Fort Worth Weekly // August 3-9, 2022

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FEATURE It’s nearly impossible for the wrongfully convicted to receive justice in Tarrant County.

BY EDWARD BROWN

CITY IN CRISIS While MAGA cheers this juvenile judge on YouTube, some lawyers are fighting back.

BY EDWARD BROWN

SCREEN If Pam & Tommy is to be believed, the sacrificial blonde has not gone away.

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A livestream-happy juvenile judge appears more concerned with scoring MAGA points than keeping troubled kids safe.

Does Tarrant County’s justice system care at all about the wrongfully convicted?

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YouTube Justice

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A leaked complaint reveals allegations of misconduct by a controversial juvenile judge who remains popular among conservatives.

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Judge Alex Kim has received steady, largely critical press since his 2019 election to Texas’ 323rd District Court, which oversees juvenile crimes in Tarrant County.

Two years ago, a committee of local district judges removed CPS cases from his Northside courtroom. Although the committee made the decision in private, it was widely believed at the time that the judges took action due to Kim’s perceived bias against volunteers from Tarrant County’s CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates), a nonprofit that helps children in the court system and foster care.

Kim recently said the negative press belies important improvements he’s made to the 323rd over the past three years. Juveniles are effectively guaranteed a trial within six months, something Kim said puts his courtroom far ahead of backlogged adult criminal and family courts. Kim’s staff works with local school districts to ensure that the juveniles do not fall behind academically while being detained and that parents can visit their children seven days a week.

Juvenile crime, he added, has decreased under his tenure, partly because of his stringent handling of firearms cases.

The district judge provided me with data compiled by his office that show a recent sharp decline in the number of juveniles entering his court.

Kim said that juveniles know that if they steal a gun or are caught using a firearm during a crime, they will not be released quickly. The juvenile court judge views his sentencing practices as preventing bloodshed in the streets. Kim’s many critics see his rulings as overly harsh, and not everyone is pleased with his work.

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Minor Offenses?

Based on a Facebook post, District Clerk Tom Wilder, county judge candidate Tim O’Hare, and Alex Kim were hanging out around the time Kim signed a temporary restraining order to force local hospital staff to administer an unproven, potentially dangerous drug to two adults stricken with COVID-19.

Two years ago, staffers and volunteers with CASA alleged that Kim was not assigning them for political reasons. Even though the decline in CASA volunteers was never disputed, Kim rebuked any notion that his decisions were politically motivated. In conservative circles, the work performed by CPS caseworkers and CASA volunteers is seen as a threat to parental rights. From the decision by the committee of district judges, cases tied to CPS are now distributed throughout the county’s family court system and no longer go through Kim. A confidential source recently sent me an unredacted and lengthy complaint filed

by Fort Worth attorneys Stephanie Patten and Greg Westfall. In the April letter to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the lawyers allege that Kim routinely sent minors to Tarrant County Jail as punishment for cursing in court and other minor offenses even though sending children to jail violated Texas Family Code, the body of laws that cover marriages, parental authority, and how minors are treated while under the care of the government, among other provisions.

Included among the files sent to the judicial conduct commission is a YouTube video from May 21, 2021, that shows Judge Kim ordering a juvenile to jail.

“Let’s get the paperwork,” Kim says during the Zoom meeting. “I’m going to transfer him to Tarrant County Jail on his 17th birthday. He can finish out waiting for his case downtown.”

Under Texas Family Code, any minor who commits an offense before the age of 17 is considered a child until they turn 18, meaning Kim was ordering the transfer of a child to a county jail. Texas Family Code allows children to be detained in a county jail only if a certified juvenile detention facility “is not available in the county.” Tarrant County Juvenile Services operates the Lynn W. Ross Juvenile Detention Center, which means Kim’s order violated the family code.

The lawyers also allege that Kim’s actions violated the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal law that forbids any contact between children and adults in confinement, which could mean jail, where defendants serve short sentences, or prisons, which hold serious offenders for several years or longer.

Kim said that when it comes to 17-yearolds, there are conflicting legal definitions on whether that minor is an adult or a child.

Under state criminal law, 17-year-olds are considered adults while they may be seen as children under family law.

“This is one of the areas where there is a gap between family and criminal law,” Kim said. “There are laws in Texas about the detention of children, but those largely fall under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which is a federal law. That restrains the adult jail. The adult jail cannot put children under 17 with people who are 18 and older.”

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, who oversees the county jail, mixes 17- and 18-year-olds who are detained at his jail, Kim said.

“There is that gap when they are 17 that state law treats differently,” depending on whether judges are considering criminal or family laws, Kim said.

Along with citations by lawyers Patten and Westfall for violations of several Canons of Judicial Conduct is an allegation from the two attorneys that Kim broke a state penal code related to Official Oppression, which forbids office holders like district judges from intentionally mistreating or detaining an individual in a manner they know “is unlawful.”

Within the complaint are more than two dozen copies of jail custody records that show the names of 24 juveniles who spent more than 900 days in Tarrant County Jail over the past few years, based on records shared by Patten and Westfall with the judicial conduct commission.

A spokesperson with the sheriff ’s department did not respond to my questions related to the potentially unlawful detentions of 17-year-olds at the county jail.

In September, based on court records, Kim ordered a 17-year-old to 180 days in Tarrant County Jail because the child allegedly cursed at the judge and become disruptive during a hearing. Based on court records, Kim then threatened the minor with an additional 80 hours of community service if he sought relief from a state court of appeals. The minor, whose name we are concealing to protect his privacy and shield him from retaliation, sought and was given relief in November. Kim said he appointed the 17-year-old a defense attorney shortly after sentencing him to the 180 days and welcomed any clarity from an appellate justice on whether dependents under 18 can be transferred to the county jail.

The appeals court judge ruled that Kim’s 180-day jail sentence was void because it deprived the child of due process.

In the court order, Justice Mike Wallach notes that any 17-year-old who committed an offense before turning 17 is considered a child by the state court system even when that child turns 17. Under state law, children cannot be confined in jail for more than 10 days.

Kim said that Wallach’s ruling clarified ambiguity in the two systems of state law and that he has now stopped the practice of sending 17-year-olds to the county jail.

Helping to document Kim’s alleged judicial misconduct are his livestreamed court proceedings on YouTube during and after COVID-19-related lockdowns. Based on the complaint, Kim turned his court into a “reality TV show” that may have violated privacy protections afforded to chilcontinued on page 5

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dren. A glance at Kim’s YouTube channel shows that it remains active with more than 11,000 subscribers, but the hundreds of videos involving children have been either pulled or made private.

Kim created his channel in 2020 after the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals issued an emergency order that authorized all courts to conduct proceedings virtually.

Kim, the complaint reads, “has a YouTube channel that he personally controls (as opposed to going through the Office of Court Administration) that is accessible through Tarrant County’s website,” referring to the personal channel that allowed Kim to earn $9,000 in advertising revenue, based on public discussions in Tarrant County’s commissioners court. “He allows real-time commentary from viewers which runs down the side of the screen. In comments, viewers routinely cheer Kim’s decisions to detain juveniles. He actually detains so many juveniles that the Juvenile Detention Center is often kept at capacity or over-capacity.”

The attorneys’ allegations regarding crowding at the juvenile detention center are backed by public statements by one corrections officer. As reported in an April story by the Star-Telegram, the county’s chief probation officer, Bennie Medlin, told the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Board that overcrowding at the Juvenile Deten-

tion Center has created an unhealthy and unsafe environment for youths.

Kim told me that around 25 juveniles are awaiting transfer to one or more state schools managed by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Staffing shortages at that agency are causing backlogs at Tarrant County’s juvenile detention center, Kim said, not any of his actions.

In the letter to the judicial conduct commission, the lawyers also allege that Kim violated a penal code tied to abuse of power, based on the money he earned from his YouTube website. By using government resources, the lawyers say, Kim sought to defraud the government by misusing government property for personal benefit. Texas courts relied heavily on Zoom sessions throughout the worst of the pandemic, but the attorneys say Kim’s use of livestream videos were not conducted for safety reasons because they continued until a few months ago. Kim has stated publicly that he never withdrew the YouTube funds and always intended to transfer the money to the county.

“One thing that stands out from watching these videos, or any of the other hundreds of videotaped hearings, is just the exploitative nature of the entire exercise,” the complaint reads. “Like an actual reality show, Kim often treats the litigants — especially parents of the children — with contempt. He then seems to look for points at which he can cause a conflict with a parent.

These dramatic moments are streamed live on the internet and then stored publicly.

This makes a mockery of the confidentiality protections of the juvenile system.”

Within the complaint are several court filings in which Kim waived jurisdiction of a minor’s case and transferred the child to adult criminal courts.

