Had she touched her boyfriends gun? He was the life of the party.. IMDbPro. I asked Lord if she had said anything to Burnside that night that would have led him to believe that the relationship was over. (Jaffe had been drinking Shiner Bock, and Burnside had been having Red Bull mixed with vodka.) Jaffe was sitting in a plastic chair next to a small table pushed against a wall. 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. The officer shrugged. In Lords case, while she was arrested by Dallas police it was soon shown that there was no murder; her boyfriend had committed suicide. Thompson thanked John and told him he would be back in touch. Thompson studied Lord and Jaffe for a moment, then walked over to them. He first worked in patrol, where he was assigned to some of the citys tougher neighborhoods, and then spent ten years as a detective in the robbery and property crimes division before being promoted to homicide, in 2007. . Jaffe and Lord were taken to the station, and Thompson headed inside Burnsides home. (As he said in one interview for The First 48, Bringing stuff back to life is whats up, Jack.) He taught classes at the Dallas Police Academy, and a private training agency hired him to lead seminars on detective work around the country. S8, Ep2 8 Jan. 2009 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. Bring on the Shiplap? Testimony. And now hes dead, he said. Lord spent the next four days at her mothers home in the Dallas suburbs, lying in bed, taking sleeping pills. He was not a depressed type of person at all. Strapped around his shoulders was a thick brown leather holster that held his department-issued pistol, a 9mm Sig Sauer. 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. What other results could you have with the police policing themselves? she said. During her twenties, she always seemed to be out and about, a regular at trendy nightspots and concerts. 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. She explained that after she had found Burnside, her calls to 911 kept getting dropped due to a weak signal on her cellphone. Dwayne Thompson (I) IMDbPro Starmeter. 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. Or, asked Shearin, did Thompson say that Burnside was stressed about owing money to the IRS? 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. 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. No, Lord said. Police interrogations happen all the time here in Dallas, and over in Fort Worth as well as the rest of Texas and around the country. Strapped around. But as the case made its way through the courts, she maintained her innocenceand claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. Lord hired Don Tittle, a high-profile Dallas lawyer who specializes in civil rights litigation, to file a lawsuit against Thompson, which he did in late 2011. Physical evidence can be more baffling than conclusive. 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. Thompson returned to headquarters and took the elevator to the homicide offices on the fifth floor. There hasnt been one bit of evidence in this case that has caused you to pause in your opinion that she murdered Michael?. He asked her again about what she was doing during that seven-minute gap between phone calls in the house that night. He allowed a few seconds to pass. She was Miss Right as far as he was concerned, Jaffe replied. His voice got even softer. 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. Your email address will not be published. Thats the exact type of case that might have been portrayed on The First 48, right? Tittle asked. He said that Lundberg had told him that Rastegar had wavered a little bit in his statement but that Lundberg had also let him know that the gist was the same and nothing substantively had changed from what he had already written in his affidavit. Olivia, youre not telling me the truth, Thompson told her. I wasnt in the room when that young man got shot, she would later say in an interview. Shearin then asked if she was included in Burnsides will or his life insurance policy. You did! (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.). 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. She also said that when he got angry, he could be a little scary and that he threw stuff in the house. She would usually ignore him when he got into one of his moods, but this time it had only made him angrier. A&E | Air Date: unknown. And he knew she was hiding something, he said. She had volunteered at an AIDS hospice. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. Something did not add up. He was confident and charming, she said. Lord was accused of murder countless times, and she always denied it. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? When the lab report on the gunshot residue was completed, it wasnt much help either. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. 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. Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. Comments are moderated and these will not be published. Dressed in one of his dark suits, Thompson strode toward his seat. He was convinced Thompson had misled him, and on September 22, Quinton changed the cause of Burnsides death to undetermined. Quintons new ruling was definitely a boost for Lords case, but it was hardly enough to guarantee an acquittal. 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. Im just as baffled as you are, she said. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). You fing shot him! he bellowed, nearly coming out of his chair. 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. According to Lord, he became obnoxious and sarcastic, which often happened when he drank. 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. After the argument was over, Michael stopped being sarcastic and he became quiet and somber. 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.. She had always insisted that she had not fled from the police. Police questioned Lord at the police station and then released her. | Editor In October 2008 a mutual friend introduced her and Burnside at a small bar on Dallass Lower Greenville Avenue. The report could be interpreted several ways: Maybe, as Shearin believed, after Burnside had pulled the trigger, some of the gunshot residue had been transferred onto Lord when she held him in the kitchen. (For a philosophy class, she wrote a paper on Socrates being sentenced to death under false charges.) West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. Her voice shook when she spoke. 