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Attorney David Finn said he has no idea what led to the death of Pallavi and Sumeet Dhawan, but he knew they were under tremendous stress over accusations that the mother killed their 10-year-old son, Arnav. George Joseph reports
An emotional David Finn, attorney for Pallavi Dhawan, 39, who was found dead along with her husband Sumeet, 43, last week in Frisco, Texas, demanded a public and full enquiry about the deaths by the Texas Rangers or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Do not let Frisco Police Department sweep this matter under the rug and hide behind self-serving statements. And don’t let them drag this new investigation for 7 months as they did regarding (their son) Arnav, 10. Frisco hopes that people will lose interest and forget about this. Don’t allow it. Demand transparent justice,” a visibly upset and angry Finn, a former judge, said at a press conference held at his Dallas office, September 8.
He said the Dhawans were family and he had never had clients like them. “I know that I miss them very much. This is a personal loss for me. They were kind, gentle souls. May they finally rest in peace, a peace they were denied for 7 months. It is a small consolation that they are now back with Arnav.
“Pallavi and Sumeet deserve a voice and I do not plan to shrink from my responsibility to my departed friends,” Finn said.
He refuted the police’s accusations that he impeded the investigation in the death of Arnav, which occurred in January.
Before the press conference, Finn said he had no idea of what happened to Pallavi and Sumeet and he had no opinion on their deaths. The police had not shared any opinions with him. He demanded to release the contents of a note allegedly found at the scene of the deaths. “It might implicate someone, or it might exculpate someone. We are not afraid of the truth,” he declared.
Finn said he spent countless hours with them in their upscale home at Mountain View Road. “Pallavi always had curry for me and Sumeet would provide me dessert.” Sumeet gave testimony to a grand jury about the death of Arnav days before the death. He was upbeat. “I was even ready to send Pallavi to the grand jury, a thing criminal lawyers would not even think of.”
He said he had made arrangements for Pallavi to take a polygraph test on August 29. Though she turned up for it, she had a temporary medical condition, and because she had not slept or eaten for several days, she was not a suitable candidate to perform it then, according to the examiner. They had to reschedule it.
On September 1, he had a call from a relation of Sumeet and he asked her to go and check their house. Soon the body of Pallavi was found in the pool and Sumeet’s body was found inside the home.
He recounted how the Frisco police started the investigation of their son Arnav and how much pressure both of them had undergone.
“From the very beginning of the Arnav investigation, Detective Wade Hornsby made it clear to me that he believed Pallavi had killed Arnav. He evidently believed in the presumption of guilt.”
Finn also noted the testimony of Sumeet that clearly mentions about the circumstances leading to the arrest of Pallavi.
Finn said after the arrest, police asked Pallavi if she had anything to say, but her only response was that ‘you would not understand.’ At that point the only ‘evidence’ the police had for murder charge was the infamous Indian head nod to the question ‘did you kill him?’
Finn noted that Pallavi and Sumeet adamantly denied that, that question was ever asked. The police are equipped with both audio and video, but they said there was none existing as regards this. Finn said he got such an explanation for the first time in a case. “I smell a rat then. I still do,” he said.
Finn also noted that the police have not looked at the medical records of Arnav and the medical examiner had no information of it. The medical examiner thought she was performing an autopsy on a perfectly ‘normal/healthy’ young boy.
The medical examiner was not happy at the situation.
Finn also said he was shocked by an unprofessional comment by the detective when he went with Sumeet for the questioning.
Hornsby did not believe that Arnab had medical issues. He did not check the medical records too.
‘After all of this there was no way in hell I was going to let Hornby interview Pallavi. He had clearly demonstrated that he presumed her to be guilty. …An interrogation by him of Pallavi would be feeding a lamb to a wolf.’
He said he would allow the Texas Rangers or FBI to question her. But Frisco Police is not asking for the full involvement of these agencies.
Finn said he failed in court once in this case when he asked for the passport of Pallavi to visit India to perform the last rites of Arnav. “It weighed heavily on both Sumeet and Pallavi.”
“For more than seven months Detective Hornsby held Pallavi and Sumeet in limbo. In the eyes of the police and the public, she was presumed guilty until she proved her innocence.”
“For the Frisco Police Department to express surprise that an additional tragedy occurred is not supported by facts. Their actions speak much louder than their words. In fact their actions and inactions, speak so loudly, I can’t bear to hear their words.”
He said some bad apples in the Frisco police have no respect for the US Constitution; it is innocent until proven guilty. Detective Hornsby had no right to demand an interrogation of Pallavi before submitting the case to a grand jury.”
“I do not know what happened to Arnav. And now we will never know. To a question, he said he never felt Pallavi was psychologically abnormal. He spoke to the mother of Pallavi in India and she requested him to find out the truth.