The number of juvenile cases tried in the adult criminal justice system has been on the rise since the 1990s, based on findings by the Juvenile Law Center, a nonprofit that advocates for youths in the child welfare and justice systems.

“Scientific research shows key developmental differences between youth and adults that impact a youth’s decision-making, impulse control, and susceptibility to peer pressure,” reads an article by the Juvenile Law Center. “While these differences do not excuse youth from responsibility for their actions, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that youths are less blameworthy than adults and more capable of change and rehabilitation.”

The lawyers’ complaint concludes with an allegation that Kim signed two temporary restraining orders (TROs) for politically motivated reasons. In October 2021, Kim issued two TROs to mandate medical staff at two local hospitals to administer Ivermectin — a deworming drug used primarily to treat horses — to two adults, including one sheriff ’s deputy, who were stricken with COVID-19.

At the time and contrary to the former president’s lies about the drug’s efficacy, the American Medical Association warned against the unproven use of Ivermectin to treat viruses, including COVID-19. Copies of the TROs signed by Kim are included in the complaint.

Judges with Fort Worth district courts overturned both TROs, noting that the courts

cannot mandate hospital staff to administer unproven and potentially dangerous drugs to patients and that a family court judge has no authority to hand-deliver a TRO in matters that require civil cases to be randomly assigned by the county clerk. Included in the complaint is a Facebook photo showing District Clerk Tom Wilder, county judge candidate Tim O’Hare, and Judge Kim at a Keller Republican Club meeting around the time Kim signed the second TRO. “For Judge Kim, signing these TROs was more of a political statement than a deeply held belief that he was doing the right thing,” the complaint reads. “The attorney of record [for one TRO], Warren Norred, is a well-known conservative activist in Tarrant County. Alex Kim has cultivated the same reputation. Included in the letter is a Facebook screenshot that places Kim with Norred at a Keller Republican Club meeting the same day — and within the same hour — the second TRO was signed.”

In June, judges with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct said that Kim’s actions were not necessarily appropriate but did not rise to the level of sanctionable misconduct.

“The commission remains confident that the conduct will not occur in the future,” the commission writes.

This story is part of City in Crisis, an ongoing series of reports on unethical behavior and worse by local public leaders, featuring original reporting. The next one, on the district attorney’s office, will appear in the Aug. 10 issue. l

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Static Home on the (Gun) Range

In an era when the lines seem starker between black and white, good and bad, right and wrong, and even strong and weak, I have a guilty pleasure. I have a reliable go-to that seems especially fitting, specifically in regards to where we stand today in Texas. Our home on the range is now a gun range.

Sure, we watch coverage of or read the stories about road rage and code rage and lament lapses of goaded rage, and we complain about the innocent men, women, and children dying in schools, grocery stores, churches, and other public spaces, and our political representatives carefully monitor our collective pulse on the issue and appear to dabble in gun control legislation. There’s no denying that. But are firearms the real problem?

Are my liberal friends listening (and ready to pounce)?

I’ll say it again. Are firearms the real problem?

Or are they just a deadly symptom?

Are we not a culture obsessed with criminality and murder sprees? Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Vudu, Hulu — check out their most popular programming, especially for men and young men. Are we not entertained?

Vengeance sells. Righteous and even pseudo-righteous indignation lines the pockets of conservative and liberal progenitors of gratuitous violence alike. And the majority of

us buy guns with nobody in particular to fire at. We’re simply compelled by streaming services and infotainment to be prepared.

We have to be ready to protect our land or our family or our way of life. Most of us don’t have much of a life, and very few of us have lives that someone else would want to take or even take on. But we are obsessed with vigilance.

Can’t get a date, can’t get laid, or compete with persons of color? Can’t hold our sexist, chauvinist, racist, or pseudo-righteous heads up with pride? Is someone disrespecting us or challenging our scam or our hustle or our familial excess or our personal indulgences? Or threatening the deviants in our family?

(And this for my objecting liberal friends.) What would James Gandolfini’s character in The Sopranos do? What would Bryan Cranston’s character in Breaking Bad do? What would Jason Bateman’s character in Ozark do? What about Kevin Costner’s character in Yellowstone?

Do I even have to ask?

In America, the good, the semi-good, and even the serially sometimes good solve their problems with guns — and we all like to watch. And we prefer the bad guys (or the others we perceive as bad or a threat to our badness) dead. It’s box office gold. It’s a tickertape, tuxedo honor at the Oscars and parade-worthy, name-a-traffic-thoroughfare-after, key-tothe-city courage practically everywhere else.

It’s the American way, especially of late.

But I look around, and I can’t help but think of my go-to. It’s also black and white.

It’s the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.

ther would have Liam Neeson, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Matt Damon — they would have popped a cap in someone’s ass or aired out somebody’s skull. We’re Americans, dammit!

Atticus Finch’s courage was quiet and dignified. Atticus Finch’s courage was plain and softspoken.

Atticus Finch didn’t have a pistol, and he used his shotgun only to kill a rabid dog — and the canine’s rabies was symbolic of ignorance and ignorant rabidity in general.

It seems bizarre now, right?

These days, our most rabidly ignorant friends and neighbors are stockpiling guns and strapping up to go to Dairy Queen. What happened to us?

We have chances to be Atticus Finches all the time, but we choose “God and Guns” over real guts and prospective death-dealing over empathy and human decency.

Do we have any real courage or dignity left?

The recent profligacy of gun ranges is not reassuring. — E.R. Bills Fort Worth native E.R. Bills is the author of Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups (History Press 2021) and Fear and Loathing in the Lone Star State (2021).

This column reflects the opinions of the author and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. Columns will be gently edited for factuality, clarity, and concision.

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Don’t get me wrong. I love Harper Lee’s book. I’ve read it four or five times at least.

But for me, the face of Atticus Finch is always Gregory Peck. A white, male protagonist trying to do what’s right. A white lawyer seeking justice, regardless of the time period or the all-white male jury. A white man challenging an oppressive Jim Crow atmosphere that pervades every aspect of his community in 1962 — isn’t it amazing how far we haven’t come?

I don’t think many Americans remember the film, but perhaps they deserve some slack.

It came out 60 years ago. And To Kill a Mockingbird was a little choo-choo train that thought it could. And it did, at least for a while.

Do any of y’all remember Peck as Atticus Finch? Did you know he won the Academy Award for best actor for that role?

Did you know, in fact, that — according to the American Film Institute’s first 100 years of film list of the greatest motion picture heroes of all time — Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch is ranked No. 1? That’s No. 1, ahead of Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, Sean Connery’s James Bond (Dr. No), Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine (Casablanca), and Gary Cooper’s Marshall Kane (High Noon). And obviously Bruce Willis’ John McLane in Die Hard, Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, Die Hard 5 (A Good Day to Die Hard), Rambo 5 (Rambo: Last Blood), and the upcoming buddy spinoff, Die Hambo: Let’s Make a Billion Dollars fleecing bloodbath-addicted halfwits.

Atticus Finch’s kids were threatened. Another white man even spat in his face. Dirty Harry wouldn’t have stood for that. The Duke wouldn’t have taken that lying down, and nei-

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No Appeal In Texas, and perhaps especially in Tarrant County, overturning a wrongful conviction can be a nearly insurmountable undertaking.

B R O W N

Rosa Perez is serving a 30-year sentence at the Dr. Lane Murray Unit near Waco.

charge [gang activity], and I suffered greatly from that. I did 24 years in prison for a crime [gang activity] I didn’t commit.”

After the Weekly published Turner’s story, I requested copies of letters sent by prisoners to the DA’s CIU. Turner’s story was compelling, and I wondered if other prisoners had similar accounts of potentially wrongful convictions or overly punitive sentences. The DA’s office responded by attempting to block my request by appealing to the State Attorney General’s office.

After three long months, the AG responded in June that the CIU had to give me several letters from the time period I requested but did not explain why the DA had to release only certain letters and could withhold others.

Perez’ story caught my attention. She was given 40 years at the Dr. Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville, just southwest of Waco, for allegedly participating in the 2017 murder of Moses Prieto in Fort Worth. The man convicted of the murder, Juan Jesus Villarreal, told law enforcement that Perez told him to shoot and kill Prieto. In her 2021 letter to the CIU, Perez claims that she was under the influence of drugs when police interrogated her about one month after the murder.

“I don’t remember much of the interview” with Fort Worth police, Perez told the CIU in a letter. “I don’t think I would have lied and said half the things I said if I was sober and in my right mind.”

