Investigative Journalism
As a reporter at the Arlington Morning News, I relentlessly pursued a series of stories about the Mansfield Boot Camp, where - my reporting uncovered - guards were overworked and underpaid and inmates were being abused. My articles caught the attention of State Senator Chris Harris, who involved County government and ordered a series of audits, after which the facility was shut down.
My editor, the late Lawrence Young, nominated me for an Associated Press Managing Editor’s Award, and I won.
Gang Series at Irving News
I rode along with the gang unit in Irving, Texas for months, interviewing police, community members, gang members, gang recruits and their parents, and wrote a 35,000-word, four-part series about gangs. The series won first place in Suburban Newspapers of America and helped me land an investigative reporting fellowship at Poytner Institute. In the samples below, my byline is cut off because it’s at the bottom of the page along with the photographer’s name, Brooks Whittington.
