In the Houston Chronicle today is an interesting article written by David Barron about the Channel 13 reporter- most lawyers love to hate- Wayne Dolcefino. Apparently someone finally nailed him with charge that will stick even though his lawyer is Houston attorney Mike DeGeurin.
Dolcefino will serve nine months of probation-like supervision after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor trespassing charge in Austin County.
Dolcefino, 52, was sentenced by Austin County Court at Law Judge Daniel Leedy to deferred adjudication, which means he will not have an official conviction if he successfully completes his unmonitored “community supervision” and pays his $500 fine and $330 court costs.
He was accused of trespassing Jan. 8, 2008, on the Austin County ranch of Houston architect Leroy Hermes, said Austin County Attorney Travis Koehn.
“(Dolcefino) was videotaping at the entrance of Mr. Hermes’ property in Austin County. The gate had a keypad electronic lock, and they messed with that to the point that it opened up, and then went onto the property and videotaped it and then left,” Koehn said.
There was no damage to the property or to the gate, Koehn added.
Channel 13 in February 2008 aired a report detailing what Dolcefino described as the “small world” of Harris County officials and of contractors involved in county construction projects. The report included a reference to Hermes’ Hat Creek Ranch in Austin County and noted the success of Hermes and his architectural firm in obtaining contracts for county projects, including the Reliant Center complex.
Channel 13 is pretty much the only station left in town with a newsroom budget for lawsuits. Pretty much every other media outlet in town won't take chances like trespassing on private property to follow stories as they are petrified of lawsuits.
Also of note today- the passing of Dan Ammerman- founder of The Ammerman Experience, a public speaking and crisis situation management firm. Dan began his career as a reporter at Channel 13 and parlayed that into a business he began out of his home teaching people how to communicate in public settings and to the media. When I first began Media Masters a number of years ago- he was one of the people I contacted who really helped guide me through the decisions I had to make about how I was going to pull my business together. There were so many decisions to make about who my audience was going to be, how to train them in a simple , yet effective way and how I was going to let my audience know about my services. Dan Ammerman served as an excellent example of how to help people with his gentle, confident and effective style of teaching. Dan Ammerman will be missed and I would like to thank him for his guidance in making Media Masters what it is today.
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