Perez doesn’t see much hope for help from the CIU. “It’s hard for me to accept that someone actually wants to help me,” her reply to me opened. “Everyone has been against me since day one. The [CIU] said I need to have some kind of physical proof of some-

thing that can be used [to prove my innocence claim]. I honestly think that they don’t care what was overlooked back then unless I have something that can cause them repercussions. This ordeal with my charge is frustrating, extensive, and sounds like a soap opera.”

At 3:30 a.m. on March 15, 2017, Fort Worth police arrived at the 4700 block of Westcreek Drive on the South Side to find Moses Prieto dying of multiple gunshot wounds. Two hours later, Prieto was pronounced dead at John Peter Smith Hospital. Two weeks later, police arrested Villarreal for the murder.

During Villarreal’s trial, eyewitness Tiffany Olivero testified that Perez ordered the shooting of Prieto.

“Villarreal looked at Rosa and asked, ‘Dead or alive?’ ” Olivero’s testimony reads. “Rosa responded, ‘Dead.’ Villarreal then shot Moses two more times, and Moses fell to the ground. Villarreal handed the gun to Rosa and said, ‘I need you to get rid of this.’ ” Perez says she was close friends with Prieto, whom she calls Moe in her letters, and never would have hurt him. She adds that her husband of 10 years left her several years earlier, which led to her being homeless and living with people she found out later were drug dealers.

“Moses was a regular guy who came over all the time,” Perez recalls. “I confided in him that I wanted out of that house, but I was scared and had no one to help.

Moses brought two of his friends over, and continued on page 8

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The unit, based on open records requests, reviews around 20 to 30 cases a year: 2021 (20), 2020 (22), 2019 (32), and 2018 (26).

Prisoner exonerations make for big news stories, and a review of published local accounts of early prisoner releases revealed few cases in which the CIU’s work resulted in lower sentences or overturned convictions.

One CIU victory was for Walter Roy, whose sentence of life in prison was reduced in June to time served, based on recommendations by the CIU. In a recent public statement, the DA’s office said the CIU’s investigation found that Roy was a participant but not the actual shooter in a 1995 attack at Echo Lake Park on Fort Worth’s South Side which left two injured. Roy was released from prison in June.

CIU offers for reduced sentences are rare and not always favorable for defendants. Last year, CIU revised the criminal charges facing Aaron Dyson, who was sentenced to 50 years for assault with a deadly weapon 25 years ago. Dyson does not deny shooting the man who allegedly killed his best friend. The victim survived Dyson’s attack, but Dyson was falsely charged with engaging in gang activity, which led to the 50-year sentence. In March, Dyson opted for a new trial rather than accept a new, lesser sentence of time served. The gang-related charges, as he recently told the Star-Telegram, should be dismissed.

“The state had an opportunity in 1997 to apply the appropriate charge [of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon] and try me on that charge, and they chose not to,” Dyson recently told the Star-Telegram after pleading not guilty. “They chose to use false testimony to convict me of that higher

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

Rosa Perez was hesitant at first. After years of trying to attract any kind of media attention, the incarcerated 32-year-old Fort Worthian had given up and was dumbfounded why this Weekly reporter was contacting her to share her story. In my letter, I said I had a special interest in criminal justice stories and that as a journalist I could think of nothing more important than exposing a potentially wrongful conviction. Her handwritten reply contained 10 two-sided letters.

Researching and writing about people who claim to be wrongfully convicted has become a recent focus of my reporting, especially after learning about the plight of Ronnie Turner. Now 18 years into a 45-year sentence, Turner continues to fight a criminal justice system whose members appear to care little for the evidence of prosecutorial misconduct tied to his 2005 conviction.

The inmate at the James V. Allred Unit just north of Wichita Falls occasionally sends me copies of letters and complaints he has filed with governmental groups and law enforcement agencies in which he alleges multiple branches of government conspired to falsely convict and imprison him.

An official court transcript of his trial for aggravated robbery — a crime he denies committing — shows Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Bland may have told one witness where Turner would be sitting in the courtroom. This is significant because prosecutors commonly ask witnesses to point out the person who allegedly committed the crime during trials, a method of identification known to be unreliable. The following statement came from one of several eyewitness testimonies.

Prosecutor Bland, the court transcript reads, “told me, ‘[Turner] was going to be sitting there. You sit there, and [Turner] sits there.’ ” The State Bar of Texas’ website lists Bland as deceased.

Turner’s story, which the Weekly published in January, is notable both for his compelling claim of innocence — backed by ample documents and evidence — and the lack of attention he’s received. He’s been ignored by the Tarrant County district attorney’s office and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Turner claims that the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which began work on his case in 2018, is a fraud.

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they got me out of that house. Moses let me move into his house. He lived on the South Side of Fort Worth with his mother and infant daughter. I helped with his daughter.”

The peace was short-lived, Perez writes, because Prieto started allowing drug users and sellers to come in and out of his house. In the months leading up to Prieto’s murder, Perez admits she was using methamphetamines, although she says she was sober on the night of the murder.

Several people, Perez claims, were aware of the planned kidnapping and murder of Prieto except her and another person, “Clay.”

Court documents list Villarreal, Clay, “Kyle,” “Eva,” “Manny,” and Olivero as witnesses to the crime. Perez doesn’t indicate the motive, but court documents describe the cause as a botched “street court” job, the term for settling disputes.

“When we headed out, Manny and Eva drove [Villarreal’s] car with Eva as the driver and Manny as the passenger,” Perez writes. “I followed in my truck with [Olivero] as the passenger. Clay sat behind [Olivero]. [Villarreal] sat behind me in the back seat. I followed Eva and Manny.

I am not too familiar with the south part of Fort Worth. I followed them to someone’s house. It was in the middle of the night and dark. Eva stayed in what felt like forever in

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Edward Brown

continued from page 7

Ronnie Turner has turned his focus to disciplining, disbarring, and potentially criminally charging the prosecutors, judges, and CIU staffers whom he alleges broke state laws during his 2005 trial and throughout his appeal process.

the middle of the street. I turned my lights off and pulled over.”

Manny stepped out of the car and brought back someone, Perez alleges.

Villarreal “got out with Clay,” Perez

claims. I got out and followed when I heard yelling. [Villarreal] pulled the man out [of a vehicle parked near Perez] and started beating him and tying his hands and feet together.”

Perez alleges that Villarreal retrieved a handgun from a nearby truck. Based on the letter, it is unclear whose vehicle it was.

Perez says that she saw Villarreal shoot the man whom she later found out was Prieto.

“Clay and [Villareal] were trying to get the guy into my trunk, but he was still fighting back,” Perez alleges. “They dropped him on the ground and [Villarreal] fired off the rest of the rounds. I was in my truck when the rounds were fired. I heard them but never saw them fired. [Villareal] threw the gun at me and told me to drive off. He said if I don’t get rid of the gun, he would get rid of my family and nothing better tie him back to all of this.”

The next day, Perez alleges that Manny told her the man they saw shot the night before was Prieto.

“I miss [Prieto] daily,” Perez writes.

“He cared about me, and there were no strings attached to his love. He was as real as they come. He just fell into the drug world and never made it out.”

Perez says she was under the influence of alcohol and meth when she was arrested a few weeks after the murder.

“I had been up for several days on meth,” she writes. “I don’t remember much. [Villarreal] had made it clear that my family was dead if [Prieto’s] death came back to him. I believed [the threat] and falsely took responsibility for a lot of what happened. All of these were lies, but I was in fear of what could happen to my family, mother, brother, and one of my daughters. continued on page 9

The following stories are from letters received by the CIU and released to us via open records request. We are referring to the prisoners by the first letter of their first name to protect their privacy and shield them from retaliation.

Conviction Integrity Unit: This wrongful conviction has devastated my marriage, disrupted my education, and robbed me of my freedom. I was convicted out of 372nd court presided by Judge Elizabeth Berry with possession of [drugs] with intent to sell despite my witness’ testimony (under oath) that the drugs found in my car belonged to him. I was never Mirandized when arrested. My attorney failed to object to several blatant and inappropriate acts and statements from the judge that were clearly on the court transcript. I have witnesses from the night of the arrest who have evidence/statements that were not available at the time of trial due to the [incompetence] of my legal assistance. He was never available when appointments were made. I was denied justice even with a confession

Signed, T., 1/11/2021 Conviction Integrity Unit: I am charged with aggravated robbery.

Four months later, I am charged with aggravated sexual assault while in jail. The court-appointed attorney refused to review the jail footage or interview staff and other witnesses. The court-appointed attorney said we could beat the robbery charge but to plead guilty to the sexual assault because the judge wanted to give me life without parole. My attorney never showed me the evidence the state had against me. Why? Because it didn’t happen.

My attorney refused, flat out refused, to review jail footage that could prove my innocence. He refused to speak with either officer working the [jail floor at the time].

I’m begging for your help.

