Most of my articles are written to inform prospective clients of their rights and expectations while they stare down the barrel of an upcoming prosecution. Information helps empower people and place themselves back in the driver’s seat of their own lives – especially when facing prosecutions for criminal charges. Sometimes, I do like to have fun with the law, and since it is October, I’d like to tell our readers here at Hindieh Law about one of the spookiest cases I ever handled – and it was during OCTOBER of 2012.
Back in October of 2012 I was still a prosecutor at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, assigned to a misdemeanor trial court. I was assigned a case that had been filed by the Highland Park Police Department. Now, Highland Park prides itself on never having too many felonies filed there, and so it was in the interests of the Highland Park Police Department to file cases as often as possible as misdemeanors as opposed to felonies – to keep their public safety numbers looking good. This was and is commonly known in Dallas County.
That’s exactly what happened when I received a criminal trespass of a habitation case. It was a case involving an absolutely gorgeous defendant that used to be a model. Her mugshot picture was stunning – which is a rare occurrence as you can imagine. She had broken into a temporarily vacant home in Highland Park, and taken children’s toys out of the house and was loading them into her car when she was stopped by a Highland Park Police officer. It turns out, this house was becoming a nuisance for the Highland Park Police Department. It was frequently broken into by kids in the neighborhood because of its notoriety for being a place where weird religious rituals were conducted – maybe even witchcraft. Because of this, the house was often surveilled by the Highland Park Police Department to make sure no one was trying to get into the house.
In this case, the defendant had called a locksmith and told the locksmith that the house belonged to her – but she had locked herself out. The locksmith explained to the police that seeing a beautiful and well-dressed woman in Highland Park, he opened the door for her without suspecting anything was astray. Once inside, the locksmith waited outside the house for some reason, as the defendant took toys from rooms upstairs and loaded them into her car. That’s when she was stopped by Highland Park Police.
Now, normally when you break into a house, or a structure, and take things that don’t belong to you, you are charged with burglary. Perhaps not burglary of a habitation in this case, because the home was unoccupied, but at least burglary of a building – which is a state jail felony in most cases. Here, she was charged only with criminal trespass of a habitation – a Class A misdemeanor. But as previously mentioned, Highland Park Police will go out of their way to make a felony into a misdemeanor where they can. But that’s not what’s weird about this case…
Turns out the defendant had a history with the house. She was mailing her anti-psychotic medication to the owner of the house. When I spoke to the owner of the house, he told me that he was receiving her meds, and that he knew her and her family. He told me that his parents were part of a small and exclusive religious sect, that would perform rituals at the house in the 70’s and 80’s, and that the defendant’s parents were members of the same sect. When I spoke to the defendant’s therapist, he disclosed to me that the defendant and her sibling were often abused by members of the sect when they were taken to the house. As a result, the defendant had developed a fixation on the house, and would develop childlike behaviors and seek to take toys and relive her childhood when near the house. This culminated into her plan to break into the house and steal toys. You know what’s weirder? Randomly, during questioning of the locksmith, the locksmith admitted to Highland Park Police, that he was also a member of the same religious sect as the defendant’s parents. Freaky huh? I don’t know what happened in the resolution of the case, because I was reassigned to a different division of the DA’s Office before I finished working on that spooky case, but I would be interested to find out!
If you are facing a charge in Highland Park or University Park, Call Hindieh Law today. We can help resolve your case to your satisfaction. Even if it’s a spooky case! Happy Halloween everyone!
