A Grapevine man has been found guilty of threatening and yelling racial slurs at an African-American worker from TXU Energy.
Thomas Fann reportedly commanded his pit bull to kill the worker in the 2010 incident, according to testimony in his two-day trial that ended earlier this week.
Fann, who told police he was a "southern boy" who didn't like black people, was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered him to pay court costs and a fine of $735, complete anger control counseling, take a substance abuse evaluation and perform 24 hours of community service.
Federal prosecutors and the attorney for the owner of an Arlington strip club who is accused of targeting Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck with a murder-for-hire plot have agreed to push back the deadline for an indictment.
According to court filings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Wolfe and J. Warren St. John, who represents Flashdancer Cabaret owner Ryan Walker Grant, agreed to extend the deadline to indict to July 19. The filings say that the two sides are conducting discovery as well as negotiations that could lead to a plea bargain.
Under the Speedy Trial Act, federal indictments must be filed within 30 days of the arrest. Federal agents detained Grant on April 9, meaning today would have been the deadline.
Grant is accused of trying to hire men from Mexico through an intermediary to kill Cluck and Dallas attorney Tom Brandt, who represents Arlington in cases involving sexually oriented businesses. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton ordered Grant held without bail on April 20.
St. John declined to comment through his office. Wolfe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
-Patrick M. Walker
Five churches, two mosques, 13 businesses and one residence are among 21 North Texas addresses that recently received white powder in envelopes, the FBI reported.
Field tests have indicated that the letters contained cornstarch (like the substance pictured right), but local hazardous-materials teams have been sent to handle and analyze the letters, which are being investigated by the FBI, U.S. postal inspectors and local cops.
The envelopes, according to the FBI, contain "notes," although the contents are not being disclosed.
"We are not commenting at this time on the content of the note," Special Agent Mark White said Tuesday in the FBI's Dallas office.
What's the big deal with cornstarch?
You'll recall after Sept. 11. 2001 when the threat of letter-borne anthrax made headlines. (This archive photo at left was taken in Washington D.C.)
-- Compiled by Bill Miller from the work of Domingo Ramirez Jr.
For Austin police, the arrest of Edward Eberle comes down to "what might have been."
And, police said, what might have been was frightening.
Police arrested Eberle after his wife alerted police to the contents of text message he sent her that seemed to portend a threat of violence at his former place of employment -- an Austin Wal-Mart.
Eberle was arrested near the entrance to the store -- where he was fired in March -- carrying a 9mm handgun and "an unreasonable amount of ammunition," the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Eberle had texted his wife with message that he was going to hurt someone and encouraged her to "sell any story you want to tell to the highest bidder," the paper reported. He also texted his sister, telling her to turn on the TV.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said Eberle was a potential "mass homicide suspect."
-- Lance Murray
