Pulse OF THE City

The Butler Did It

Who stole copies of Park Cities and Northside People?

IN THE BIGGEST WHODUNIT to hit North Dallas, more than 200 newspaper vending boxes-filled with copies of the Nov. 27 combined edition of Park Cities People and Northside People-were emptied in a pre-dawn hit-and-run on Thanksgiving morning. Whodunit? Because the edition is among the paper’s biggest advertising issues, publisher and editor Ray Wilker-son was anxious to know but then “backed off his own investigation after he received a call from an attorney representing the anonymous guilty party. The attorney’s client, upset about something written in the paper, wanted to make restitution. “I’ve looked through the paper to see what would’ve led to it, and I don’t have an answer,” says Wilkerson. “There’s been ail kinds of speculation, but I don’t deal in speculation.”

OK, then allow us.

Speculative Theory No. 1 points to mega-rich beer distributor Barry Andrews and his wife, Lana, who wanted mementos of daughter Natalie’s Nov. 22 blowout wedding, which made headlines (“A Wedding Statement in Silk, Flowers, Antiques”) the day of the heist. “That was a lavish wedding,” says Wilkerson. “But I don’t see that that would have been a reason.”

Speculative Theory No. 2 has it that disgruntied members of Highland Park school district facilities com-mittee-upset over issues surrounding a proposed bond package to build new facilities, including a fifth elementary school-made the hit because of the paper’s front-page coverage (“Homestead Exemption in Peril? No. Hargrave Says”). “People upset over school district issues have taken papers before,” says Wilkerson dismissively, “but not to this extent.”

Speculative Theory’ No. 3 centers on a certain birth announcement: ’’Jill Baima and Vaughn Miller of Dallas are the proud parents of a new daughter, Penelope Annabelle Baima-Miller, born Sept. 11. She weighed 7 pounds, 14ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long at birth. The proud grandparents are Geraldine and Vance Miller and Lois and Ed Reeves.” Vaughn Miller supposedly raided the vending boxes-less than a month before his Dec. 20 wedding-to keep everyone from reading the item which was reportedly sent in by Baima, an ex-girlfriend.

Wilkerson’s response? He says he hasn’t, urn, “heard anything about that.”

IS JOHN WARE MOVING ON?

Rumors are circulating that Dallas City Manager John Ware may be looking for greener pastures: and Ware himself may be the source. “John likes to tell people that every project a city manager does is a nail In his coffin, and the arena and the Trinity bond vote [coming up in May] are two very big projects,” says one City Hall insider. Ware, now entering his fifth year on the job, may have reached his natural time limit anyway. Appointed in 1993, he succeeded Jan Hart, who survived only three years on the job. She, in turn, replaced Richard Knight, who lasted four.

Brian Jensen: Proud as a Peacock

For nearly a decade, brian Jensen worked beneath Dale Hansen as backup sports anchor at WFAA-TV Channel 8 playing straight man to Hansen’s funny guy, until late November, when Jenson made the move to KXAS-TV Channel 5.

The handwriting was on the wall for a while- Jensen had been working at Channel 8 for a year and a half without a long-term contract-tout the wall fell down overnight On Monday of Thanksgiving week, Jensen told the higher-ups that he’d been hired elsewhere but offered the obligatory two weeks notice. On Tuesday, after oo-workere crowded Jensen’s desk to congratulate him, news director John Miller told him, “It’s a little weird” and gave him the OK to leave. Soon. The next day, Jensen snot promos as the newest member of the Channel 5 news team, which aired during the much-viewed Cowboys game on Thanksgiving day. Perfect publlcity timing,

When asked if he left Channel 8 because he finally got sick of Hansen, Jensen laughs, ” I’ll say this: I respect what Dale does- on the air.”

Whatever Happened to… Jean-Claude Prevot?

ONE OF DALLAS’ MOST FLAMBOY-ant celebrity chefs, Jean-Claude Prevot, has a life script more suitable for a soap opera than a kitchen.

