If you ever see me, run.
Boo.
Posted on 12/23/2005 6:54:22 AM PST by i_dont_chat
Trial judge has an awkward encounter with Durst in Galleria
Two days before Robert Durst violated parole with a trip to Galveston County last Friday, the New York millionaire had a close, strange encounter with the judge who presided over his sensational murder trial two years ago.
State officials say Houston's Galleria wasn't on parolee Durst's list of approved stops Dec. 14, when he ran across state District Judge Susan Criss of Galveston.
Criss said she was Christmas shopping when she saw a familiar figure coming toward her, a man talking on a cell phone.
"I saw him and thought 'Oh, my God,' " Criss said.
As the two met in the mall, Durst was trying to place her, Criss said.
"I know you, I know you," Criss quoted Durst as saying. "And then he realized who I was, and he dropped his phone and it fell apart."
In November 2003, a jury in Criss' court acquitted Durst of murder, even though he admitted cutting up the body of neighbor Morris Black, 71, and tossing the parts into Galveston Bay in garbage bags.
Criss later ordered that Durst be held on a $2 billion bond on bail-jumping and evidence-tam-pering charges. Durst pleaded guilty to those crimes, received a five-year sentence but was credited for time served.
He remains under "superintensive supervision" by a parole officer.
Criss said she didn't know what to say to Durst, so she said the obvious.
"How ya doing, Bob?" she said. "He said he was doing fine."
The two then discussed the current activities of attorneys Dick DeGuerin, Mike Ramsey and Chip Lewis, who represented Durst in his murder trial. DeGuerin now represents U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and Ramsey and Lewis are preparing the defense of former Enron Chairman Ken Lay.
"I can't believe you stopped to talk to me," Criss quoted Durst as saying.
"What was I going to do?" Criss said. "Run away and scream?"
As the awkward conversation ended, Criss said she started walking away and found herself saying: "Take care of yourself and have a happy holiday."
Criss said she was not aware of the terms of Durst's parole.
Word of the encounter filtered through journalists to parole officials who already had arrested Durst on Tuesday on a parole violation for his trip to Galveston. Durst visited the office of a lawyer, a physician's home and the house in which a struggle between Durst and Black over a pistol resulted in Black's death in 2001.
Mike Viesca, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said Thursday that Durst was supposed to go only to places to which he had permission from his parole officer to visit. The Galleria was not on Durst's Dec. 14 list, he said.
Durst remained in the Harris County Jail on Thursday pending a parole revocation hearing expected to be held in January.
Criss said she expects to be subpoenaed to testify at the hearing in Houston.
kevin.moran@chron.com
If you're a cross-dressing homosexual and ever on trial for murdering you're gay lover and cutting his head off then throwing it into the bay, by all means you better call Dick Deguerin! ..he's the man!
Looks like Durst is just a-beggin' to be thrown back in jail.
On Wednesday, Dec. 14, he goes to a place which is not on his list of approved places to visit.
Two days later, he leaves the city and goes to Galveston, and visits, among other places, the apartment building where he has admitted he cut off the head of his neighbor. Incidentally, a person who testified against Durst still lives in the apartment building and was TERRIFIED to see Durst on the property.
Society should put this guy away.
And SHAME on the jury who acquitted him.
He was sentenced to "occasionally making small-talk with stupid judges at the mall".
THAT just cracked me up!!!
Shame on the prosecuter who couldn't get a conviction.
And there are more facts to the case that the media puts out.
'Course that doesn't make a good story.
If you ever see me, run.
Boo.
First, the judge lets him back out on the streets. Second, she hangs around to chit chat. But she is from Houston...
Wrong. This judge did EVERYTHING she could to keep this jerk locked up.
After his acquittal, she set a $3 billion bond for his skipping bond. (She said $3 billion, with a "B".)
Durst's attorney's got the bond reduced and his case removed from her court.
Judge Criss is Robert Durst's worst enemy.
But she is from Houston...
Just ask Tom DeLay.
So9
It was just a domestic disturbance.
It's not like he killed someone while robbing a Stop-n-Go.
Texas courts ahd juries have a long tradition of staying out of peoples personal business.
Even if they are crazy.
So9
For the record, Judge Criss is not from Houston, nor does she live in Houston, Harris County.
She is a Galveston County District Judge, 212th District Court.
Oh my goodness, that is the scariest thing I have seen in a long time. Thanks for renewing my fear of clowns a thousandfold, Laz!
No different from O.J., Blake and Michael Jackson. Money talks.
It certainly buys a competent defense.
But the OJ case was pathetially mishandled by the prosecution --- they should have tried that in 2-3 days, not 2-3 months.
And the MJ case was weak. The family were clear grifters. Yes, MJ is a pedophile. But you have to show it was with the particular victim at issue --- and that "victim" was a born con artist.
Blake --- harder case. Here, I think the jury said, "The victim was a crook and deserved it."
… held on a $2 billion bond…
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"Anthropologists have observed that in societies that lack formal political processes, sorcery accusations are often an indication of other social and economic tensions and conflicts. They have analyzed the killing of accused sorcerers as a form of control through which antisocial people are eliminated and social cohesion is reinforced."
[What Is Witchcraft?]
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There was a time when
we could have just burned this guy
and moved on with life . . .
'morning...
Definitely a very big OOPS! I wonder if his bond (possibly record setting?) will be revoked.
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