Anonymous That she didnt mean to do it.. And on this morning, Thompson was especially interested in the victimology of Burnside. 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. She did her own interviews, speaking, for instance, with a firefighter who said he believed he had accidentally kicked the gun away from Burnsides body. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide 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. Wearing a black dress and black heels, Lord came into the courtroom, followed by her friends and family. 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. A lab technician had been unable to find any fingerprints on the Beretta because the gun had been covered in blood. Lord was released. When he wasnt solving murders, Thompson restored sports cars and tooled around in a black Corvette convertible. 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. No, said Lord. Lundberg paused again. Then U.S. district judge Barbara Lynn gaveled the court to order. Jaffe called Thompson back the next day and said that he had reached Lord. 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. After going through perfunctory questions about what happened that night, Thompsons voice boomed without warning. After telling Lord and Jaffe that he was sorry for their loss, Thompson asked them to sign releases agreeing to gunshot residue testsroutine procedure, he assured them. He had been a good-looking young man, with a magnificent, wide grin. 1983 claiming that she was wrongfully arrested for a killing that she did not commit, which landed her in jail for nine days. At the end of the interrogation, he had discarded her like trash.. A jury in federal civil court ruled Friday that a Dallas homicide detective, Dwayne Thompson, violated Lord's civil rights by maliciously having her arrested for a killing she didn't commit,. February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? He called Jaffe, who had also turned against Lord, to see if he could help him locate her. The detective was 47 years old and built like a linebacker at six feet two inches and 230 pounds. Physical evidence can be more baffling than conclusive. Im willing to accept that it might have been an accident. But what did you actually tell Michael during the argument? In October 2008 a mutual friend introduced her and Burnside at a small bar on Dallass Lower Greenville Avenue. Thompson and Lundberg drove to Rastegars house. She said that she had phoned Jaffe because she initially thought Burnside had fallen and was hurt. Sometimes I want to walk inside, thinking he will be there. 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. As for the question of blood spatter on Lords clothes, however, Quinton did have a definite opinion. Im just as baffled as you are, she said. On May 9, 2010, plaintiff Hephzibah Olivia Lord, 36, who works in mortgaging, was alone with her boyfriend at his home, in Dallas. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. 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. By that time, Lord was working as a loan officer, and although they were both romantically involved with other people, they were clearly attracted to each other. She needed pills to go to sleep. And then Thompson pounced. The officer shrugged. But Detective Dwayne Thompson testified Tuesday that nothing he has heard since his civil trial began last week has changed his opinion that Lord intentionally killed Burnside. 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. When Shearin called Lord with the news, she thanked him for all he had done for her, but then she said something else. They returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Lord, and ultimately the city had to pay her $1.2 million, which reportedly was the largest judgement of its kind in Dallas. Its difficult to go out in public without thinking someone is saying, Theres the girl who killed her boyfriend., Right at that moment, a waiter walked up, clearly taken with her, and asked if she was ready to order. Lundberg conducted the interview because Thompson had a prior commitment to teach a class at the police academy. Yes. The towels had been on the floor to soak up the water that had spilled when the dishwasher valve broke. Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. 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! 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. (For a philosophy class, she wrote a paper on Socrates being sentenced to death under false charges.) When she flew back to Dallas, she went straight to Shearins office. And whats really frightening is that Thompson could come back after me, plant some new fake evidence, and arrest me for murder again. Thompson, a 21-year veteran of the Police Department, has been a homicide detective since 2006. (2014) "When I work my cases, I don't have a dog in the fight," said Thompson, a homicide detective since 2006. The Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. She wanted to know why they were there. Add a bio, trivia, and more. View the profiles of people named Dwayne Thompson. 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. Political career [ edit] In 2014, Thompson ran for election to represent District 10 in the Tennessee House of Representatives, but lost to Republican incumbent Steve McManus. And a handful of Burnsides friends have reunited with Lord, saying they now believe that she had nothing to do with his death. Chasing a trail of clues, Thompson and the Dallas homicide team are always one step behind their suspect. But Detective Dwayne Thompson. It found that two particles characteristic of primer gunshot residue had been discovered on the back of Burnsides right hand and that one particle characteristic of primer gunshot residue had been discovered on the back of Lords left hand. A police officer receives a high degree of protection when he conducts a criminal investigation. By then, a couple of those friends had talked to Thompson, and he had made it clear to them just what he thought of Lord: he said he would stake his career on his belief that she had killed him. It was a very overwhelming issue., Thompson leaned back in his chair and stared at Lord. Ive never seen anything like it, Sanders said. They too had been talking to Thompson and they were furious. I went into the kitchen and he was on the floor and there was blood. 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. The idea that she would put a gun to his head and pull the trigger is just unfathomable.. 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. Lord seemed to be trying to control her breathing. How are you going to explain that to his family? Videos 1. At around twelve-thirty, the officer continued, a woman had called 911 from the house. He walked into the kitchen and nodded at Dale Lundberg, a detective who was on call that night to work as Thompsons backup. He was so compelling in front of the cameracajoling witnesses to open up and then lashing out at a suspectthat he looked like a television actor playing a detective. Lord continued to deny involvement in the death during questioning, saying she was in the bathroom when she heard the shot and called 911. 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. He asked Thompson if he had told one of Burnsides friends that this was the case of a lifetimethe kind of case that could make him famous. Comments: Editor's Note: Plaintiff will probably file an application for attorney's fees and costs, which will be substantial. And its going to come out.. They liked to say that when he pursued a suspect, he was as unstoppable as a locomotive. There was no question in her mind, she said, that she and Burnside would soon get married. 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. The officer pointed to a woman sitting on a chair in the front yard, her face in her hands. Yes you did!. Maybe he got dramatic and put the gun to his own head and said to Olivia, To hell with all this, Im just going to end it now. And then, accidentally, he pulled the trigger. In 2008, when the producers of The First 48, a reality series on the A&E network about homicide detectives in big-city police departments, came to Dallas to film some episodes, they were riveted by Thompson. He was simply doing his job, he tells his friends, hunting for answers about a mysterious death. He sustained a fatal contact gunshot wound to the right temple. 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