Signed, A., 5/10/2021 Conviction Integrity Unit: Attorney at the time did not have [state-mandated] Brady disclosures that showed the detective believed that [I] was not responsible for the offense. I was considered a suspect based on [J.] providing [V.] with my information. I was misidentified as a suspect by the detective. The [Brady] disclosure was uploaded into [the county’s database] after I had taken a plea

deal.

Signed, M., 6/16/2021 Conviction Integrity Unit: The victim was never truthful about the alleged offense. I am [convicted] of a [rape] I never committed. DNA evidence was tampered with. I was offered 25 years with a “take it or be ready for trial Monday.”

Judge Louis Sturns is a close friend of the victim. I was told my case would be moved out of Sturns’ courtroom. But that never happened. My attorney asked for more money. I gave her the title to my truck. I don’t know why we never went to trial.

My trial counsel failed to follow through on the motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence.

I have been in a sexual relationship with the alleged victim for 30 years. I became a suspect because we were dating at the time of the alleged offense. The sex was consensual. She never said she was forced or threatened by me. [A detective] talked her into changing her story.

Signed, J., 7/28/2021

Turner’s efforts have shifted to disciplining, disbarring, and potentially criminally charging prosecutors, judges, and CIU staffers. He believes they all broke state law continued on page 10

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It never crossed my mind to ask for a lawyer, nor did they tell me that I could. If I had been sober and not scared of Villarreal, I wouldn’t have incriminated myself in that interrogation.”

Prosecutors offered Perez a plea bargain of 40 years, 10 years less than what she could potentially be charged with. Under Texas law, accepting a plea bargain means that defendants forfeit the right to appeal their guilty plea. Prosecutors used Perez’ juvenile rap sheet and past criminal charges to pressure her into accepting the guilty plea. She gave me a document filed by the DA’s office and used in her case. The previous charges include giving a false ID (2003), possession of marijuana (2004), child endangerment (2010), and theft (2011).

“In 2010, my ex-husband was beating me and someone called the police,” Perez alleges. “We were arrested and given child endangerment charges because he had a pocketful of weed. In 2011, my ex-husband got a TV and PlayStation for the kids. He said he was making payments but wasn’t. I was arrested for theft of property.”

The earliest she will be up for parole is 2037.

“I believe I was over-sentenced and shouldn’t be carrying this murder charge,” she writes. “I want to see my kids graduate.

I have five kids who I just want to get back

of guilt from my sole witness. You cannot make this stuff up!

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

continued from page 8

to. Prison has been hell since I arrived in 2018. My mom lived off of disability and couldn’t afford to send money. My mom died of COVID-19 in 2021. My father-inlaw is 75 and watching both my kids. If he dies, my kids have no one left. More people should have been arrested for [Prieto’s murder] but weren’t.”

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ADVERTISING CONTENT PROVIDED AND PAID FOR BY Business, Veterans, “Local Voter Education” & Bob Willoughby Installment #10

I need help to stop code compliance taking the home away from a disabled person!! The city has placed a lien against his home. When I received the call from the homeowner, the city was about to add another $3,600 bogus charge.

Code cut the padlock on the gate and the no bid contractor Project/case # 18-475547 Date 1-24-2020 New Aera was about to remove a load of scrap iron that he could sell.

When we met code at the property, they ran away when they saw the camera man.

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

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Now here the real problem. For over two years code will not respond and the case is still open.

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Code should have a time limit to go by for open cases!

Call (817) 392-1234 # and tell Mayor Mattie Parker and City Manager David Cooke that it is wrong to take the home of a disabled person with bogus charges and let’s put stop to it now!

The Best thing one can do for oneself, is when one is doing something for someone else!

Visit fwdistrict5.com for must see videos (817) 446-7056 | b.willoughby@live.com Follow Bob Willoughby on Facebook and join the (LVE) email list to stay informed!

Cour tesy Facebook

Mayor & Manager Take Home Away From Disabled

Moses Prieto was generous and kind-hearted, Rosa Perez says.

Feature

continued from page 9

while prosecuting his 2005 trial or allegedly covering up those acts of misconduct in the years since.

“Dear Mr. Brown, I have submitted a sworn affidavit to the United States Office of the Attorney General,” one of Turner’s recent letters reads. “I filed a complaint of witness tampering and obstruction of justice against prosecutor Richard Bland. I also filed a complaint of conspiracy to cover up the witness tampering against all the judges who heard the evidence from the post-conviction writ of habeas corpus I filed. Witness tampering is a felony offense. My case should have been overturned years ago.”

Under Texas law, witness tampering is a second- or third-degree felony.

Turned also filed a grievance with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Accompanying his letters are copies of sworn complaints that Turner recently sent to the Texas Bar Association and Texas Rangers. Turner told me the CIU has ignored evidence of prosecutorial misconduct tied to his conviction.

Reporting by the Washington Post found that wrongful convictions are often the result of official misconduct. Citing a recent report by the National Registry of Exonerations, a project managed by three universities, reporters found that prosecutor misconduct was responsible for 30% of 2,400 wrongful convictions between 1989

and 2019, yet only 4% of the prosecutors involved were disciplined.

On its website, the local DA’s office states that evolutions in forensic sciences, changes in court opinions, and new legislation governing the criminal justice system “make it critical that our office remains at the forefront of developing and implementing mechanisms that ensure” that the innocent are freed.

The CIU, based on the DA’s website, receives external requests from convicted persons.

“If any claim merits further investigation, CIU will determine what further investigation is warranted through a Phase 1 review that may include reinterviewing original law enforcement personnel, forensic personnel, witnesses, and attorneys,” the DA says on its website. “A Phase 2 review involves seeking relief for an applicant through either a writ application to the Court of Criminal Appeals or a commutation request to the governor.”

Perez writes that she stays out of trouble as much as possible. She says she recently enrolled in college classes, but enrollment is difficult because anyone with a long sentence like hers is automatically put at the bottom of the waiting list.

“I lied to protect my mother, brother, and daughter,” she writes. “My brother doesn’t speak to me anymore, and my mother passed away on July 27, 2021, from COVID-19. My time is way too excessive.

I’ve almost died here from heart complications. Nothing scares me anymore. The truth needs to be told.” l

SCREEN

Conspiracy Theory

B.J. Novak plumbs the Lone Star State for this satire.

L I N

was murdered by a conspiracy of Mexican Kutcher, going for understatement for once) drug cartels, pedophiles, and the deep state. gestures at the blasted desert landscape and A podcast is born, initially with the insensi- tells Ben, “People here have creative energies and nowhere to plug them in. It goes into tive title Dead White Girl.

Speaking of insensitive, Ben plays along conspiracy theories, drugs, and violence.” with the fiction that he and Abby were practi- (The movie was actually filmed in the Albucally engaged, because he means to make fun querque area, since you’re wondering.)

Yet the script doesn’t set out to absolve of the paranoid rednecks or at least hold them up to ridicule while he investigates what the Texans, either. For all the Christian parmakes them tick. His disillusionment plays aphernalia in their house, the Shaws call out in humor that is admirably specific to the Abby’s youngest brother El Stupido (Eli region: When Ben asks whether the city of Bickel), and Ben is the only one who adAbilene is near Dallas, he receives the curt dresses the boy by his given name of Mason.

The boy, in turn, gives him a reply, “Dallas ain’t Texas.” Later vital piece of information that on, at his literal first rodeo, he Vengeance Starring B.J. Novak and cracks the mystery. The family gives a big cheer for the UniverBoyd Holbrook. Written conceals an important piece of sity of Texas and quickly finds and directed by B.J. information from Ben, and the out he’s deep in Tech country.

Novak. Rated R. New Yorker finally explodes at A local music producer (Ashton

them in that most Texas of locations, a Whataburger parking lot. To Ty’s defense that they followed their hearts, Ben says, “You follow your heart, the world is flat, and vaccines contain microchips.”

If only that line hadn’t come in the midst of a much longer speech. Novak the director lets Novak the writer go on for too long. The climactic confrontation with the villain of the piece really needed pruning, even if I’m chilled by nihilism of the bad guy’s thesis that America is the way it is because we’re all going to die someday and our social-media hot takes will be the only proof that we were ever here. Vengeance has more than a few amusing moments and was significantly better than I expected, but it still feels like the work of a beginner who has more to learn. l

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B.J. Novak and Boyd Holbrook pause at a shrine to a West Texas O.D. victim in Vengeance.

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

It’s a plot as old as plots: a city slicker comes to the countryside with preconceived notions about the rural folk and then finds that they’re smarter and better than his city friends (or, alternatively, that they’re just as venal as the people he left behind).

