Free Republic

Embattled lawyer spurs DA's inquiry 01/19/2003 By HOWARD SWINDLE / The Dallas Morning News A controversial lawyer, already at battle with a state bar disciplinary commission, is also under scrutiny by prosecutors over a sworn statement she made to government authorities. At the center of the new inquiry by the Dallas County district attorney's office is an affidavit that criminal defense lawyer Catherine Mehaffey Shelton made in late 2001 to the sheriff's department to guarantee a client's $25,000 bail bond. Ms. Shelton swore in the document that there were no judgments pending against her. At the time, however, Ms....

Malvo can be tried as adult 01/16/2003 Associated Press FAIRFAX, Va. - Citing what he called strong circumstantial evidence, a judge ruled Wednesday that 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo can be tried as an adult, making him eligible for the death penalty. Juvenile Court Judge Charles Maxfield made his decision after a hearing in which prosecutors said that Mr. Malvo tried to extort $10 million from authorities during the killing spree and that fingerprints on the murder weapon and other evidence tied the teenager to four attacks, three of them fatal. Mr. Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, 42,...

FW probe led to Townshend's arrest 01/14/2003 By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV FORT WORTH - The arrest of rock legend Pete Townshend on suspicion of possessing child pornography has a link to North Texas. Mr. Townshend's arrest Monday stems from a 1999 investigation in Fort Worth. That probe was called Operation Avalanche, a reference to Landslide Productions, Inc., a Fort Worth-based Internet company that ran a multi-million dollar child pornography business. It has turned into the world's biggest child porn investigation ever. "We collected a database that Landslide had and then we shared that information throughout this country and...