5 November 24–30, 2022 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | Contents | Unfair Park | sChUtze | featUre | night+Day | CUltUre | Movies | Dish | MUsiC | ClassifieD | what’s called a right to cure, which requires landlords to accept late rent in the first 10 days after the initial eviction notice. A bill filed by state Rep. Nicole Collier ahead of the upcoming legislative session looks to provide tenants a right to cure across the state. Under Collier’s House Bill 673, landlords would be required to accept late rent in the seven days after the initial eviction notice. This is something that would ideally make it into Dallas’ permanent eviction ordinance as well. The city is still trying to decide what a permanent ordinance would look like, but Melton said it would make sense to provide tenants with at least enough time to get their next paycheck and settle late rent. To him, tenants should have always had these kinds of protections. “In my view, I just want to be very clear, there needs to be additional tenant protections on a permanent basis as quickly as possible,” Melton said. “I don’t think there should be any scenario where there’s not some ordinance in effect at all times that’s providing some limited protections to tenants, because the system right now is just a stacked deck against them, and they need all the help they can get.” Nathaniel Barrett, a Dallas landlord, said that while he sees how the ordinance could help some tenants, it could come with some downsides. Barrett owns and operates a dozen Dallas apartments in buildings with two to five units each. “Any time it becomes harder to evict a tenant for nonpayment, landlords will have to apply stricter requirements,” Barrett said. Shorter lease terms, tougher rental history and reference requirements, he said, “are all ways I imagine landlords will respond in a tight rental market.” “It’s not that the ordinance is irrelevant. It may help a subset of people who just needed a little more time to put together the funds to catch up on rent,” he said. “Landlords, though, given the increased risk of having a non-paying tenant for as long as three months will absolutely respond with stricter screening.” Barrett predicts tenants with bad rental history and evictions on their record will bear the brunt of those tighter restrictions. Melton counters that people also suggest that if the city implements too many tenant protections in Dallas, landlords won’t want to do business here. “I don’t know if they think if all these units are just going to evaporate or something, but they won’t,” Melton said. He tells those people to look at New York, which has extensive tenant protections. “Landlords are still making a fortune up there,” he said. “They didn’t go away. They’re building more units. So, even in an environment that is, we’ll say less than moderately regulated … there’s still plenty of opportunity for landlords to make money. In fact, most of them did just fine during the pandemic.” He added: “Rents are going up, they’re making more money. Everything’s great for them, while at the same time, tenants are getting priced out of places to live and inflation is going crazy and they can’t buy groceries. So, you know, there’s a world of hurt sitting out there.” On Nov. 20, Melton said he and his organization found a home for the Hardaway family. He posted a photo on social media of one of Hardaway’s children. “Lauren and I spent time with this kid today,” Mark Melton wrote. “For the last six weeks, he’s been living in a hotel three blocks from my house.” He said the hotel stay was made possible by people’s donations to the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center. “This week, he got to move into a house in a school district where he’ll receive a fantastic education. He’s going to be fine.” ▼ Police PaPer chase Grand Prairie Police arrest colbie Hoffman in relation to tHe deatH of officer brandon tsai. by Kelly Dearmore L ast Thursday, Grand Prairie police an- nounced that an arrest had been made in connection with the chase that re- sulted in the death of officer Brandon Tsai last week. The 32-year-old Tsai was in pur- suit of a suspect driving a vehicle with a fraudulent license tag Monday night when he lost control of his patrol vehicle and crashed into a light pole. He later died from his injuries. At a press conference, Grand Prairie Po- lice Chief Daniel Scesney said Colbie Hoff- man, 22, turned himself in to Dallas police last Wednesday night to avoid being ar- rested in Grand Prairie. No reason was pro- vided for Hoffman’s decision. Hoffman was also charged with eight outstanding war- rants from Waxahachie, DeSoto and Bed- ford. When Grand Prairie officers arrived in Dallas to apprehend Hoffman, Scesney said, they used Tsai’s handcuffs to detain him. Scesney expressed thanks for the “intense and collaborative effort” from his depart- ment, the Dallas Police Department and the FBI, later adding that the investigating offi- cers had “virtually nothing to go on” when the investigation began. Hoffman is being held on bonds totaling $275,000 and is charged with a second-de- gree