Thursday, September 10, 2009

"He knows what happened here today."

The City Hall/Don Hill corruption trial is obviously compelling -- maybe now, no one will take the stand in his own defense ever again -- but equally remarkable to me is how Jim Schutze can write so well on the fly. He's posting his updates in an instant, court-transcriber way, and still the excellent pacing and sense of story-telling are there:

[Prosecutor Marcus] Busch is walking it in.

Busch is talking about the fact that there was community opposition to more multi-family housing in Southern Dallas. Busch says, “On October 27, 2004, five people spoke out against Laureland, one of them Carol Brandon [a plan commissioner].”

But on that same day, Darren Reagan’s opposition to the project evaporated (he had called for a six-month moratorium on multi-family) after Bill Fisher signed a contract with Reagan. Hill agrees he voted in favor of the project

“The very next day, Darren Reagan gives you $10,000s and tells you it had to do wIth Bill Fisher.”

“Yes.”

Busch lets it sit there. The courtroom is silent.

Silent.

For a good 45 seconds, an eon, you could hear a pin drop.


Of course, the Dallas Morning News has coverage too. It lacks a little something though.

No comments: