5.17.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




This one actually ended up with a not guilty by reason of insanity


  • This is a long and detailed story of the trouble in the Sanger PD. At the center of the storm is a former Decatur PD officer.

  • I have a source who I trust implicitly who told me he saw an AR-15 quickly transferred from one car to another, and one party to another, on the courthouse square in Decatur yesterday. Nothing illegal about it, but that would certainly get your attention. 
  • This isn't good. Due to health issues, the Democrat senator had been in California from February up until last week. Now she doesn't remember it. Rumors of her decline have been rampant. 


  • I'll admit that I'm shallow because every time I see a photo of the victim who was killed by the 12 year old armed with an AR-15 style gun in Keene, my mind starts wandering as to why someone would ever get a face tattoo. (And, by the way, that's his son and not the shooter. And, yes, the whole thing is awful.)

  • The guy below was all over the news after the Allen Mall Massacre. He had all sorts of hot sports opinions about guns, but also claimed he was there at the scene providing aid before cops arrived.  But then Allen PD did an odd thing on Saturday by issuing a statement saying he was not credible. You don't see that very often. I don't know exactly what's going on behind the scenes here. 

  • Political gossip.

    • I have an idea. 

  • Personal shopping observation. I was in Home Depot's home and garden area and ran across this item. Never mind it being overpriced (it's a planter), but why would they put a sign up that shows the item has had only one online review and it was just one star? 


  • Legal nerdy stuff. I always try to glance at the online "Tarrant County DA Trial Board", and I noticed the "panel busted" notation this week. So what's that, you ask? 
    • It's really a slang term to denote a situation where an entire panel disqualified themselves with an answer to a lawyer's question during jury selection. It normally happens when one juror gives a disqualifying answer such as stating that he would not being able to follow some aspect of the law applicable to the case. It then (somehow) becomes clear to the entire panel that such such an answer just guaranteed for that guy that he was not going to end up on the jury because of his answer.  
    • The other potential jurors aren't sure why, but they now know by just saying, "I don't think I'd be able to follow that law", they will be getting out of a potentially long jury service as well. And they know no one is going to yell at them or reprimand them for answering that way. So when the next potential juror is then asked if he agrees with the previous answer, and he says yes. And that emboldens the next in line who also answers yes. And the next. And the next. And suddenly you have an avalanche of disqualified jurors. Soon there's not enough left. Ergo, the "jury panel is busted." 
    • If it happens to a prosecutor who is asking the question, it's probably a screw up. He'll scramble to try to try and reword the question to save the panel.  If it happens to a defense lawyer, it normally means he got lucky and he'll roll with it before the judge can jump in and try save the panel.

  • I should have a business show on CNBC or Bloomberg. All I'd ever say is, "Warehouses, people!" Today's paper: 
  • What a price tag . . .