Short-statured sitcom actor B.J. Novak portrays this city slicker in his directing debut Vengeance, a movie that transports him to West Texas, and if this satire isn’t entirely successful, there’s more than enough to suggest he has talent as a filmmaker.

Novak stars as Ben Manalowicz, who has secured his place as a staff writer for The New Yorker and now thinks of branching out into podcasting. His boss (Issa Rae) pointedly asks him what yet another middle-aged white guy could possibly have to say. His answer comes in the form of a distraught phone call from Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), whose sister Abilene (Lio Tipton) has died in her small town a five-hour drive from the Texas city she was named after. Ben and Abby slept together a few times while she was in the Big Apple pursuing dreams of music stardom, and she made it seem to her family that the two of them were much closer than they were. When Ben is guilted into traveling to Texas to attend her funeral, Ty seriously tells him that she didn’t die of an opioid overdose like the authorities say but

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Patti Perret

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SCREEN

Shout at the Devils

Pam & Tommy may be fun, but at its heart is a story about a gross invasion of privacy.

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W A L L E R Cour tesy Hulu

J E S S I C A

Although we have made considerable progress since the Trojan War, there are many ways in which we are still sacrificing virgins to keep the demons at bay.

And when I say “virgins,” I mean the illusion of virginal purity in hot young blondes (Marilyn, Anna Nicole, Britney) or “bombshells” as they have seemingly always been known. And when I say “demons,” I mean the patriarchy. Indeed, the patriarchy has a thing for blondes, and that thing is the exploitation of them until their sell-by dates, which, of course, is typically around middle age.

The Hulu series about the ill-fated romance between model/actress Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is a neon showcase of this particular sacrificial blonde phenomenon that was most rampant in the early ’90s.

That’s when girly, nonthreatening blonde women like Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, and Gwen Stefani saw overnight success, and blondes who weren’t having it, like Courtney Love (now a close friend of Anderson’s), were demonized.

This phenomenon, slithering throughout American culture for decades, was doubled-down on by pervy dinosaurs like Hugh Heffner and his ilk until their depravities — and crimes — were revealed by crack gumshoes way too recently. In reality, the creeps’ demise started a couple decades earlier, when a new wave of intellectual culture began rushing in from Seattle to the rest of the world: grunge, technology, bookstores, coffeeshops. Seemingly overnight, America’s youth, with jobs and nothing to do with the paychecks except build an identity, completely dismissed the vapidity, lewdness, excess, and superficiality — and toxic masculinity —

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

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While one was offended by the release of their sex tape, the other was ... not as offended. Guess which?

of the 1980s so perfectly epitomized by garish hair bands like Lee’s.

The sacrificial blondes, though, they held on a little while longer.

Disgust at this phenomenon and the me-first ’80s that bolstered it is what Robert Siegel (The Wrestler) portrays brilliantly with his love letter to the good (male enlightenment), the bad (guys like Tommy Lee), and the ugly (the exploitation of women) of the ’90s that is Pam & Tommy.

The last episode of the series is even called “Seattle.”

Seattle, a.k.a. the end of guys like Tommy Lee, meatheads who were dumb enough to think they were cool, and the almost end of women like Pamela Anderson, who were dumb enough to think guys like Tommy Lee weren’t complete idiots. The beauty of the show is Siegel’s attempt to massage the blatancy of this element into the psyche of the modern viewer. A golden thread of empathy and humanity courses throughout the risings and fallings of these poor schlubs, whose intentions were mostly good. Lily James (as Pam), Sebastian Stan (as Tommy), and Seth Rogen (in a type-shattering performance as the mass distributer of their property) attack their roles with the same level of love and dedication that the celebrities oozed for each other in the now infamous sex tape.

Were Anderson and Lee narcissistic?

Sure. Is that the reason they taped their honeymoon? Probably. Either way, what happened to these beautiful people was

wrong. It doesn’t matter how shallow, naïve, or dimwitted they were, because it was an abject invasion of privacy. Our outrage manifests itself neatly in the sweaty, jittery performances of Rogen and Nick Offerman, who play the slimiest, most hateable perverts imaginable, but the real message here is that the true victim was Anderson.

Director Lake Bell is herself a survivor of the revenge porn epidemic that crippled the lives of many women (and some men) in the early aughts. Bell makes sure to highlight how badly Anderson really didn’t want the tape to go public and really did want to be taken seriously as an actress and, as a woman at the height of her career, how she was really the victim here.

Lee, with his big penis and bright idea to film their honeymoon, is portrayed as the kind of guy who secretly hopes for this kind of notoriety. At one point, a stunned and disgusted Pam, played phenomenally by an entirely transformed Lily James, who will, in fact, win the Emmy for best actress (Pam & Tommy is nominated for 10), asks Tommy, “Don’t you feel violated?” Tommy responds, “More like pissed.” Even with his wife, he can’t let down the macho façade, or, what is probably even truer, he really didn’t feel violated, because for him, it was just more of the schlock-rock, fratboy shit that was his brand to begin with.

The feminist agenda stands out clearly against the backdrop of the iconic cul-

tural elements and events from the ’90s that made it such an important decade in American culture. A love letter to this decade must be steeped in the music, and the soundtrack to Pam & Tommy is killer.

“Love Fool” (to show the ominous influence of this anti-feminist ballad), “Wake Up” (to illustrate Pam coming to terms with her newfound feminism), and, hilariously, “Semi-Charmed Life” (to indicate how alternative rock by a new brand of men in touch with their feelings was obliterating the popularity of hair metal) all receive solid airplay here and for good reason — they’re classics we can all relate to, for nostalgia’s sake or not.

Don’t think that this show isn’t a great time, because it is. While Lee’s reaction has been sort of “fuck, yeah!” (big surprise), Anderson did not consent, probably because she’s traumatized from being exploited and objectified her entire life just to earn a living and maybe gain some power over her real life. Still, Pam & Tommy is as heartfelt and entertaining as hearing one of your favorite Nirvana songs on the radio. Or, OK, banging your head to a breakneck Crüe track.

It’s also definitely worth nothing that in a post-#MeToo culture, we are now recycling former sacrificial blondes into feminist martyrs, fighters, and survivors as current stunning blondes in Hollywood will no longer settle for simply existing as bikini or lingerie mannequins. At least that’s a little progress. l

Darnell St, 817-738-9215) — hosts National Geographic’s Fire of Love. “Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft die in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together, unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing some of nature’s most explosive imagery.”

Fire of Love uses previously unseen footage and photographs, giving insight into modern volcanology and, well, love. Showtimes are 4pm and 8pm today, 5pm Sat, and noon, 2pm, and 4pm Sun. The film runs 93 minutes and is in French with English subtitles.

Tickets are $10. Sunday noon tickets are always half-price.

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Cour tesy Facebook

NIGHT&DAY

They died what they loved doing: going into volcanoes. Fire of Love screens Fri-Sun at The Modern.

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At 8:30pm, Hyena’s Comedy Night Club (425 Commerce St, 817-877-5233) Thursday hosts its next 325 Showcase, an ongoing event featuring three up-

and-coming professional comedians, each doing a 25-minute set. For free tickets to see Ralph Barbosa, Dez O’Neal, and Barry Whitewater, RSVP on Prekindle.com.

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Magnolia at the Modern — an ongoing series featuring critically acclaimed films Friday in the auditorium of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200

Texas Cello — a cello choir of 28 advanced students and professionals — inSaturday vites you to hear 30 cellists playing the songs of Metallica (sans Eddie Munson), Radiohead, and a variety of movie themes in a “cool factory space.” At 8:30pm, head to The Mill at East McKinney (407 E Louisiana St, McKinney, 469247-3445) for the Music@Mill Festival.

(Or go at 5:30pm for a more traditional cello concert, Voices of the Cello, featuring Andrea Casarrubios, Jonah Kim, Joseph Kuipers, and Mark Yee.) Tickets for each show are $30 on Eventbrite.com. continued on page 14

Member of the North Central Texas Farmers Market Corporation

National Farmers Market Week

8AM 12PM

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CELEBRATE NEW LOCATION!

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

Veteran’s Park - Grand Pavilion 8901 Clifford St. White Settlement 76108 New location, same locally grown farm-fresh produce Plus: Artisan goods & guest vendors, Gardening Information, Market Tasting Menu by Chef Jen, Fun for the kids & More!

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OPEN 8 A.M. — NOON Every Saturday throughout the year & Every Wednesday during the summer Cowtownmarket.com

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Night & Day

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Do you need to do some back-to-school shopping?

It’s time for Tax-Free WeekSunday end! Throughout Texas, the sales tax is waived on backpacks, clothing, and other school supplies valued at less than $100 from midnight Fri to midnight Sun. The same rules apply to local, independent shops, not just the big-box retailers. As shoes are a qualified item, Cartan’s Shoes (1201 W Magnolia Av, 817-923-7463) is offering a buy-one-get-one-free sale 9am-6pm Fri-Sat. For more info on qualifying items and the rules, go to Comptroller.Texas.gov and search for “sales tax holiday 2022.”

