Billie Dunn's Attorney, John Young

Warning:  The following article will not yield confidence to those worried that justice for Hailey Dunn may not be found. 


Reports are that Billie Jean Dunn's attorney, John Young, was parked in a known drug area when approached by a local police officer.  Young got out of the car, pointed a 9 mm handgun at the officer, was restrained and arrested.  The report is that Young was highly intoxicated.  


Was he in the area to purchase drugs?  Statement Analysis will cover any statements made by him, if local media seeks any information from him. 


If Young was intoxicated as reported, and in his vehicle, it wouldn't be the first time.  Previously it had lethal repercussions. 


Media oversight can help justice, as Florida seems to understand. Transparency often keeps workers in line, and limits the opportunity for corruption among those who like to extend 'professional courtesy' while justice is ignored. 


The following article came from the Dallas Morning News, November 22, 1992. 


The Dallas Morning News 
 
 
Uproar over pathologist continues
Retribution alleged by defense lawyers; Lubbock County DA denies cover-up Lee Hancock Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News  
Published: November 22, 1992  
 
LUBBOCK -- The litany of horrors has abated, and Ralph Erdmann, the Panhandle pathologist who faked dozens of autopsies, falsified evidence and helped broker body parts, has long left Texas as a felon. But investigations and indictments against Mr. Erdmann's critics have spawned a remarkably vicious fight among the Panhandle's legal professionals. Lubbock defense lawyers say that Lubbock County District Attorney Travis Ware and his allies are trying to cover up Mr. Erdmann's shoddy practices by investigating or indicting his critics months after prosecutors declared the Erdmann cases closed. In the most politically sensitive case, some lawyers and police contend, Mr. Ware is using indictments to silence a police officer who says Mr. Erdmann faked evidence to help one of Mr. Ware's assistants avoid a 1990 felony charge. The assistant killed a pedestrian while driving drunk in Lubbock. Mr. Ware dismisses the accusations as "rumors, innuendo and manipulation of the news media.'"There was no Erdmann cover-up in this office,' said Mr. Ware, 42, a pistol-toting prosecutor who publicly vents his strong dislike for other lawyers and tells constituents that he often wears a bulletproof vest. In September, a special prosecutor from the Texas attorney general's office called in by Mr. Ware agreed to allow Mr. Erdmann to be sentenced to 10 years' probation. The sentence was exchanged for no-contest pleas to seven felonies in connection with botched, faked or falsified autopsies in Lubbock and two other Panhandle counties. At the time, prosecutors said the plea should bring an end to the Erdmann scandal -- a bizarre saga that included tales of the pathologist's botching one murder case by throwing away a homicide victim's head, embarrassing authorities in another investigation by returning a murder victim's body with the wrong head, routinely fabricating autopsy reports and making arrangements for his wife to earn more than $17,000 by brokering bones and tissue from the bodies he autopsied. If anything, however, Mr. Erdmann's plea only deepened the feud. A forensic pathologist hired to replace Mr. Erdmann recently resigned. She alleged improper pressure from Mr. Ware's office to control her work and even her social life, with warnings against befriending a police officer who brought Mr. Erdmann's misdeeds to light. A district attorney's investigator also recently resigned, complaining that the office was conducting an unethical witch hunt against critics of Mr. Erdmann. Mr. Ware said both women's charges were unfounded or exaggerated. Members of the defense lawyers' association have launched a barrage of news conferences criticizing the district attorney. Some are supporting a petition to oust Mr. Ware, and some are selling buttons bearing the slogan "Impeach Travis Ware.' Several are studying Texas law governing removal of prosecutors, including a case that ended this week with the ouster of a district attorney in Fort Bend County this week. "What they're doing in Lubbock is impressive, and it's literally unprecedented,' said Steven Losch, a New York death penalty expert involved in efforts to expose Mr. Erdmann's misdeeds. "This is the first time in the entire death-penalty belt that a local defense bar has organized to do something like this. They've donated hundreds and hundreds of hours, and they're standing up to some very powerful people.' In response, supporters of Mr. Ware are circulating petitions praising the prosecutor, who has appeared before at least one residents' group to denounce his critics. He describes them as criminals, crooked cops and shyster lawyers. "We want a neutral investigation of what's gone on with Erdmann and all the cases he was involved in,' said Rod S. Hobson, president of the 100-member Lubbock Criminal Defense Lawyers' Association. "And I don't know any way this is going to die down as long as he (Mr. Ware) is in office. He's the one threatening people, indicting people who testify against him.' Mr. Ware says an assistant state attorney general made public a letter in July stating that the Lubbock district attorney had acted properly in the Erdmann case. He says it is a coincidence that two Lubbock police officers and a noted capital defense lawyer who helped bring Mr. Erdmann's wrongdoing to light face separate criminal indictments.


