Lord could hardly look at him. 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. Personal details. W.D. All prosecutors know that almost every murder case contains inconsistent and sometimes contradictory evidence. Videos 1. There was no question in her mind, she said, that she and Burnside would soon get married. Strapped around his shoulders was a thick brown leather holster that held his department-issued pistol, a 9mm Sig Sauer. Shearin ordered Lords cellphone records and received more good news: there was no seven-minute gap in her calls. Im innocent.. Seriously, does anyone believe this story that Olivia tells about being in the bathroom and hearing something that sounded like glass breaking in the kitchen? But she never did: she kept saying that she loved her boyfriend, that they were happy together, and that he had taken his life for reasons she could not imagine. The Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. Your email address will not be published. Dallas Homicide Detective Dwayne Thompson revisits an empty plot of land where a grizzly double homicide had occurred years prior.Subscribe for more The Firs. Lord seemed shocked. The towels had been on the floor to soak up the water that had spilled when the dishwasher valve broke. On the floor was a pool of blood along with bloody towels. 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. See production, box office & company info. However, Lord wasnt done with the situation and after she was released, she filed her civil lawsuit for damages. . "When I work my cases, I don't have a dog in the fight," said Thompson, a homicide detective since 2006. 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. Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. I heard what I thought was glass shattering really loud, Lord said. Lord called 911, and police came. It was Lord. DallasJustice.com, Law offices of Michael Lowe, 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, Kim Sanders explained that the Lord interrogation was intimidation, Sanders also pointed out Thompsons failure to read Ms. Lord her Miranda rights, Michael Lowes Things to Know if You are Being Investigated for a Crime in Texas, Salinas 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. And even if he took a shortcut or two, he adds, he didnt hide or invent evidence. There was something else that didnt seem right: drops of blood leading into another room. Something is definitely not adding up, Thompson thought, as he walked into one of the interview rooms where Brian Jaffe was waiting. Stars Heaven Bellinger Linda Carden Sheila Cooks See production, box office & company info Watch on A&E | Privacy Statement. HEPHZIBAH OLIVIA LORD They too had been talking to Thompson and they were furious. She wanted to not only vindicate herself but also make sure the public knew just what Thompson had done to her. There was another, longer silence. You were very disappointed. 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. She had started dating Burnside, the co-owner of a company that retrofitted homes to make them energy-efficient, about a year earlier. Was she Miss Right or Miss Right Now? Thompson asked. For her part, Lord said that she would gladly give up any money in return for Thompsons being sent to prison. Sometimes I want to walk inside, thinking he will be there. Im devastated., Thompson bore down. 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. 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. Burnside died from a gun shot wound from a 9 mm Beretta handgun. 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. No, Lord said. Dwayne Thompson (born October 6, 1950) is an American politician. He is one of the most popular detectives in the Dallas Police Departmenta charismatic man, big and boisterous, with a powerful deep voice, says Craig Miller, a former deputy police chief who served as Thompsons lieutenant in the homicide unit in 2010. 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. Then his own cellphone rang. John said that was impossibleJaffe would have never betrayed Michael. Trailer 0:21. 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. But as the case made its way through the courts, she maintained her innocenceand claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. Its so ridiculous. (The autopsy report revealed that he had at least a .17 blood alcohol level when he diedtwice the legal limit to drive a vehicle.) She was so hysterical he could not understand what she was saying. A couple of clerks grinned at him. Thirty seconds passed as she wept before she added, There are still nights when I drive by our home just to look at it. A citizen filing a lawsuit for false arrest must prove that the officer acted with malice, which is difficult to do. Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. He took her to dinner, and the date lasted the entire weekend. Lord was accused of murder countless times, and she always denied it. Mikey said, Im not going to cheat on you in Vegas. 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. When Thompson took the stand, he seemed utterly likable as he described his history as a detective. She told Thompson that she too had been drinking that night, a mix of vodka and sweet tea. I wasnt in the room when that young man got shot, she would later say in an interview. Shearin asked if Thompson had mentioned that an inebriated Burnside had shown the Beretta to his friend that night. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? At the least, she said, she wanted to make sure his actions were publicly documented so that he could never do to someone else what he had done to her. Shearin got Lord out of jail on bail. He was not a depressed type of person at all. Schuette and Tatia R. Wilson. But she was pointedly not invited to a get-together that Burnsides friends were throwing after the service at one of his favorite bars. 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. City attorneys are defending him, saying he acted in good faith and without malice. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. Dwayne Thompson has spent over 18 years with the Dallas Police Department. Kim Sanders, a more than 30-year veteran of the department who served as a homicide detective, said the interview amounted to intimidation. Tittle said that Thompson told one of Burnsides friends within 12 hours of the death that he would bet his career that Lord killed Burnside. It was a stupid fight., Jaffe paused. But Tittle said the evidence simply did not point to that conclusion. A police officer receives a high degree of protection when he conducts a criminal investigation. And on this morning, Thompson was especially interested in the victimology of Burnside. Tittle then asked about Rastegar. | Store Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. Facebook gives people the power. Testimony continues Friday, during which Lord may take the witness stand. For Thompson, there was no question about it: Lord was on the run. . What he needed was irrefutable evidence pointing to Lords involvement in the shooting. He told Lundberg that he wasnt sure this was a suicide. 