Cour tesy Facebook

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Celebrate Tax-Free Weekend at Cartan’s Shoes Fri-Sat.

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AUGUST 3-9, 2022

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TALENTED MUSICIANS

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TRINITY METRO Whether you’re playing a gig, going to a concert or just streaming songs on your headphones, saving time and money by ridesharing on Trinity Metro ZIPZONE is music to everybody’s ears! Get your first two rides free at RIDETRINITYMETRO.org/ZIPZONE. TEXRail | TRE | Bus

ZIPZONE

Whether you’re a #RollerDerbyQueen or have never skated before, all women Monday are welcome to attend the North Texas Roller Derby Open House 7:30pm-9pm at Lone Star Events & Sports (222 S Mayhill Rd, Ste 101, Denton, 940218-6959). Potential skaters must be 18 or older and bring a current COVID-19 vaccination card. If you do not own the required gear — including elbow and knee pads, helmet, mouth and wrist guards, and skates —

NTRD will sell and rent some used equipment on-site or find what you need at Facebook.com/AceofSkates. For more info, visit Facebook.com/NorthTexasRollerDerby.

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To address issues concerning the protection of trans youth, reproductive rights, Tuesday women’s rights, and more, ProChoice Denton (@ProChoiceDenton) hosts biweekly rallies on Tuesdays and Saturdays at Denton City Hall (215 E McKinney St, 940-349-8200). Mobilization begins at 6:45pm, and solidarity planning is at 8pm. For updates, follow the organization at Facebook.com/ProChoiceDenton.

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The Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens (8525 Wednesday Garland Rd, 214-515-6615) is celebrating August Dollar Days 9am-5pm daily thru Wed, Aug 31. Inside the gardens, enjoy $4 brownie sundaes, $2.50 root beer floats, $2 hot dogs, and $1 drinks, including frozen pops, juice, and sodas. Parking is discounted to $6, and general admission is $3. Tickets must be reserved in advance at DallaArboretum.org/Event/August-Dollar-Days.

By Jennifer Bovee

EATS & drinks

B R O W N

Dayne and Angela Weaver have stuck to the same winning formula since 2019. When I visited one of their first pop-up events at Panther Island Brewing three years ago, many of Dayne’s signature concepts, like

FIRST BLUE ZONES APPROVED THAI RESTAURANTS IN FW!

The author found the O.G. Burger to be one of the tastiest things he’s ever put in his mouth.

his roasted elote topped with spicy Cheetos, were fully formed. Simple rubs (salt and pepper), mild wood flavor, and patiently smoked meats deliver the best results, he told me at the time.

In the years since, the married couple behind Dayne’s Craft Barbecue bought a food truck and built a reputation for superlative barbecue and more through their location at Lola’s in the West 7th corridor.

“Best Thai Food” – FW Weekly Critics Choice 2015, 2017 & 2019 4630 SW Loop 820 | Fort Worth• 817-731-0455 order online for pickup Thaiselectrestaurant.com

continued on page 16

SPICE

“Best Thai Food”

– FW Weekly Critics Choice Thai Kitchen & Bar 2016 – FW Weekly 411 W. Magnolia Ave readers Choice Fort Worth • 817-984-1800 2017, 2019, order online for pickup at Spicedfw.com 2020 & 2021

THE BEST THAI IN FORT WORTH

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E D W A R D

AUGUST 3-9, 2022

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A few months ago, when Lola’s announced they were moving to the TCU area, many people wondered if Dayne’s would also relocate to Berry Street. In a Facebook post, Dayne said he enjoyed his time working with the music venue but that his team found an opportunity for a brick-and-mortar location on Camp Bowie West.

The Dayne’s food truck is parked just west of 820 on Camp Bowie West on weekends, near their upcoming brick-and-

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Dayne’s Craft Barbecue, 9840 Camp Bowie West, FW. 817-913-0986. 11am-2:30pm Sun, 11am-3pm Fri-Sat.

After a short wait, customers order at the food truck before going inside to await their order.

Cour tesy Facebook

After three years of serving superlative smoked meats via pop-ups and a food truck, Dayne’s Craft Barbecue will soon have a permanent home.

Edward Brown

Dayne Good ’Cue

15

Eats & Drinks

Dayne’s Craft Barbecue O.G. Burger ................................................. $10 Pork ribs ..................................................... $13 Bacon brisket sandwich ............................ $9.50 Pulled pork ................................................. $11 Beefy Texan ................................................ $6.75 Mac ’n’ cheese ........................................... $4.50 Potato salad ............................................... $4.50 Apple slaw .................................................. $4.50 Street corn .................................................. $3.50

Large paper sheets keep customers updated on the day’s offerings and specials.

er. The two smashed patties were juicy and packed with beefy goodness. While ground beef has an even consistency, the O.G.’s repurposed brisket trimmings are an amalgam of small cuts of meat that lend a hearty

texture to every bite. Enveloping the hot mess were gobs of melted white and yellow cheeses and drizzles of a tangy red sauce.

Dayne’s has crafted easily one of the best burgers in town.

Tasty and colorful sides abound. The slaw was light on the mayo, and bits of apple and raisins added a pleasant sweetness to the mix of cabbage. The potato salad, sans yellow mustard, featured large chunks of red potatoes blended into finely mashed spuds. Bits of dill, small pieces of cheddar, and a light mayonnaise sauce livened up the medley. There was nothing basic about the mac ’n’ cheese. The hearty al dente pasta didn’t devolve to mush amid the hot gobs of melted cheddar, topped with fine breadcrumbs. And every spoonful of the elote burst with flavor. The bed of roasted corn kernels came topped with crushed fiery Cheetos, bits of cilantro, and a wedge of lime. The overall experience alternated between creamy, spicy, and zesty.

Dayne’s Craft Barbecue has served up consistently great sides and smoked meats since the beginning. The new location probably won’t be the end of the Weavers’ journey, but it is an impressive and well-deserved benchmark for their hardworking team. l

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mortar location in a strip mall. On a recent afternoon, a small line waited to order — mercifully under the shade of an overhang.

Large brown paper sheets that served as menus described the day’s offerings. Customers order at the truck before going to a large indoor room nearby that serves customers until the new space opens later this year. I grabbed a booth and waited for the smoked goodies.

Every chomp of the pork ribs was juicy, smoky, and mildly sweet. The bark was peppery without overwhelming the succulent meat that readily fell off the bone.

The pulled pork was almost too juicy, with crimson red liquid readily leaking over my plate. The meat was pleasantly smoky and accentuated with bits of black pepper.

One of two sausages on the menu that day was the Beefy Texas. The bratwurstsized meat was hefty, and the casing had a nice snap. Devouring the smoked link left a small stream of juices and oil running down my cheeks. Napkins come in handy here.

The bacon brisket sandwich was a delicious, oily treat. The salty, peppery coating offered an initial zing followed by succulent and soft porky goodness. The buttered sesame buns didn’t detract from the meat.

Finishing off the sandwich left oil dripping down my fingers. *grabs more napkins* The crown jewel of my outing was the brisket cheeseburger, a.k.a. the OG Burg-

Edward Brown

continued from page 15

16

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Twice a year, area restaurants band together and not only give diners a chance to try gourmet meals at a discount but also help an area nonprofit. For each meal purchased at a Tarrant-area participating restaurant, 20% will be donated back to the Fort Worthbased nonprofit Lena Pope, which provides prevention and early intervention services to support child development. From Friday thru Sun, Aug 14, 23 Tarrant County restaurants are participating, with many offering extensions thru Sun, Sep 4. Below are the nine in Fort Worth proper.

3.) City Works Eatery & Pour House (5288 Monahans Av, 682-207-1500) wants you to get ready for a succulent three-course dinner Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person. The first-course options include 1871 Chili, Rebel’s Spicy Cauliflower, Caesar Salad, or a house salad. For the second course, choose from smoked barbecue ribs, salmon, Cajun chicken, or rigatoni. For dessert, it’s S’More Dip, peanut butter Snickers pie, or donuts. There is also a $29 lunch menu.

For more info, visit LenaPope.org/DFWRestaurantWeek.

1.) B&B Butchers & Restaurant (5212 Marathon Av, 817-737-5212) is offering a three-course dinner Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person. First course options include Mr. G’s Classic Caesar Salad, iceberg wedge, steakhouse salad, meatballs, or San Daniele prosciutto and burrata. For your second course, choose from the Snake River Farms pork chop, Granny Smith’s chicken shank, pan-seared salmon, surf and turf, veg house salad, or rigatoni a la vodka. For dessert, choices include New York cheesecake, chocolate cake, or the classic crème brûlée.

