Wedding Venue Closures Leave Couples in Limbo

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Two Wedding Venues Leave Brides Scrambling

Capella Court Gardens in Carrollton and the Alexander Mansion in Garland have closed their doors indefinitely leaving brides without a venue for exchanging their vows.

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Several North Texas couples getting married this month are now without a wedding venue.

Cappella Court Gardens in Carrollton and the Alexander Mansion in Garland have closed their doors indefinitely.

Employees said the phones were disconnected, keys did not work and the venues had been completely emptied out when they went to work Monday.

Sharon Brown got a call Monday telling her that she could not have her wedding in two days at Cappella Court Gardens.

"It's not a good way to do business at all," she said. "It's people's lives and emotions and things that are involved, and you can only have one wedding day. This day is special regardless, if it has to be in our backyard house, in our backyard it's still going to be special because I'm marrying my best friend."

Brown had made her final $1,700 payment on her $8,000 on Nov. 20.

"I just feel like it's a bad dream, and I don't want to wake up," she said. "I don't know what to do."

Ashford Dixon and his fiancee, Brittany Wills, are supposed to get married Sunday.

Dixon said the couple has already paid more than $6,000 to the owner of the Cappella Court Gardens. When he tried to call to ask a question for the DJ, he never heard back.

On Monday, he drove to the venue to talk to the owner.

"Her building is completely empty. ... [The] stove is gone -- how are we going to cook the food? Where's the food going to come from? The refrigerator is gone. Tables are gone. The decorations are gone. Logistically, I don't think it would be possible for us to have a wedding there."

Wills said she can't believe their wedding might be jeopardized.

"I've really been taking it all in, because I have to rely on my faith, and just know that God will guide us and he'll take care of it," she said.

Employees said at least five weddings were booked at the two venues this month and several dozens more were scheduled for next year.

The closure comes days after buzz in the community that the business might be shutting down.

NBC 5 had talked with the owner last week, but she said she was not shutting down. The owner said she had been moving things out to get the floors refurbished at Cappella Court Gardens.

NBC 5 tried to reach the owner several times Monday, including going to her Garland home, but there was no response.

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Mom Says Stranger Tried to Abduct 3-Year-Old Son

Ellen Goldberg, NBC 5 News

Frisco police say a man driving a van pulled up next to a 3-year-old and opened a side door. The van took off when the driver saw the boy's mother.

Police Warn of Possible Abduction Attempt

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Frisco police are warning about a man in a minivan who stopped to talk to a young boy.

The child's mother, Leslie Youngblood, said the man pulled up next her 3-year-old son Thursday evening and opened the sliding side door. The driver took off when he saw her.

"I just couldn't swallow that something like this could happen in my neighborhood," she said. "I didn't sleep at all that night."

Youngblood, a preschool teacher and mother of four said the driver could not see her because she was bent down, plugging in Christmas lights. When she stood up, he recklessly sped away from her home in the 2900 block of Horseshoe Trail.

"The more I think about how they did it and how it literally was under 10 seconds," she said. "I now understand how children can just go missing and parents have no idea."

Frisco police said they can't say for certain if there was criminal intent, but investigators are asking people in the area to stay vigilant and report anything suspicious to police.

The driver of the dark-blue minivan was described as a white man in his early 40s with shoulder-length, sandy blond hair and a mustache. He was wearing a white T-shirt under a striped, short-sleeve, unbuttoned shirt.

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Almost 500,000 Tollway Users Billed for Old Tolls

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The NBC 5 Investigates team has discovered nearly 500,000 toll road users are now receiving bills for trips that took place months ago or, in some cases, even years ago.

NBC5 Investigates started looking into the issue and learned that under an old North Texas Tollway Authority policy, ZipCash bills were mailed to motorists only after a customer made five trips on area toll roads.

This fall, the NTTA lowered the threshold to three trips, which resulted in bills being sent out to all motorists who had logged three or four trips -- regardless of how long ago the trip had been taken.

Through an open records request, NBC 5 Investigates learned that the NTTA stands to collect $2,313,317.68 if the bills are paid. That amount could rise even higher because the NTTA still plans to charge late fees to customers who don't pay their old tolls on time.

A few weeks ago, Ernest Parrish contacted NBC 5 Investigates after he got a bill last month for driving on the Sam Rayburn Tollway nearly two years ago.

"What I don't understand is why it took so long. They're supposed to be billing these things right away," he said.

Cynthia McDonnough just got a bill for a toll road trip from eight months ago.

