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
The flames from the riots in Dallas/FW would be smoldering as we speak, er, type.
The malee will ensue. We haven't heard any of the PC crowd going nuts yet simply because they haven't figured out an angle...Give it time.
They're busy right now calculating whether they can get any political juice out of this. It looks to be very complicated--
You've got a woman, so that's +20 points;
Black (+50);
She's not a single mother (+0);
Hit a white male (+5);
But he's homeless (-30);
She was driving drunk (-15);
It happened in Texas so it's George Bush's fault (+45);
Divide by 4.7, multiply by the square root of -1.........
I have no idea if she would have or not. I kinda doubt it, but I also believe she and her friends would not have found it quite so amusing if he had been black. No matter what race he was, she really needs to be put out of society, into prison, and rot there for the rest of her life. I would like to see her receive death, but since it was not premeditated murder, she won't. Too bad.
Bring back PUBLIC HANGINGS!
This case is sickening beyond description!
They just need to take the Calypso Louie Million Man March math course starting at $29.99, no that's $59.95, no that's $89.99
LOL
But one must pity the sharks.
They keep saying this. Wonder why?
My own experience with the Girl Scouts led me to conclude that it would be a great training-ground for a cold-blooded killer.
Yes, we can see it coming. Another article talked about how she was a girl scout who helped retarded people. They will probably find some semester where she was an "honor student" and that will be the characterization used by her lawyer and picked up by the media"
"Girl Scout and Honor Student...."
They are already giving the informant the Linda Tripp treatment.
It won't be long before the media falls in line...Then the story will be:
"Girl Scout and Honor Student betrayed by friend..."
Failure to help is one thing -- keeping others from helping is something else all together. Tying a person up in one's garage is one thing, but it becomes murder when you leave him there without providing what he needs to sustain life,
Hitting him with her car was one thing, but keeping him locked up in her garage knowing that doing so would cause his death, comes pretty close to first degree murder.
This Man entered her life accidentally. She panicked when she discovered the condition she was in. Although distrought about this other person presence, he was an inconvienience in her life. She enlisted the aid of others to get rid of her inconvienience.
Comments?
How's that for lawyering. He tells the judge that she doesn't know where to go and has no place to go, and therefore is not a flight risk. So, in other words, if she KNEW of a place to go, and if she HAD a place to go to, she would be outta there. Sorry counselor, she's already received help in dumping the body and trying to destroy evidence. With friends like that, I doubt finding a place to go to would be all that difficult. Bail should $1 million.
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