A dog case

The jury questionnaires are all laid out on the benches of Dallas County Criminal District Court No. 7 on this Monday morning. Pretty soon, 12 jurors will be treated to quite a show --- one that includes one of Texas’ toughest prosecutors, one of the city’s more controversial criminal-defense lawyers and a courtroom potentially full of activists. What’s the fuss about? Believe it or not, it’s a dog case -- literally. DeShann Brown is being tried on a felony animal cruelty charge for allegedly setting a pit-bull puppy on fire. The puppy, who was later named “Mercy,” died 10 days after she was rescued and taken to Operation Kindness. Terri Moore, Dallas County’s first assistant district attorney, will represent the state in the case --- her first jury trial since joining the office in January. Moore is known as a brutal cross-examiner who takes nothing off the lawyer sitting at the defense table. That last bit will be interesting as she faces Dan Wyde, a former Dallas county court judge, who is now one of the Dallas criminal-defense bar's more animated litigators. Wyde has made the news over some of his more controversial tactics, including an attempt to depose an alleged rape victim in a civil proceeding on the eve of a client’s criminal trial. The trial should be packed with anti-animal cruelty activists. Operation Kindness, which held a memorial for Mercy that 1,500 people attended, even has a Web page devoted to the case. It reminds people attending the case to remember not to bring “cameras, lighters, Mace and nail clippers” to the courthouse and to wear jackets or sweaters over “Mercy” T-shirts as to not influence the jury.
-- John Council