From 1977 to 1985, Prevot ran the much-touted Jean-Claude’s, a French prix fixe restaurant on Cedar Springs Road in the space currently occupied by Margaux’s. Then he opened Cleo by Jean-Claude, which closed abruptly in 1989 after Prevot was arrested for theft. He later received a 10-year probation.

Shamed out of town, he and his wife Debra packed up and left for Memphis tout de suite and opened Ben’s, a restaurant named after their son. But in 1991, the French chef turned fugitive. The Prevois moved to France, but, after their marriage crumbled, Debra returned to Memphis with their two children. Eventually their complicated divorce went all the way to theU.S. Supreme Court.

Back in Memphis since December 1996, Prevot has two years left on his probation. At 57, he is eking out a living as a caterer and residing in a trailer park.

WHEN COWBOYS WERE MEN

On Now Year’s Eve day 1967, Vice Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers and Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys battled a mlnus-70-degree windchill factor in an NFL Championship game that would be forever remembered as the Ice Bowl. In The Ice Bowl: The Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys Season of 1967 ( Donald I. Fine Books; $24.95), Dallas writer and D Magazine contributing editor Mike Shropshire chronicles the 1967 season of two famous, but diametrically opposed, football cultures that clashed on Lambeau Field’s frozen tundra-to the eternal grief of Cowboys fans.

FOR THE RECORD

AND NO DESSERT FOR A WEEK “Her parents told her that she should just pray and know that the next time she asked for something, she really has to want it.”

Midshipman Mandy Kim Gotch, in the book Blind Love, about Diane Zamora, charged with the murder of the rival for her boyfriend’s affections. Gotch says Zamora said her parents knew about the murder; the family has denied that.

NEXT WEEK, A ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION WITH ME

“I don’t believe the president has indicated that every dialogue must start in the same way.”

Dallas Municipal Court Judge Vonceil Hill, when asked why she invited only blacks to a meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, as part of President Clinton’s national race initiative.

THEN AGAIN, HE COULD JUST BE STUPID

“I guess I’m stupid or something.”

Dallas County Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, on the accusations that he “inappropriately touched” a court reporter and a prosecutor, both female, while demonstrating allegations in a sex-abuse case to juries.

AT LEAST THEY ARENT RUNNING UP OVERTIME

“People are leaving faster than they can be hired.”

Dallas Sheriff’s department lawyer John Weddle, talking about the problem of low pay for county workers.

Domestic Docket: Nobody Wins

After learning the story behind this Dallas Morning News letter to the editor, it’s easy to understand why so many Dallas police officers, judges, and prosecutors see domestic violence as the dilemma that will never go away.

Two-time convicted felon James Grady Lohner

The police report states that Mr. Lohner beat Georgia Conner’s face and head with his fists on Jan. 16, 1997, while driving her to work. He took her to Parkland hospital Instead after knocking her unconscious. in the ER, she was treated for a broken nose, two black eyes, and severe facial swelling and bruising.

At Parkland, Mrs. Lohner told a nurse her husband inflicted her injuries. Then Mr. Lohner, asleep in the waiting room, was arrested.

Aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon In 1980. The conviction was not admitted as evidence during the assault trial.

Twelve jurors didn’t believe Mrs. Lohner’s 2-hour testimony, during which she Insisted the beating was not her husband’s fault, and they found Mr. Lohner guilty.

After Mrs. Lohner told Judge John Creuzot her husband had been trying to help her, the Judge told Mrs. Lohner that if that’s what she calls helping, he’d hate to see what she’d look like if she said her husband hurt her.

Among weapon, marijuana, and aggravated robbery convictions, Mr. Lohner’s past also Includes two prior class G assault convictions against his wife.

In Lew Sterrett Jail (as D went to press), awaiting transfer to the penitentiary.

Changing the Face of Downtown

Will retailers accommodate the new urban pioneers?

