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
----------------
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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