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. Sipping coffee at a Starbucks one afternoon, he went through various scenarios of what he thinks could have taken place after he left Burnsides home. Dwayne Thompson has spent over 18 years with the Dallas Police Department. John said that was impossibleJaffe would have never betrayed Michael. In this interrogation method, its deemed acceptable to manipulate through accusations of guilt through an aggressive protocol of nine steps. She told her parents that Thompson had brutalized her. By the first of June, hed put aside Lords file to work on his other cases. She cooked, she cleaned, he was happy.. He is a Democrat representing District 96 in the Tennessee House of Representatives . The day after the verdict, Thompson was placed on desk duty. A 9mm Beretta was also on the floor about five feet from where Burnsides body had been. Thats what you did! 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. 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. Whos that? Thompson asked, pointing to a man kneeling beside Lord in the front yard. Shearin went to see Brandi Mitchell, a prosecutor with the Dallas County district attorneys office who was in charge of the Burnside case, and claimed that Thompson had perjured himself. | Advertising At around twelve-thirty, the officer continued, a woman had called 911 from the house. He then asked them to ride down to Dallas police headquarters in separate squad cars to give their statements. A couple of clerks grinned at him. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Det. 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. Edit. Im not even sure the word accident was used. He said he later surmised that Lord had shot Burnside because he had heard a story going around the neighborhood that Burnside had been shot in the back of the head, which would suggest he had been murdered. She had lost her career because potential employers, when running a background check on her, would always find a reference to her arrest for murder. Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. Can you possibly understand how I feel?. One of the few black detectives in the unit, Thompson quickly made his mark. 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. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). Lundberg said that there was a gunshot wound to his right temple, a contact wound where the muzzle had been pressed directly against his head, which is common in suicides involving a handgun. 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. In the taped interrogation, the detective asks Lord some general questions about what happened on the night that her boyfriend died then Thompson changed things up. 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. 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. Was she Miss Right or Miss Right Now? Thompson asked. 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. At the end of the interrogation, he had discarded her like trash.. A few days after the funeral, Lord called Burnsides brother to ask if she could retrieve some of her belongings from the house. Because that is the only thing that makes sense.. Lord was 33 years old and worked as a loan officer for a mortgage company. There was another, longer silence. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Another particle had been discovered on the front of Lords shirt. Lord shook her head. 3. 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. The case was then sent to the Internal Affairs division for an administrative review. If the review, which is ongoing as of press time, finds that Thompson violated departmental policies, he could be fired, suspended, or demoted. But she maintained her innocence, claiming that he committed suicide. On the floor was a pool of blood along with bloody towels. She works at a clothing shop, making $14 an hour, far less than what she was earning when she was in the mortgage business. Between sobs, Lord begged to be taken to Parkland to be with her boyfriend. Thompson has still destroyed my life and hes still out there working cases. 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.. When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home after an argument with his girlfriend, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend, Olivia Lord, had pulled the trigger. Please E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to Kent@MoreLaw.Com. That doesnt mean they kill themselves.. Play Trailer 0:21. Sometimes I want to walk inside, thinking he will be there. Burnsides parents say that they still cannot believe that their son took his own life. The detective was 47 years old and built like a linebacker at six feet two inches and 230 pounds. Come on., Lord closed her eyes when I asked her about those detractors who continue to believe shes hiding something. Then Tittle fired back. 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 did start dating a guy not long ago, she said after the waiter left. Look at it! He was wearing a T-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. Several months later, when he called Lord to refinance his home, their other relationships had ended. 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. Why, for instance, were there bottles of cleaning products scattered on the kitchen floor? The trial finally began in a federal courtroom in downtown Dallas this past Januarynearly four years after the shooting. She was so in love with him that she was always able to forgive him when he screwed uplike the night of her birthday, when he got rip-roaring drunk, staggered around the restaurant, and didnt even pay for dinner. 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. Not a depressed type of case that might have been portrayed on the First of June, be. 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