There is also a $24 lunch menu. For more info, visit BBButchers.com.

4.) Don Artemio Mexican Heritage (3268 W 7th St, 817-470-1439) is offering a threecourse dinner Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person. For an appetizer, choose between the taco de nopalitos fritos or the sope de pulpo con chicharrón. Entree choices include El Famoso Chile Hojaldrado, enchiladas queso queso, and Norwegian salmon en pipián verde y frijoles puercos. For dessert, enjoy fresas con crema, which is Mexican vanilla bean cream, berries, berry foam, tulip cookie chunks, and couli. There is also a $24 lunch menu and a $29 brunch menu (Sat-Sun). For more info, visit LenaPope. org/DFWRestaurantWeek.

AUGUST 3-9, 2022 FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY 18

6.) Rise Souffle Nº3 (5135 Monahans Av, 817-737-7473) would like you to enjoy a three-course meal Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $39 per person. Start with a complimentary course of a glass of wine or the chef ’s artisan plate. For the first course, choose marshmallow soup, French onion soup, or the Rise Salad. For the second course, enjoy the cauliflower and brie soufflé, jambon and gruyere soufflé, mushroom soufflé, or the Rise Chicken Salad. For dessert, there’s the Reese’s Soufflé, raspberry soufflé, or crème brulée. For more info, visit LenaPope.org/ DFWRestaurantWeek.

7.) Toro Toro (200 Main St, 817-975-9895) is serving up a four-course meal Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person. Antojito choices are lomo saltado empanadas or hamachi tiradito. De la parilla choices include an 8-ounce flatiron steak, achiote-seared salmon, or charred rainbow cauliflower. For guarnicion, choose between roasted heirloom carrots or potatoes three ways. Más is the next course and includes your choice of truffle mashed potatoes or the aforementioned carrots. For postre, there’s yellow corn cake or housemade churros. For more info, visit ToroToroFortWorth.com.

8.) Waters Restaurant (301 Main St, 817984-1110) is offering a three-course dinner Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person.

Starter choices are chilled watermelon and cucumber salad and chopped romaine and summer corn relish salad. Entree choices — which all include sides of dirty rice and thin green beans — include grilled Cre-

Cour tesy Waters Restaurant

2.) Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine (4259 Bryant Irvin Rd, 817-738-5489) is serving up a three-course meal Tuesday thru Sat, Aug 13, for $49 per person. For the first course, choose between the house or tomato-watermelon salad. Second-course options include pecan-crusted redfish, pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin, or quail and mushroom pasta. For dessert, choose between strawberry chess pie or Gigi’s Chocolate-Amaretto Cake. For more info, visit BonnellsTexas.com.

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It’s Time for Summer Restaurant Week-TurnedMonth

5.) Fitzgerald (6115 Camp Bowie Blvd, Ste 104, 817-349-9245) is serving up a threecourse dinner Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person. First-course options include a chilled sweet corn and blue crab soup, house wedge salad, or tuna tartare. For your second course, choose blackened redfish, Pork Delmonico, or seared ahi tuna. For the third course, there’s flourless chocolate cake, buttermilk pie, or Banana Foster’s banana pudding. There is also a $24 lunch menu. For more info, visit EatatFitz.com.

Share the love this Summer Restaurant Week/Month at Waters and more.

ole shrimp, Southwestern seared salmon, porcini salt-grilled filet mignon, and panko-breaded Louisiana crawfish cakes. For dessert, enjoy Texas sheet-cake or cornmeal buttermilk pie. For more info, visit WatersTexas.com.

9.) Wicked Butcher (512 Main St, 817601-46210) is serving a three-course dinner Friday thru Sun, Sep 4, for $49 per person.

For the first course, there are four choices, including cauliflower soup, steak tartare, Wicked Wedge, or hamachi crudo. Second-course options include herb-roasted chicken, asparagus risotto, ginger miso Chilean sea bass, Berkshire pork chops, and an 8-ounce center cut filet. For dessert, enjoy olive oil cake, chocolate tart, or black cherry cheesecake. For more info, visit WickedButcher.com.

Participating restaurants are accepting reservations now via OpenTable or by phone.

Full dish descriptions are available at LenaPope.org/DFWRestaurantWeek.

By Jennifer Bovee

MUSIC

That’s the Way It Is

Though he’s grounded, Victor Trevino has traveled all over portraying Elvis, capturing his voice, his moves, and even his drip.

B Y

S T E V E

S T E W A R D

Victor Trevino Jr. has a job for which image and appearance are of paramount importance, but, as he is quick to make clear, in his offhours, he’s just Victor Trevino. That might seem like an odd thing for a person to point out, but Trevino works in an industry that might engender precipitous slides into delusional behavior, and he wants to reiterate that though he has a tremendous amount of respect and fondness for the main tenets and parameters of his job, when the workday is done, he takes the uniform off. And Trevino’s uniform, like a cop’s or firefighter’s, is as iconic as it is expensive, and it conveys the expectation of authority in a similar fashion. But as a far as I know, no cop has ever had Swarovski crystals sewn into the lapels of his work shirt.

Trevino has a suit with cuffs and lapels sewn with Swarovski crystals because he makes his living performing a tribute

to Elvis Presley, and Elvis had lapels and cuffs sewn with Swarovski crystals, part of a custom-made, gold lamé Nudie Cohn suit.

Trevino’s own custom-made version doesn’t have the real gold leaf (nor the $20,000 price tag), but it’s a pretty convincing replica nevertheless, which sort of describes Trevino’s career doing Elvis’ show. Trevino has been performing as Elvis for over a decade now.

His version has earned the approval of Elvis Presley Enterprises and Graceland and taken him all over the world. He went from local and national contests to playing the main rooms at the Flamingo and Harrah’s in Las Vegas, and in November and December, he’ll return to the strip for a main room run at the vaunted Tropicana. It’s an enviable resumé, and it’s a career Trevino never intended to have.

It started when Trevino was 19, waiting tables at a Saltgrass Steakhouse in Fossil Creek and working on a photography degree at University of North Texas, when a customer told him he would make a good Elvis impersonator. A 2003 graduate of Boswell High School, Trevino had acting experience in his high school’s drama department, and he played the titular character in a Scott Theater production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat during his senior year.

“I loved performing,” he said, “whether it was acting or singing. I just knew I wanted some career in some sort of art field.”

One night at work, he waited on a woman named Cathy Rogers. Roger’s father, as she told Trevino, had booked the animal performers for The Ed Sullivan Show because he ran a circus, which she inherited after his passing.

“But she also had a lookalike department,” Trevino said. “She had, like, a Robin Williams, an Elizabeth Taylor, and she could also get dancing bears for you if you wanted.”

She asked what else he did besides serving rib-eyes, and, being fresh off his Dreamcoat role, he said acting.

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Trevino: “Just to maybe inspire people or have a positive effect on [them] is worth it to me.”

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much,” Trevino says his stage banter is decidedly more educational: “In between continued from page 19 songs, I don’t act like Elvis. I talk about Elvis. I talk about the history of his music.”

“I heeded her advice,” Trevino said. “I No matter what Trevino talks about thought about it because she said you can while he’s on stage, though, he has to at make a career [doing Elvis songs], and it can least look like a historically accurate King help you travel and see the world. I was liv- of Rock ’n’ Roll. ing at home. I was in college and hated it.”

“You gotta get the good stuff,” he said.

Using singing and dancing as a vehicle “We’re talking professional-made jumpsuits, for world travel held a lot of appeal for him. jackets, footwear, jewelry. … A well-made, Trevino liked rockabilly a lot, and he custom gabardine jumpsuit will cost somealways had an appreciation for Elvis as a one anywhere between $1,350 and $5,000, famous-person icon, but it wasn’t music he depending on the model and how compliactively listened to. cated the design and stone places will be.”

“I always thought he was cool when I Of course, spending a decade in any one was a little kid,” Trevino said. “He had cool field gives you a lot of perspective, and Trehair, he sang songs everybody liked, he wore vino knows he will not have to spend that a cape, but I liked all those ’90s R&B hits costume budget forever — he has a current and bangers.” side gig in a honkytonk cover band called But he dived deep into the King’s cata- The Texas Trouble — but he sees an exit in log and caught on quick. four or five years.

“At first, I was only into the Sun Re“I would love to get into [show] produccords and early RCA stuff,” Trevino said, tion … or maybe I’ll get into country music “but the more I studied him, the more I re- more,” he said. “I don’t care to be famous, alized how he not only changed music but but just to maybe inspire people or have a that he changed the world.” positive effect on [them] is worth it to me.”