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. They began talking about planning a surprise birthday party in a few weeks for one of their friends and flying to Las Vegas later that summer to attend a bachelor party for another. I cant undo what hes done.. 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. Which brings us to the story this week here in Dallas of Hephzibah Olivia Lord, who sued and won a civil lawsuit against a Dallas police detective for false arrest, reportedly in large part because the jury found that the detective had acted with malice (a legal term here) during his interrogation of Lord after she was arrested on a charge of murdering her boyfriend. 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. . 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. When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home four years ago, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend, Olivia Lord, had pulled the trigger. Why the bottles of cleaning products and the bloody towels? Im just as baffled as you are, she said. He also had run up some debt: he owed a rental car company money for crashing one of its vehicles, and he had received letters from the IRS demanding that he pay more than $50,000 in back taxes. 1983 claiming that she was wrongfully arrested for a killing that she did not commit, which landed her in jail for nine days. 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. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Why, he wanted to know, would a man suddenly shoot himself after what seemed to be a routine argument with his girlfriend? You fing shot him! he bellowed, nearly coming out of his chair. Lord spent the next four days at her mothers home in the Dallas suburbs, lying in bed, taking sleeping pills. She said Burnside had been drinking heavily, and at some point, in the midst of the fight, he had walked into the kitchen and shot himself. But I dont know how to do it. Yes, the video of him interviewing her is pretty rough, and it looks like he comes across as a bully. 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. 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. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. 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. After the First 48 (2008- ) More at IMDbPro. Or maybe in the midst of the argument, Burnside had pulled the Beretta out of the kitchen drawer for a second time, handed it to Lord, and said, in an effort to be dramatic, If you hate me so much, then just shoot me. And she did. Thompson started his career in law enforcement as a corrections officer in a maximum-security prison in South Carolina. | Link Errors If you have or may be questioned by the police, know your rights. Thats what you did! That doesnt mean they kill themselves.. Required fields are marked *. Home Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. Still, Thompson had only a theory. He was simply doing his job, he tells his friends, hunting for answers about a mysterious death. She told her parents that Thompson had brutalized her. After Jaffe went home, the argument escalated. Jaffe said that he and Burnside had been drinking earlier that evening. I wasnt going to leave him., She then told me something she had not mentioned before. He thought he had a mild case of COVID-19. Thompson, Andie - Thony, Steve > Thompson, Dorothya - Thompson, Elexus > Thompson, Dwanna - Thompson, Dweese > Thompson, Dwayne 1-25 of 112 Contacts Contact Name 4. Do I feel an overwhelming feeling of guilt because I may have provoked something? Ive never seen anything like it, Sanders said. Lundberg conducted the interview because Thompson had a prior commitment to teach a class at the police academy. After The First 48. And Im a person who thinks your behavior tonight doesnt add up. He pointed his finger at her. When he finished, he left a packet of evidence that hed compiled for the grand jurors to peruse, including the results of two polygraphs that concluded that Lord had not shown deception when she said she had not shot Burnside. . She was Miss Right as far as he was concerned, Jaffe replied. Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson hunts for a band of carjacking killers that are terrorizing a neighborhood. Lundberg gently brought up the bloodied towels in the kitchen, asking if she had used them to wipe blood off her body. Jaffe said he had sped back to Burnsides home, arriving at the same time as the paramedics. 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. Her voice shook when she spoke. Had she washed up with towels before the paramedics and police arrived? Why did you wait seven minutes before calling 911? he yelled. Jurors in a civil trial on Thursday got to watch a dramatic video of that tense and aggressive interrogation of Lord, who is now suing Thompson for false arrest in a federal civil trial. But as the case made its way through the courts, she maintained her innocenceand claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. In his opinion, it was perfectly plausible that in the heat of the argument with Burnside, she had taken his pistol, slipped up behind him, and pulled the trigger. 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 those mistakes do not amount to malice., Tittle, however, wasted no time going on the attack, telling the jury in his opening statement, There is not and was not a shred of credible evidence to suggest that Olivia Lord had anything to do with Michaels death. I know that he could get dramatic and a little crazy when he drank. On August 6 Brown signed the report, and Thompson was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. He had on a dark fedora, a dark suit, a white shirt with a tie, and dress shoes. Whats more, he said, Thompson had left out of the affidavit the fact that Burnside, who was right-handed, had been shot at point-blank range in his right temple, which would give a judge another reason to believe he had committed suicide. He had on a dark fedora, a dark suit, a white shirt with a tie, and dress shoes. Dwayne Thompson and Kim Sanders are both grizzled veterans of the Dallas police homicide unit. Of course not, she said. Then U.S. district judge Barbara Lynn gaveled the court to order. Lord seemed to be trying to control her breathing. 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. It was Lundberg, who had gone to Parkland to examine Burnsides body. 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