Windshield death suspect back in jail
Posted on 03/09/2002 2:34:29 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Windshield death suspect back in jail
Bail raised to $250,000; FW woman taken into custody for third time
03/09/2002
FORT WORTH - A woman accused of hitting a man with her car and leaving him to die, entangled in her windshield, returned to jail Friday when a judge raised her bail from $10,000 to $250,000.
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Even if the bail is met, Ms. Mallard will spend the weekend in jail. Probation officers in charge of monitoring bond conditions cannot pick her up until Monday morning, said Lt. Mack West, jail supervisor.
Her bond conditions, which 371st District Judge James Wilson set during a hearing, include being under house arrest at her parents' Fort Worth home, wearing an electronic monitor, no driving, no alcohol use, and drug testing three times a week.
LAWRENCE JENKINS / DMN Dorothy Ballard (left) accompanies her daughter, Chante J. Mallard, to the court hearing in Fort Worth. |
Judge Wilson also placed a gag order on Ms. Mallard's lawyer and on prosecutors in the case. Her parents attended the hearing but declined to comment.
Ms. Mallard, a nurse's aide who was fired Thursday after the murder charge became public, sobbed in the courtroom and continually dabbed her eyes with a tissue before sheriff's deputies led her away.
During the hourlong hearing, defense attorney Mike Heiskell brought Ms. Mallard's parents and her brother, a lieutenant with the Fort Worth Fire Department, to testify about the former Girl Scout's willingness to attend future court proceedings.
"I guarantee you she's not going anywhere. She doesn't have anywhere to go and doesn't know where to go," Mr. Heiskell said, asking the judge to "look past the emotion and determine what is right and just."
But Assistant District Attorney Richard Alpert argued that the $10,000 bond Ms. Mallard posted Wednesday was insufficient and that she has an unstable work history and sought counseling only after she was charged in Mr. Biggs' death.
"It's no secret the community is outraged by her actions," Mr. Alpert said. "This defendant has friends who helped her cover up the crime."
Police said Ms. Mallard struck Mr. Biggs in October as he walked along U.S. Highway 287 near the Loop 820 split, and then drove home with him entangled in her windshield.
Although he was severely injured, Mr. Biggs, a former school bus driver and bricklayer who was homeless at the time of the accident, was not dead, police said. Ms. Mallard left him trapped in her car, which she hid in the garage of her home on the south side of Fort Worth, investigators said.
Police said that Ms. Mallard repeatedly apologized to the injured man, checking on him several times over a two- or three-day period, but that she never summoned help. After Mr. Biggs died, Ms. Mallard and at least one friend dumped his body in a nearby park, where he was found Oct. 27, police said.
A woman came to police in February, saying Ms. Mallard admitted to the crime at a party, police said. Investigators questioned Ms. Mallard and arrested her Feb. 26 on a felony charge of failure to stop and render aid.
Mrs. Mallard posted a $5,000 bond that day, but she was arrested a second time after police upgraded the charge to murder Wednesday. She was released that day after posting a $10,000 bond.
A trial date has not been set.
Police said Friday that they are continuing to investigate the case and are looking for anyone else who may have helped dump Mr. Biggs' body.
E-mail ncalaway@dallasnews.com
God bless you and protect you. I thank God for you and our military. My step-son is in the Navy, now back out to sea again, in an "undisclosed location," protecting us and the rest of the world from the terrorists. Of course, I don't know what he's doing. He's always in our prayers. And it's hard on his wife with their new baby, being left alone for weeks and weeks because of this war.
Today, she's a victim.
Tomorrow, she will be painted as a heroine.
They will probably give her one of those "Image" awards.
I'm sure Jesse will have something to say about it... as soon as he comes up with a word to rhyme with "defenestrate."
So far, I haven't heard Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson racing to her defense. Guess even they can see nothing to gain by defending her.
I do have a question for everyone. If this informant was promised anonymity and the feds let her down, won't this make other potential informants think twice before doing the right thing? After all, this informant has death threats against her and she is obviously distressed.
She best hope her peers do not do what is "right and just" but rather do what is PC and liberal.
Please refrain from such gross generalizations. Golems, like heroes, come in every skin color.
And.... subsidized by the GOVERNMENT you and me no less!!!!!!
I think you are wrong. She's not going to get an OJ Jury in Texas. Even if they move the trial out of Ft. Worth, it's likely to be to an even tougher place for her to win.
Houston, which has a large black population, leads the nation in sending people to Death Row, and the race of the criminal isn't a factor. Moving the trial to West Texas would be funny, only because the jury would deliberate about 30 seconds before finding her guilty.
The other thing is that you're not seeing the poverty pimps rushing to her defense, at least not yet. This is pretty indefensible, and I'd be surprised if Jesse Jackson or others want to associate themselves with her.
So, the odds of a jury coming up with a not guilty verdict based on racial or political reasons is extremely remote.
Good point. I'm not sure she would have,but I seriously doubt she would have been giggling about it at a party later on,or that all of her friends but one would have helped with the cover-up. If nothing else ,they would have dropped him off somewhere and made a anomonous call for a ambulance for him.
How ELSE can we explain ABORTION being legal in this country??
I agree.
As horrible as the Byrd case was, they guy was dead within a short period of time.
This poor man had to deal with the excruciating pain of his broken bones, along with the glass enbedded into his body. Apparently, for days. Until he bled to death.
It reminds me of Medieval torture devices.
And she giggled while recounting the story....
Doesn't look like it. In the link, the detective didn't know how her name was spelled until he looked up her vehicle registration (point #45). Thereafter, he spelled it correctly. The informant apparently didn't know the correct spelling, either. The detective simply spelled it phonetically.
Yesterday's Washington Times had it spelled correctly.
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