Trevino has a near encyBut until Victor Treviclopedic grasp of Elvis’ histono’s Elvis tribute leaves the One Night with ry, and that knowledge finds proverbial building for good, the King, Starring its way into his performances. however, he’ll be ready to show Victor Trevino Jr. While a lot of Elvis imperoff that crystal-studded jacket.

7:30pm Sat at Downtown sonators fill the gaps between After all, it’s part of the job. l Cowtown at the Isis Theater, 2401 N Main St, songs with the stereotypical FW. $32. 817-808-6390.

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Social consciousness has been a pillar of hip-hop since it was originally blasted out of boomboxes aimed at break dancers on cardboard-covered parking lots in The Bronx in the ’70s. Sadly, over the last few decades, the erudite proselytizing of the likes of Chuck D and KRS-One — as they tackled controversial topics like systemic racism and economic injustice — has slowly been replaced by an increasing glut of garish and banal mumble rap verses bragging about wealth and sex or about how well one can rap about wealth and sex. At least when it comes to what typically gets pushed on the radio or into the clubs.

Don’t get me wrong. The world certainly has a place for turn-your-brain-offand-move-type bangers. Even Outkast had “Hey, Ya!” However, in this generic middle-aged white dude’s opinion (which no one asked for and readers can decidedly ignore), the vanguard of the genre should always honor the tradition of enlightenment and social justice.

Thankfully, our fair burg is still host to a handful of astute MCs. Cats like Lou Charle$, Wrex, Dru B Shinin’, and Clay Perry, to name a few, are homegrown artists who appear to put some actual thought into their bars and in so doing provoke thoughts. Seeking these cats out is one area where Dear Reader should definitely listen to my opinion. You will be rewarded.

As you will with KooKusi, a new rapper who’s recently come onto my radar.

This smooth-flow Ghanaian transplant raises the bar of hip-hop braininess considerably. Though he heralds from more than 10,000 miles away, his positive, inspiring voice, in my mind, is just what any local hip-hop scene needs.

Back in February, KooKusi (a name taken from his father’s nickname, a sort of conjunction of “Kofi Kusi,” the given name they both share) dropped a seven-song EP. On 5foot3, rapping in and out of a shifting blend of English and a Ghanaian pidgin called Acan (itself a mix of three native dialects), KooKusi takes on the subject of inferiority complexes. (The project’s title hints at a cause of one of his own insecurities.) Though slight in physical stature, Kusi’s liquid-mercury vocal slide proves he has a really big brain.

And an even bigger heart. His lessons on self-deprecation, validation-seeking, and judgmental stereotypes, and how to overcome them, hit home even though American listeners might only grab a few recognizable words out of the passing phrases.

When the phrases do pop, Kusi has a Dylan Thomas-ian poetic tilt. Such as the line paraphrased from “Stereotypes,” in which he recognizes his own hypocrisy: “I have not removed the log in my eye / Though I call out other people for the speck in theirs.”

Having been in the states for just a

Cour tesy the ar tist

KooKusi’s Humble Rap

KooKusi exists in a sort of in-between, America and Ghana, darkness and light, local and international.

year, KooKusi admits it’s been challenging for him to establish himself in the local hip-hop scene. It’s hard enough for rappers to make an impression in the game even if they grew up down the street. His difficulty is compounded by the fact that he’s a pharmacist by day and currently a Ph.D. student studying biomedical science, specializing in research in neurology and substance abuse, not to mention moonlighting as a photographer and videographer as well. Yet he still feels called to bring a positive message to the hip-hop community.

His latest effort in this pursuit is with a new video for his latest track “No Where Cool,” a title derived from an Acan phrase meaning “nothing is easy.” In the video, Kusi wrangles with feelings of regret for moving so far from home to a country wrought with so many racial, economic, and violent challenges. A phone exchange with a friend from back home who is pleading with him to help him in his own escape from their native country reminds him of the reasons he came to the United States in the first place — a corrupt government and a rigid social hierarchy — though these issues seem abstract to the newfound threat of rampant gun violence.

As a result, he exists in a sort of in-between the two opposing flawed countries.

He summed his thoughts on the disparate lonely in-betweenness in his signature poetic way: “They say the grass is always greener somewhere else, but that isn’t true. The grass is greener wherever you water it, so you might as well water the grass where you are.”

These are the types of lessons hip-hop scenes need, whether you can immediately understand the language they are delivered in or not. — Patrick Higgins

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American Airlines, Inc. has openings in Ft. Worth, TX for: Mobile Platform Product Owner (Ref. 1410): Collab w/ intrnl prtnrs from IT, UX & Anlytics to understand custmr behavior & adjust reqs based on those behaviors. Analyst, RM Strategy & Analysis (Ref. 1371): Resp for identify'g & quantify'g rev opps thru anlysis of intrnl & extrnl rev data. Lead, IT Quality Assurance (Ref. 1535): Provid'g strategic vision for the test'g team that promos effy in tools & automation, personnel, & processes. Sr. Data Engineer (Ref. 2137): Resp for bring'g data engineer'g, collab, & anlytics skills to help cultivate a datadriven cult by design'g & deliver'g anlytics solutions & mak'g data anlytics easier & more effective for AA. Sr. Analyst, RM Dvlpment (Ref. 1002): Resp for the full life-cycle of revintegrity biz rules dvlp't include'g rules definition, harvest'g, develop't, test'g, deploy, implementation, & on-going maintenance. Sr. Developer, IT Applications (Ref. 1688): Collab w/ leaders, biz anlysts, project mgrs, IT architects, tech leads & other developers, along w/ intrnl custmr, to understand reqs & dvlp needs accord'g to biz reqs. Sr. Engineer, IT Infrastructure (Ref. 1665): Resp for implement'g tech reqs & solutions as they progress thru the project mgmt cycle. Sr. Developer, IT Applications (Ref. 1851): Gather'g & analyz'g reqs, & convert it to features & user stories, & engineer the process & procedures meet'g reqs. Sr. Developer, IT Applications (Ref. 2048): Resp for leverag'g cutt'g edge tech to solve biz probs by participat'g in all phases of the develop't process from inception through transition, advocat'g the agile process & test-driven develop't, using object-oriented develop't tools to anlyze, model, dsgn, construct & test reusable objects, & making the codebase better. Sr. Developer, IT Applications (Ref. 2093): Resp for leverag'g cutt'g edge tech to solve biz probs at AA by participat'g in all phases of the apps develop't process from inception through transition, advocat'g the agile process test-driven develop't, using object-oriented develop't tools to anlyze, model, dsgn, construct, & test reusable objects, & making the codebase a better place to live & work. Sr. Analyst, Financial Planning (Ref. 2108): Resp for assist'g in the dsgn & implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan, track'g financial & product perform, & conduct'g financial forecast'g, develop't of capital plans, staffing anlysis, & cost reduction & rev generation studies. Sr. Architect, IT Applications (Ref. 917): Resp for maintain'g IT platform reliability, data reliability & security per AA’s enterprise reqs. Sr. Analyst, Sales Strategy (Ref. 2106): Resp for apply'g data visualization, biz intel, project mgmt, & predictive anlytics to create new report'g tools & dashboards to assemble & anlyze lrg amounts of data. To learn more or to apply send inquiries &/or resume to Gene Womack via email: Gene.Womack@aa.com Please include Ref # in subject line.

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Alcon Research, LLC has openings for Senior Engineers for the Fort Worth, TX office. Senior Engineers are responsible for software verification of complex software applications embedded in state-of-the-art ophthalmic instruments in all phases of software development life cycle including planning, inputs, design, implementation, and testing. Job is 40 hours per week.

Please send all resumes to Sylvia Cruz, Alcon Research, LLC, 6201 South Freeway, Fort Worth, TX 76134, Ref. No. RD0722

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Business Intelligence Analyst, Grapevine, TX: Generate STD & customized BI RPTs & DSHs. PER DA & identify BUSI opportunities. Identify new BUSI INTEL tools & DA methodologies. Min. Reqs: MA’s deg. in ECON/a rltd fld. 2-yr DA rltd exp. 2-yr exp. in bldg RPTs/DSHs USNG DTA VIs tools, ERP PFMs & RPTng tools. 2-yr exp w/ STAT modeling & analysis. Send resumes: Michael Kim, TOULA MANUFACTURING LTD., INC., 2551 SW Grapevine Pkwy, Grapevine, TX 76051. Job ref: 1001.

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The following vehicles have been impounded with fees due to date by Lone Star Towing (VSF0647382) at 1100 Elaine Pl, Fort Worth TX, 76196, 817-334-0606: Suzuki, 1981, JS1GS71L5B2100249, $1519.07.

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