You and I haven't met. But I'm praying God will touch your heart as you read this letter to help me save my son.
His name is Michael. That's him in the photo.
In addition to being a Marine reservist, Michael is a police officer.
He should be out keeping our Farmers Branch, Texas, community safe right now.
Instead, Michael's facing unjust criminal charges.
He was wrongly accused of murder for shooting a career criminal who tried to run him down in a stolen truck.
Thinking this criminal was about to kill him or his fellow officers, Michael pulled his weapon and defended himself.
Now he's facing life behind bars.
And I never thought that it would come to this, but now I have no choice but to reach out to complete strangers like you and ask for your help in keeping him out of prison. Will you please help me save my son?
Let me tell you what happened...
On the evening of June 12, 2019, Farmers Branch Police detectives tracked a stolen pickup truck to the parking lot of an "adult arcade."
The truck was stolen by a career car thief who was well-known to the police.
Michael was assigned the task of arresting this man. When the thief came back to the truck, Michael pulled up close in his marked police vehicle.
As Michael stepped out of his car, the car thief sped the stolen truck toward him.
Michael had to do what every police officer hopes they never have to do: he drew his weapon and fired.
The man driving the stolen truck died at the scene. Michael suffered back and leg injuries.
Any military service member or police officer will tell you it's never easy when you're forced to take a life in the line of duty.
No matter the circumstances, it weighs on your soul.
Michael had a split-second to think about if the career criminal speeding toward him was going to crush him to death with that stolen truck.
In that split-second, he did what he thought was right. Michael did what he thought would save his own life and the lives of his fellow officers and community.
You can imagine how hard it would be to make such a life-or-death decision - seeing a truck driven by a known criminal coming right at you.
But there's no doubt in my mind Michael made the right choice that day.
That's why I'm willing to do whatever it takes to clear his name. Even if that means asking folks like you for financial support to help my son afford the best possible attorneys and legal advice.
After the incident, Michael was distraught to hear the car thief's death. His voice was shaky, words strained.
But the other officers assured him the shooting was justified.
Despite Michael's statement that he feared for his life and the confidence in his actions from the Farmers Branch Police...
...Michael was indicted by a Grand Jury just 8 days after the incident.
Experts described the indictment as "unusually swift." The president of the Dallas Police Association said:
"We have never had an investigation completed in less than eight days ready to hand over to the District Attorney. Never."
I knew in my heart something was wrong - but we had no choice but to continue the legal process of defending Michael in court.
Not long after the indictment, we started a fundraising campaign on the internet site "GoFundMe" to raise money for a proper legal defense.
After a few days, "GoFundMe" shut down the fundraiser.
They claimed Michael's actions were an "act of hate" - and helping him violated their terms of service.
You see, the car thief was a Hispanic man, and Michael is a white police officer.
So, in the toxic, anti-police climate sweeping across America, people saw that a white police officer shot a person of color - and the case was closed in their minds.
No "innocent until proven guilty." No due process.
Instead, my son was smeared as a "murderer" who committed a "hate crime."
Since then, my husband and I spent half our life savings on legal fees and bills to help Michael.
With the investigation devastating my family... seeing Michael, an American hero, being smeared on the internet... and our family quickly running out of money to pay mounting court fees... hope was fading.
Until we heard about the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF). LELDF is the best friend a police officer could ever have.
LELDF defends good officers, like my son, who have been unfairly prosecuted for split-second, use-of-force decisions in the line of duty.
Law and justice experts work on LELDF's Board - like President Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, Edwin Meese, and former FBI Assistant Director Ronald Hosko.
The group's president, Jason Johnson, served over 20 years as a police officer, including as Deputy Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department.
And praise the Lord, LELDF saw it fit to help my son!
Will you please consider sending a tax-deductible contribution to the LELDF so they can help my son beat his charges?
You see, LELDF is a non-profit organization. It doesn't receive any funds from the government to help our police officers.
LELDF relies on caring people like you to send donations so they can fight tooth and nail to help wrongly-accused police officers like Michael.
And because LELDF is a non-profit, all donations are tax-deductible.
Believe me, your kind donation today of $35, $50, or $100 to help Michael will mean so much to my family.
Or, if the Lord has blessed you with the means to help with a gift of $250, $500, or even $1,000 or more, I pray you will consider doing so.
Please know any gift amount you can send today is truly a blessing.
If you can't help financially today, I understand. And please keep Michael and our family in your prayers.
My son Michael is an American hero who served our nation and his community. He shouldn't be locked behind bars for defending his life from a career criminal.
That's a picture of Michael with his daughter - my granddaughter - Mary-Kaitlyn
I pray you never go through something like this. But if you do, may God touch the hearts of kind people to help you - just as I'm praying He'll touch your heart to help my son today.
Sincerely,
Margaret Mary Dunn
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More such officers who sacrifice so much for will face similar fates unless we speak out and stand up for the brave men and women in blue. The next time you see a police officer in your community, please thank them for their service. To read more about our mission or the other Law Enforcement officers we're defending, please visit www.leldf.org. And remember - Blue Lives Matter!
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