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TOO FAST, TOO FURIOUS, TOO BAD YOU HAVE NO MORE CAR

Lawmakers craft bill designed to take keys from street racers - permanently

State representatives John Turner and Morgan Meyer, along with Toni Rose, authored a bill

designed to allow police to confiscate cars used in street racing. (PHOTO: SALEH ZAFAR)

By Bethany Erickson

People Newspapers

In the first week in April, Dallas police made 193 traffic stops related to street racing, towed nine cars, and made five felony arrests.

But even with a street racing task force, officers know that with existing laws, they can ticket spectators and drivers and tow vehicles, but it doesn’t serve as enough of a deterrent.

“If we stop you … you can get arrested, your car gets towed, but as soon as you are released, you can take your paperwork to the auto impound, have your car released, and two days later you’re able to race again,” Dallas Police Department Assistant Chief Jesse Reyes told a state house com- where it hurts. mittee in March. “This car is their baby,” Reyes said. “It’s

But a new bill filed by state Reps. John their girlfriend. So this is another tool in Turner, Morgan Meyer, and Toni Rose our toolbox.” may give police more in their tool kit - The Dallas City Council made it a prithe ability to permanently take the keys of ority to lobby the state legislature to prothe cars of repeat offenders or those who vide officers with more enforcement opbreak other laws while racing. tions.

If passed, House “One of the legisBill 2315 would let police seize and poThis car is their lative priorities of our city council this sestentially forfeit cars baby. It’s their sion is to expand enused in street racing. First-time offenders girlfriend. So this forcement tools available to DPD, so they would likely get tick- is another tool in can do more to stop eted, but repeat offenders and those who our toolbox. street racing,” said Dallas city council (for instance) were Jesse Reyes member Cara Mendriving while intoxi- delsohn. cated or with an open container of alcohol The North Dallas Chamber of Comcould find themselves without a car. merce also supports the bill and sent a let-

“These events are already illegal,” Turn- ter of support to the committee. er told the Texas House Judicial Jurispru- “Dallas and Texans across the state dence committee. “But we do need addi- have seen a significant increase in illegal tional tools.” and dangerous street racing in the last

Reyes and city of Dallas attorney Chris several years,” the letter read. “We support Caso testified in favor of the measure. the proposed modifications to the code of

“This is a tool that will help the po- criminal procedure to add civil asset forlice departments because we’re writing the feiture to disincentivize future street ractickets, and it’s not making an impact on ing activities.” these folks,” Caso said. Check peoplenewspapers.com for updates

Taking their cars, however, hits them as the bill moves through the Legislature.

HP-Bred Actor Charged In Capitol Riot ‘Believed These Were The Last Days’

By Rachel Snyder

People Newspapers

Before going to the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot where he allegedly brandished a crutch, and charged at officers, Highland Park-bred Luke Coffee found QAnon conspiracy theories online.

Coffee, 41, faces multiple charges in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, including assault of a federal law enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, court documents show.

“I can’t imagine — who possessed him to think the way that he was thinking because I don’t believe he was a Trump supporter. I believe that he truly believed these were the last days,” said Becky Jane Romine, a friend of Coffee’s who acted alongside him in the 2007 comedy Cake: A Wedding Story. “He said he was going — his intentions were not to create chaos when he went to the Capitol.”

In late January, he told Texas Monthly from a Hill Country resort where he stayed and spoke with FBI agents before his arrest in February that he went to Washington D.C. to “be part of history” and “to bring all this criminal behavior to light.”

He returned to Dallas from Washington D.C. Jan. 7, and turned himself in at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse Feb. 26.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia April 9 affirmed a magistrate judge’s decision to grant Coffee’s release pending trial under certain conditions, including that he submit to location monitoring and avoid all contact with “anyone associated with the incident on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Prosecutors argued in court documents that Coffee had “charged at the officers while still holding the crutch” and posed a “serious risk of flight.”

His defense lawyer, Jim Burnham, however, argued Coffee was “not a violent man, but rather a peacemaker” who “tried to stop the riots and prayed for peace.”

People Newspapers reached out to the U.S. Marshals office of public affairs to confirm whether or not he had actually been released, but didn’t hear back by press time.

Authorities entered police body camera footage from the Capitol riot into evidence as part

of a criminal complaint against Luke Coffee. (PHOTO: SCREENGRAB)

Coffee graduated from Highland Park High School and went to Baylor University. After graduating from Baylor, he worked in Los Angeles for five years, during which time he worked as the post-production coordinator for such shows as Everwood and Las Vegas, according to his IMDb page. Coffee returned to Dallas around 2010 and started a production company.

He was dating a woman from Dallas who was killed in a hit-and-run crash in 2006 at the age of 22, Texas Monthly reports.

Family members told the magazine that Coffee became withdrawn and depressed after the accident.

“I’m telling you, it blew his mind when he lost (his girlfriend) so quickly...it messed him up,” Romine added. “He really loved that girl.”

This Dallas MARKET is NOT Slowing Down! NOT Slowing Down!