[Printout of Dallas Voice article about documentary Finding Our Voice] Page: 3 of 16
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Dallas Voice Viewpoints
publication, Dialog. The source of this information was
our Deep Throat, without whom our efforts would have
taken much longer. I was sworn to secrecy as to his
identity, which even today is known only by a few.
I remember going to City Hall with Don Baker and Bill
Nelson for our first-ever meeting with DPD's Police
Chief, Glen King. By that time DGPC was funding the
defense of a victim of police harassment who had been
arrested outside the Fraternity House by a vice cop. In
front of the Police Chief I named names, including one
officer who was repeatedly arresting bar patrons; we
learned that DPD was growing quite concerned at the
publicity individual officers were getting.
Events moved to a climax when twelve men were
arrested by Vice Squad officers in the Village Station in
1980 while participating in what they described as a
"bunny hop" on the dance floor. I talked to four of them
who were the first to stand up to the police and fight back
in court in what became known as the famous - or
infamous - Village Station Trials..
In the SJC we followed several cases through the
Misdemeanor Courts. I recall sitting in Judge Chuck
Miller's court for the first case and listening to the
prosecuting attorney Marshall Gandy (later to become a
judge) tell the judge in his summing up that "If you find
the defendant Not Guilty, you will in effect be implying
that the police are lying". The judge found the defendant
Not Guilty.
Two weeks later the same verdict, in the second case.
This was too much for District Attorney Henry Wade,
who was in cahoots with the Vice Squad, because he
dropped charges against the remaining two defendants
(who also were set to be tried by Judge Miller) and then
re-filed the same charges against them, but in another
judge's court, where he thought he could get them
convicted.
Wade was engaging in an unethical form of maneuvering
called forum shopping. I persuaded the Board of what
was by then the Dallas Gay Alliance to compile and file a
grievance against the District Attorney with the Bar
Association. Compiling the evidence turned out to be a
lengthy process, because we had to obtain the full
transcripts of three trials; as a result we filed additional
grievances against Winfield Scott (Assistant D.A. overhttp://www.dallasvoice.com/view.html
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7/12/00
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[Printout of Dallas Voice article about documentary Finding Our Voice], article, July 12, 2000; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc947312/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.