texas Republicans for years. If Proposition 3 passes, they'll finally have it. And Democrats said they are all right with it, too.
"This would mean in any given year, your appraisal value can't go up more than 10 percent, so you don't get really stung with horrendous unexpected increases in taxes," said Gerry Birnberg, with the Harris County Democratic Party.
"Its a first step in the right direction. But ultimately that cap needs to be brought down from 10 percent to 3 percent or lower," said Jared Woodfill, with the Harris County Republican Party.
Republicans oppose two other high profile proposals.
Proposition 12, which would allow the Texas Department of Transportation to sell up to $5 billion in bonds for road projects.
Local Democrats said they believe that's a good alternative to the Trans Texas Corridor, the statewide network of toll roads TxDOT wants to build it despite strong opposition.
"If there's $5 billion available for highway improvement project through issuing bonds, it means we don't have to raise that $5 billion through toll roads," Birnberg said.
But what concerns Republicans is that there's nothing in the proposal that says TxDOT can't spend the money for toll roads.
"Republican voters are skeptical. They're skeptical about what's going to happen to the money. They're skeptical about what's going to happen with respect to toll roads, and so I think there's a real hesitancy to give TxDOT an additional $5 billion," Woodfill said.
And there's a big divide over Proposition 15, which would authorize up to $3 billion in bonds to pay for cancer research.
Democrats said that could be a boon for Houston and the Texas Medical Center.
"That would be a core industry for Houston and for Texas. That would be something Texans could be so in favor of and so proud of," Birnberg said.
Republicans don't have a problem with funding cancer research. They just don't want to borrow money to do it.
"If this is the way we want to spend it, let's take the money out of our own account. Let's not borrow it and place the debt on future generations," Woodfill said.
The polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
More than 150 inmates whose convictions may be based on faulty Houston crime lab evidence have asked that their cases be reviewed, a judge said Thursday.
Since Oct. 22, Judge Mary Bacon, a retired state district judge overseeing the review of 180 convictions with flawed blood-typing evidence, has conducted hearings with all inmates currently incarcerated in those cases. Of 160 inmates contacted at various Texas prisons via video conferences, all but four agreed to have their cases reviewed.
The hearings are the first step in a plan that Harris County's 22 criminal state district judges developed last month to review cases with problematic blood-typing evidence from the Houston Police Department's crime lab.
A little girl whose body was found in a container Tuesday had one or more skull fractures, according to preliminary autopsy results.
The grisly discovery was made by a fisherman over the weekend during Harbor Walk’s first tournament in West Galveston Bay. More than 75 boats lined the marina for the event.
Some of the participants were believed to have fished in the proximity of the body, so detectives are hoping to hear from as many of them as possible. They want to know if anyone saw anything suspicious around the island where the container was found.
The container is described as a Sterilite brand model 1842. It is royal blue with a black handle.
Authorities say the child's body was found a few miles west/southwest of the Galveston Causeway.
Investigators say it contained the decomposing remains of a little girl, believed to be between 3 and 5 years old.
She had long, blonde hair, was about 33 inches tall and weighed about 25 pounds.
The child was wearing a size 2T pullover top—possibly pink and a matching pink skirt with the Cherokee label. The child was wearing size 8-1/2 size white tennis shoes with purple trim, velcro closures and small lights on the heel.
The body was taken to the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s where an autopsy was performed.
Detectives hope the autopsy will help lead to the child’s identity and cause of death.
They are treating the case as a homicide and checking records to see if any children have been reported missing from the area.
“Investigators are certainly looking at that angle—past Amber Alerts, missing children, things of that nature from this general area,” said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmundo with the Galveston County Sheriff’s Department.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers or the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office at 409-766-2222 or 866-248-8477.