"[In] April and now in December I'm getting billed?" said McDonnough. "I put it on Facebook and I think I had five or six of my friends immediately respond, 'Yes, I got one from November.' 'I got one from December.'"

The toll road users NBC 5 Investigates spoke to said they don't dispute the NTTA's right to charge. But they said they find it ironic that the NTTA can send a bill months or years after the road was used and then threaten late fees if it's not paid quickly.

"These are still tolls that were incurred. I think people certainly expected to pay them or they wouldn't have been using the tollway," NTTA spokesman Michael Rey said.

Drivers also wonder what will happen if the NTTA can't find some drivers years later -- will the late fees pile up?

"If something had of happened to me, would my wife have ever remembered that we went through a toll area?" Parrish asked. "She may have wound up with real big charges and everything before it was settled."

"Any bill that's not paid would have a late fee attached to it after the time has elapsed," Rey said.

He described the decision to issue the bills now as "an attempt to be better stewards of toll payer money."

McDonnough plans to pay her bill on time, even though it took most of a year to get to her. She and nearly 500,000 other drivers are finding out that the road from the tollbooth to the day the bill shows up can stretch on and on and on.

"They should have billed me a long time ago if they were going to bill me," said McDonnough.

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Dallas Wants More Eyes in the Sky

Omar Villafranca, NBC 5 News

Next week Dallas city leaders will decide if they want to buy as many as 600 cameras add to the network of surveillance cameras monitoring high-crime areas of the city.

More Surveillance Cameras for Dallas

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City leaders in Dallas want to buy more cameras to monitor crime-prone spots around the city.

The Dallas Police Department monitors roughly 100 cameras around the city, but the city council is mulling a proposal to add as many as 600 cameras.

According to one of the memorandums about the proposal, the cameras would be paid for with city money, confiscated money and private donations.

The cameras are already in use in Uptown, Fair Park, The Arts District and Jubilee Park.

Council member Pauline Medrano, Chair of the Public Safety Committee, said she supports the proposal.

A spokeswoman in council member Sheffie Kadane's office, the Vice Chair of the Public Safety Committee, said he had not made a decision on the proposal.

The council will vote on the proposal late this week.

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Documents Describe Brent's Failed Sobriety Test

Documents obtained from an Irving police source detail how Josh Brent failed sobriety tests administered by an officer shortly after the car crash that killed teammate Jerry Brown Jr.

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Investigation Continues Into Crash That Left Cowboys Player Dead

Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent says he's "just trying to deal" with the death of his teammate Jerry Brown. Brent is charged with intoxication manslaughter in the crash that killed Brown. Both men also were teammates at the University of Illinois.

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The Dallas Cowboys player charged in the death of practice-squad player Jerry Brown Jr. failed several sobriety tests after the crash, according to police documents obtained by NBC 5.

Nose tackle Josh Brent was at the wheel of a car that overturned on the State Highway 114 service road near Cistercian Road at about 2 a.m. Sunday.

Brown died of accidental causes from blunt force trauma to the head and neck, the Dallas County medical examiner said Monday.

Police are still working on the official police report about the crash. According to documents provided by an Irving police source, Brown was given several tests, including the "walk and turn."

The documents outline several ways that Brown failed, including not maintaining his balance during the instructional stage, starting too soon and stopping while walking in order to regain his balance.

The documents go on to say that Brown was given the one-leg stand, which he also failed by putting one foot down, using his arms for balance and swaying.

The officer deemed Brown had a "large quantity of alcohol in his system," the documents state.

Irving police said Monday that they are preparing a timeline of what led to the fatal crash. Investigators say a timeline will help determine whether a bartender could be partly to blame in the crash for over-serving Brent.

Irving police spokesman Officer John Argumaniz said investigators are working with agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which enforces liquor laws.

"They'll look for any videos or any receipts or anything that they may be provided to try to trace where these people were prior to the incident," he said.

Police are also investigating why incorrect information about the crash location was initially provided to the media.

In the first few hours after the crash, police told NBC 5 and other media outlets that the crash occurred at 600 Cowboys Parkway.

The correct address on Highway 114 was provided long after Brent's 2007 Mercedes was removed from the scene and he was in jail.

Argumaniz said Irving police are reviewing telephone call recordings and talking with dispatchers about the location information.

The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that a witness claims to have been at the scene shortly after the crash and heard Brown calling for help and says that Brent did not respond.

Milner told the newspaper that the witness' claim is untrue.

According to an affidavit for determination of probable cause that Dallas police released Sunday, the responding officers saw Brent pulling Brown from the burning vehicle when they arrived at the crash scene. That information is also in the documents obtained Monday by NBC 5.

