Feb 29, 2016

Dana Black & Daughter Exonerated

Dana Black And Daughter Exonerated After Trespassing Arrest In Plainview

(At the request of Dana Black, The Pulse is printing a story from the Plainview Herald’s February 7, 2016, edition. This story and the initial story about the arrest  are paraphrased below.)

Dana McLain Black, 58, and her daughter, Jacy Shaw Black, 23, were arrested on a Saturday morning, January 30, 2016, in Plainview,  in an alley off of Seventh St. and Oakland St. (The two women live in  Hart.)

All criminal complaints against them were dropped, with the two being completely exonerated of guilt.

Hale County District Attorney Wally Hatch explained that the pair’s innocent activity around a vacant house that has been a frequent burglary target appeared suspicious to officers who were in a heightened state of awareness following a string of weekend burglaries.

By the time authorities were able to begin sorting through an unfortunate series of coincidences that falsely cast the pair in an unfavorable light, initial reports and information incorrectly implicating them in a possible burglary had already been released to the press.

According to the women, they were parked in an alley behind a vacant residence discarding their own items in an alley trash container. They also were viewing the house from the outside.

While they were outside the residence, a police officer was dispatched to the area after someone called the police dispatcher.  The officer arrived at 9:47 a.m., and the two women were placed into custody for criminal trespass, a Class B misdemeanor, and investigation of possible burglary of a building, a felony.

Once the two were taken into custody, police contacted the property owner. He was able to verify that the various household and other personal items that the women had in their possession did not belong to him and had not come from his building. Indeed, all of the items belonged to the Blacks all along, Hatch said.

A subsequent check of the structure in question showed that it had not been entered by the two women, and the pending charge of criminal trespass, for trespassing on private property, was dropped.

The Herald states that in its Feb. 2 edition, it incorrectly reported that police found the two attempting to “ransack” the residence due to a poor choice of words on the writer’s part and a misperception that the structure had been entered and items removed.

Customarily, The Herald states that it doesn’t publish the names of those being held and/or charged with misdemeanor offenses. In this case, the women’s names were included in Hale County jail logs for Sunday morning showing an offense of criminal trespass and the related police incident report classed the incident as a burglary as well. It was the last of five reported weekend burglaries enumerated in Tuesday’s newspaper article, and the only one involving persons’ being taken into custody. In retrospect, the women’s names probably should not have been published at that stage of the investigation, although they appeared in multiple public records, according to The Herald.