IF DOWNTOWN DEVELOPERS GET THEIR way, the stretch of Main Street between Akard and Field streets-affectionately called “ground zero” by the real estate minds-at-work-will become the envy of every grass-growing suburbanite. And these developers aren’t just talking about trendy apartments and bare-bone lofts. They’re talking about filling the skeletal storefronts with retail-finally.

Main Street property owners and the Central Dallas Association’s Retail Committee are concentrating their efforts on renovating the block of Main cornered by Neirnan Marcus and the Wilson, Davis, and Kirby buildings-all of which are following the lead of the old Joske’s building (1900 Elm St.), which has been remade into lofts with street-level retail.

Last summer, CDA hired a consulting firm to crunch numbers and confirm their hunch that Main Street should be developed around Neiman Marcus, since the specialty store is still the epicenter of downtown Dallas. In December, CDA then met with the consulting firm that worked on marketing and retail design for the MCI Arena and Union Station in Washington, D.C., and Grand Central Station in New York. At the meeting, Dallas architects and designers brainstormed with property owners, retailers, city planners, DART managers, and members of the Dallas City Center Association, who agreed that the original facades along Main Street should be preserved and that more greenery and street lamps should be added to attract the anticipated throng of downtown residents. (Lambert Gardens has already offered to design the landscaping pro bono.) By the summer of 1999, the number of downtown apartment dwellers is expected to jump from 250 (in 1990) to about 8,200-and that’s not counting 1,000 additional apartments scheduled to be built near Farmers Market.

So the big commercial conundrum is this: When are all the coffee shops, dry cleaners, and delis going to pop up and accommodate all the new urban pioneers? “Retail comes after residential even in the suburbs,” says Cliff Booth, president of Southwest Properties which owns the buildings at 1530 and 1604 Main Street. “When you go out to Piano, you see that once those homes are up and occupied then someone builds a shopping center.”

Alice Murray, a consultant with Hall Financial Group, which owns the Kirby building, hints that ground zero’s template is “a Soholike neighborhood.

“It’s not going to be a retail shopping center,” adds Larry Fonts, president of CDA. “We ’re not talking about another big department store. It’s going to be very urban, boutique-style grocery stores with higher-end specialty items.”

CINDY SCULL: YOUR LOCAL SEXY DEEJAY

When the makers of the 1998 Radio Girls Calendar asked KEGL-FM 97.1 deejay Cindy Scull to pose for the pinup (Miss October), she was eight months pregnant. Instead of going prenatal a la Demi Moore, the calendar makers used the station promo shot they stumbled across while surfing the web for sexy dee-Jays. We turned our caps backwards, cranked it up to 11, and asked the questions her hard-rockin’ fans wanna know:

So Cindy, is that from your own wardrobe? “No. Michael Darter, the photographer, made It He ripped the leather with his own two hands.”

Did he let you keep it? “He let me keep the spear. My husband likes that. ” (Bummer. I guess that means she’s married.)

Like, what are you wearing, you know, when you deejay?

“What everyone else wears… leather, chains, dog collar. “

Can you prove you’re not Howard Stern in drag?

“No. I really can’t. That’s a good question.”

Fact Check

MATTERS OF THE HEART

Cost of one dozen roses at Dr. Delphinium Designs: $40 to $500

Price of one dozen Tyler roses: $4.50

Ring size of an average woman: 6 1/2

Number of weddings at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church on Valentine’s Day 1997:6

Number of marriage licenses filed at Dallas County Clerk and District Clerk’s Office Valentine’s Day 1997:128

Number of divorces filed at Dallas County Cleric and District Clerk’s Office Valentine’s Day 1997:41

Number of call-in requests to KLUV-FM 98.7 for “Unchained Melody” on Valentine’s Day 1997:150-plus

Number of call-in requests to KLUV-FM 98.7 for “You’ve Lost That Levin’ Feeling” on Valentine’s Day 1997: 25

Number of Dallasites receiving heart transplants on Valentine’s Day since 1982:2

Number of times the surname “Love” appears in the Greater Dallas phone book: 268

Number of times the surname “Lonesome” appears in the Greater Dallas phone book: 1