 The two-term Republican prosecutor says it is also coincidence that he recently asked the U.S. attorney's office to investigate three lawyers who are among his fiercest critics. He refuses to detail what he turned over to federal authorities, saying only: "We've got five or six criminal defense attorneys out of a total of 500 lawyers in this town who have gotten themselves entwined in some things we're looking into, and I guess the best defense is a good offense.'Emerging hostilities The hostility surfaced after Mr. Erdmann was indicted in February in Hockley County on a charge of faking an autopsy. Defense lawyers say the indictment confirmed suspicions that the 65-year-old pathologist routinely cut corners to help Panhandle prosecutors. Mr. Ware came to the defense of the pathologist, who had performed autopsies for Lubbock County since the early 1980s. Mr. Erdmann immediately retained state Sen. John Montford as his defense lawyer. 


The Lubbock Democrat is Mr. Ware's mentor and former boss. The furor intensified in April, when Atlanta lawyer Millard Farmer and Mr. Losch began presenting evidence aimed at discrediting the pathologist in a pretrial hearing in a Randall County capital murder case in which Mr. Erdmann performed the autopsy. Lubbock police Sgt. Bill Hubbard testified that Mr. Ware warned police against publicly discussing problems with the pathologist's work because defense lawyers "would have a field day.' Before he testified, Sgt. Hubbard's attorney warned the court that the officer feared retaliation. The testimony by the ordained Methodist minister and one-time Lubbock police officer of the year was a bombshell. T


he Randall County hearing adjourned, but the testimony prompted state District Judge John McFall of Lubbock to launch an independent investigation. He said the move was designed to remove the Erdmann case from Mr. Ware's office. Using an obscure Texas statute, the judge appointed local lawyer Tommy Turner to investigate for a court of inquiry. "Me and Travis had kind of a little confrontation over it,' Judge McFall said. "He was probably aiming to cover up.' Mr. Ware terms the inquiry a "kangaroo court' that was unnecessarbecause he was already seeking an independent inquiry by the Texas attorney general's office. Judge McFall said he wanted an outside investigator to allay fears that Mr. Ware could influence even an assistant attorney general. "I don't think there's any question he (Mr. Ware) was trying to cover Travis,' he said. Immediately, Lubbock defense lawyer Floyd Holder said, he and other lawyers began hearing that Mr. Ware was threatening to investigate the pathologist's antagonists, an unusual alliance of police officers and defense lawyers. Mr. Holder, one of the most enthusiastic critics, fired off a letter warning that the district attorney "stepped over the line.' "If I perceive that you are using your power to retaliate, directly or indirectly, I will make you my life's work,' said the letter, which received wide local publicity. "Back off.' Within weeks, documents from Mr. Ware's law school files were being faxed to Lubbock lawyers. The documents showed that Mr. Ware was kicked out of the Texas Tech University law school in May 1977 for plagiarism. Mr. Ware will not comment on his law school record. He was later readmitted and received a law degree in 1978. "We did it, and it's not that I'm particularly proud of it, but at the same time, the relevance of it goes back to what I see as a pattern in his life,' Mr. Hobson said.Erdmann loses license With the Randall County hearing adjourned, the court of inquiry began in late June. Mr. Turner, the independent investigator, said he and police were stunned to learn that Mr. Ware gave information about their investigation to Mr. Erdmann's attorneys, who were still staunchly maintaining that their client was innocent. Mr. Ware said he disclosed information as required by law. Mr. Turner said the action was improper because Mr. Ware had removed himself from the case. In July, Judge McFall ordered evidence from the inquiry turned over to a grand jury. In August, with indictments and investigations mounting against him, Mr. Erdmann surrendered his medical license. On Sept. 21, he pleaded no contest to seven felonies. Soon, his critics were being indicted. On Oct. 14, Mr. Farmer was indicted in Randall County on a witness-tampering charge. The indictment alleged that the nationally noted lawyer threatened the pathologist with lawsuits, embarrassment and accusations of criminal wrongdoing unless he changed his ruling in a Randall County homicide. Mr. Farmer said he did nothing improper. The day after Mr. Farmer was indicted, the pretrial hearing for Mr. Erdmann reopened in Randall County.


 Lubbock police Officer Patrick J. Kelly took the witness stand to tell how Mr. Erdmann falsified evidence in a case involving a Lubbock County assistant prosecutor. The 13-year officer testified that he watched the autopsy of Darlene Hall, a pedestrian killed by then-assistant district attorney John Young in March 1990. Subsequent blood tests showed that Mr. Young was legally drunk at the time. Officer Kelly testified that the pathologist had never drawn blood from Ms. Hall's body, and Mr. Erdmann falsely stated in his autopsy report that he had. The testimony contradicted the pathologist's sworn statements that the woman was more drunk than Mr. Young -- information that helped Mr. Young avoid a felony indictment. 