felony of evading arrest and detention causing death, as well as tampering with evi- dence, a third-degree felony. Grand Prairie Police Department public information officer Mark Beseda said Tsai had discerned the paper tag on Hoffman’s silver Chevrolet Malibu to be “clearly ficti- tious by design” before attempting to pull him over on Monday night. The on-duty death of Tsai is the latest incident related to the growing problem of fraudulent paper vehicle tags in Texas. A vehicle might have fake tags for a num- ber of reasons, including trying to cover for a vehicle that would likely fail inspection or to help disguise a stolen vehicle. Auto dealers have been caught selling vehicles with fake tags to hide the actual mileage of the vehicle from the customer. Considering the extensive amount of damage that fake paper tags can cause, they’re surprisingly simple for counterfeiters to make and sell. According to a 2021 NBC 5 investigation, an individual in Texas needs lit- tle more than $800 to obtain a car dealer li- cense and begin issuing temporary paper tags. Some measures have been taken in the past year by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to create a tougher barrier for coun- terfeiters, but the problem has persisted. Operating a vehicle with a fraudulent paper tag is a Class C misdemeanor, subject to a $500 fine. Some officers are able to easily identify fake tags, as Tsai did, but that’s not always the case. Scesney said the number on the tempo- rary plate Hoffman had on the vehicle he was driving when Tsai attempted to pull him over has been found on more than 200 other vehicles, including 50 Chevrolet Mali- bus, around North Texas. The state recently announced plans to completely redesign temporary tags to decrease the likelihood of counterfeiting. According to a press release from the Texas DMV, the changes set to be deployed on Dec. 9 include a new Texas flag water- mark, enhanced depiction of the tag’s expi- ration date, vehicle year and make, and name of issuing dealer. The tags will also contain embedded data and text linked to law enforcement databases, which can be created only by internal department com- puter systems. The increased scrutiny on fake tags is helpful, Scesney said, but he noted that the issue has gotten out of hand. “We can have so many fictitious tags that saturate a com- munity. It is frustrating,” he said. ▼ Sexual HaraSSment Tale of The TaPe armed witH an audio recordinG, collin county da rebuts sexual Harassment lawsuit. by Kelly Dearmore C ollin County District Attorney Greg Willis has responded to a lawsuit filed in October by six current and former employees claiming he sexually ha- rassed them by treating “many female em- ployees as objects that, without their consent, must gratify his sexual impulses and personal vanity.” In an interview with NBC 5, Willis stated, “What’s in the lawsuit is a bunch of lies. It needs to be known.” Willis and Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye, County Judge Chris Hill, and County Commission- ers Susan Fletcher, Cheryl Williams, Darrell Hale and Duncan Webb are named as defen- dants. The complaint also alleges that Wirskye “runs the office as a crass, misogynistic fra- ternity complete with systemic hazing of the County’s attorneys, investigators and staff.” The 75-page lawsuit, which seeks un- specified damages, states that one of the plaintiffs, former prosecutor Fallon LaFleur, resigned from her role because she was “overwhelmed” by Wirskye’s alleged abuses. LaFleur claims that as she was leaving the exit interview with Willis, he “proceeded to give her a full-frontal hug while her arms were stiff beside her body. He rubbed her lower back with his hands and pressed her breasts against him.” The events of that exit interview have been disputed and are now also being high- lighted by Willis, who has been district at- torney since 2011 and ran unopposed for reelection earlier this month. Last Wednes- day, Willis took the unusual step of releasing what he claims is an audio recording and transcript of LaFleur’s exit interview, which may be in violation of county rules. According to NBC 5, Willis published the exit interview audio recording, transcript and copies of handwritten notes from staff- ers thanking and complimenting him to Col- lin County Truth Files. (The Collin County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.) Below the headline reading “Setting the Record Straight” are options for reviewing what is claimed to be a 20-plus-minute au- dio file and the transcript of the exit inter- view, presented on the site as evidence that “clearly debunks the plaintiff’s key allega- tion and shows them to be completely false and fabricated.” Below that, the website lists a pair of points from the lawsuit labeled as “Lie” fol- lowed by a rebuttal labeled “Truth.” In one of the examples provided, LaFluer’s claim that “DA Willis was ‘moaning’ aloud and ‘groping’ her while ‘gratifying himself’’ is answered with “This never happened. courtesy Grand Prairie Police Officer Brandon Tsai crashed while chasing a car with fake license tags. >> p6