"Everybody that's there said that -- he pulled him out," said George Milner, Brent's attorney. "Once the vehicle caught fire, he pulled his friend out of the vehicle to help him. He kept trying to talk to him."

Media representatives were not at the crash to independently verify what happened.

Brent, who is charged with intoxication manslaughter, was released from the Irving Jail on a $500,000 bond Sunday.

When Brent left jail, Milner said his client was devastated by what happened to his best friend.

"It's a horrible thing," he said. "If you understand how close they are, it's like, he got in a car accident and his little brother got killed."

A memorial for Brown will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas.

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Man Shot in Dallas Apartment Complex

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Police are searching for the people who shot a man at a Dallas apartment complex Tuesday morning.

Officers arrived at about midnight at the Urbano at Midtown Apartments, right off Park Lane, after receiving reports of gunshots at the complex.

Officers found a man in the yard with gunshot wounds. Paramedics transported the victim to a local hospital in critical condition.

Residents say they heard the gunshots, and then saw two men leaving the complex.

Police searched the area by car, on foot and using DPD helicopter Air-1.

There have been no arrests.

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Two Fires, One Apartment Complex, Hours Apart

Kendra Lyn, NBC 5 News

A total of 15 families were affected by a Dallas apartment fire that started Monday night and reignited overnight.

Crews Extinguish Fire, Reignites Overnight

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A Dallas apartment fire that initially started Monday night, reignited early Tuesday morning.

The fire first tore through Las Cascadas Apartments on the 9300-block of Skillman Street at about 7:30 p.m.

It forced residents out into the cold. Then, just a few hours later, firefighters had to go back to the complex to battle another fire in the same units. Crews say embers from the first fire sparked up again.

Crews are still investigating what caused the initial blaze that left 15 families without homes. It took firefighters more than 90 minutes to put out the four-alarm fire Monday night. 

Neighbors say the flames spread so fast. "The first floor it started, then the second floor, then the third, it was really bad," says neighbor Benito Mercado.

Around 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, firefighters were called back out to the complex and discovered smoke billowing from the three-story apartments.

All residents made it out of the apartments safely.

The Red Cross is helping those residents by providing clothing, food, and shelter from the bitter cold. 

"The Red Cross stepped up to help.  This is the time of year we need help.  Thank you, God, no one was hurt.  Pick up and go from there," says neighbor Jessie Lyles.

The Red Cross says the Las Cascadas fire is the fifth fire they assisted with in North Texas in just seven hours. 

The Red Cross urges people to be careful with holiday decorations, space heaters and chimney fires this time of year. The holiday season is the worst time of year for house fires.

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School Bus, Car Collide in Dallas

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A Dallas County school bus and a car collided near Cockrell Hill and Davis Street Tuesday morning.

The bus was loaded with about 15 students bound for the Dealey International Academy when it collided with the car.

None of the students were believed to be injured in the crash, though some were being taken to the hospital to be evaluated.

The driver of the car that collided with the bus said he was stopped at the intersection and saw the bus coming down the hill. 

"As I stopped, I looked up, looked this way and seen the school bus coming, looked that way and then when I pulled out he's coming down the hill and the front of the school bus surpassed my car and my car went up under the school bus and hit the back of the tire," said the driver, who refused to give NBC 5 his name. "I'm not worried about me, as long as the kids on the bus is OK, that's all I'm worried about."

The driver said the back part of the bus rolled over the front of his car, snapping the bus's axle.

One student told NBC 5 that it looked like the car was going too fast and hit the back part of the bus.

Several kids on the bus told NBC 5 that it felt like the bus was going to flip over as it rolled over the car.

The bus did not flip and eventually came to rest in a nearby median.

Dallas police are investigating the crash.

NBC 5's Ben Russell contributed to this report.

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St. Joseph Demolition to be Completed Tuesday

Demolition of the St. Joseph complex in Fort Worth is expected to be completed Tuesday.

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A road closure near a demolition site in Fort Worth sparked concern over a swaying wall.

NBC 5 received word that the wall at the site of the vacant St. Joseph complex was swaying and that the demolition was halted.  When the area, including a nearby roadway was cordoned off, it appeared there was concern over where the wall may come down.

Officials with D.H. Griffin of Texas, the company doing the demolition work, said the lane closure along the 1400-block of S. Main Street was expected and submitted to the city and that it was done as a precaution only.

It is not clear if the wall was ever unintentionally unstable.

Crews are in the final stages of the demolition project and officials said they expect the job to be completed Tuesday.

NBC 5's Chris Van Horne and Scott Gordon contributed to this report.

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