Mr. Ware says Mr. Erdmann's lab reports showed that the woman was drunk, and a recent inquiry by the Texas Rangers exonerated the district attorney's office of any wrongdoing in the case. Critics contend that the Rangers' report, prepared at Mr. Ware's request, was superficial. They contend that it ignored evidence that Mr. Erdmann lied under oath during an April 1990 inquest hearing into the woman's death. 


The report stated that Mr. Ware's office acted properly. It also noted, however, that the Lubbock police officer assigned to investigate the case complained that "the DA's office attempted to alter the course of investigation' by giving police information intended to raise questions about the victim's character. In the inquest, the pathologist testified that he personally had drawn five blood samples from the body. He testified that tests showed that the blood contained three widely varying alcohol levels, all well above the limit for legal presumption of drunkenness. Two prominent pathologists and a nationally known toxicologist told The News that Mr. Erdmann's test method and results were "bizarre' and "highly irregular.'


 In an April 1992 interview, however, Mr. Erdmann told The News that he didn't draw or collect blood from Ms. Hall's body -- a statement that appears to corroborate Mr. Kelly's testimony. "It was taken by the emergency room and run by them,' Mr. Erdmann said. "I did not take the sample of blood myself.' Mr. Erdmann also testified that the woman's blood contained Valium and stated in his autopsy report that the drug and alcohol "may have contributed to this unfortunate death.' 


That directly contradicts toxicology reports from his own lab and an outside lab stating that no drugs were found in the woman's blood. Mr. Erdmann, who could not be reached for comment, has not been charged with wrongdoing in the case. But Judge McFall, the state district judge who ordered the original probe of Mr. Erdmann, said he doubts whether the case was adequately investigated. "Something in there was wrong, and his (Mr. Ware's) tracks are all over it,' the judge said. Mr. Turner said: "The real question is, where did the blood come from? God, Erdmann kept stuff like that in his trunk. There's no way to tell if the blood was Darlene Hall's or whose.'


Officers indicted In the wake of those allegations, two of Mr. Erdmann's critics were indicted. On Oct. 21, Sgt. Hubbard was indicted in Lubbock on four charges of falsifying or tampering with government records and aggravated perjury in connection with two searches unrelated to the Erdmann case. Sgt. Hubbard, his attorney and police said the charges were thoroughly examined in 1991 in a highly publicized, nine-week police investigation. No criminal wrongdoing was found, and Sgt. Hubbard received a written reprimand. "You have to ask why this came up as a criminal charge only now,' said Sgt. Hubbard, who says he has done nothing wrong. "Never did I think that vengeance and vindictiveness would go this far. It appears that anyone who publicly opposes Travis Ware pays a price.' Mr. Ware said his office was not seeking revenge inreinvestigating Mr. Hubbard a year after the police inquiry. The prosecutor said his office knew little about the case until late August, when his chief assistant's husband, a police officer, began talking about problems with Sgt. Hubbard and asked: "Why didn't y'all get Hubbard when you had your shot?' Mr. Ware said his first assistant found potential wrongdoing, and the attorney general was called in. He says his office had nothing to do with the subsequent indictments. Mr. Ware's office administrator acknowledges that the new investigation might never have begun if the officer had not "chosen to draw attention to himself.' Within a week, 152 of the department's 306 officers signed a petition supporting the officer. The Police Department was rocked again Wednesday, when Officer Kelly was indicted in Randall County on five counts of aggravated perjury in connection with his testimony about Mr. Erdmann. Mr. Ware said the indictments resulted from a Lubbock police investigation independent of his office. He says the charges shouldn't be suprising because prosecutors have considered Officer Kelly a problem since they accused him of fabricating evidence in a major 1987 burglary case. Brian Murray, Mr. Kelly's attorney, said his client is only the latest innocent victim in the Erdmann scandal. "He was entirely truthful, and that's what got him into trouble,' Mr. Murray said. "I think we need to get a surgeon general's warning that testifying truthfully about Erdmann can be hazardous to your health.' All sides say the controversy will most likely get uglier. "They've sent intermediaries to ask if there's not some way we can settle this,' said Mr. Hobson, the president of Lubbock Criminal Defense Lawyers' Association. "Why not pistols on the courthouse steps? It's too bad they've outlawed dueling. That's what the mood is out here right now.' Mr. Ware maintains that any turmoil won't affect his office. "It's just a handful of people that we do have problems with in this office. I guess we wouldn't have a problem with them if they didn't continually take jabs at our office,' he said. "This is not a game. We're playing for keeps.'  
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