INTERVIEW: These law enforcement officials are after ‘Lone Star Justice’

Photo: Lone Star Justice stars retired Sheriff J.B. Smith. The show premieres June 5 on Investigation Discovery. Photo courtesy of ID / Provided by press site with permission.

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Lone Star Justice, the new reality series from Investigation Discovery, is set to premiere Wednesday, June 5 at 10 p.m. The show depicts the homicide cases of retired Sheriff J.B. Smith, retired Detective Pamela Dunklin and retired Detective Joe Rasco, all of Smith County, Texas.

The six episodes of this inaugural season depict crimes both scary and difficult to crack. The premiere will focus on the 2010 death of a 19-year-old college student, while a later episode will center on a resident of Tyler, Texas, who was found beaten, strangled and stabbed to death.

For Smith, the decision to sign up for Lone Star Justice was a quick one. “Well, it was an immediate yes for me because I was used to dealing with the media quite often,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Dunklin and Rasco, who played more behind-the-scenes roles when they were on active duty, were a little bit more reluctant to become reality TV stars.

“No, it was not an immediate yes because I was uncertain what I was getting myself into and the direction we were going,” Dunklin said, “but after several meetings about how the show is going to be produced and speaking with Joe and J.B., then I decided well definitely let’s get on board and tell the victims’ stories.”

Rasco added: “Pamela and I are not used to the limelight. We kind of operate under the radar, as you can imagine. Sheriff Smith is a little more familiar with the media, but once we met with the production company, we decided to do this.”

Smith admitted that some of the apprehension had to do with how the media has treated Texans in the past. The retired sheriff speaks with a “Texas drawl,” as he put it, and he didn’t want to be made fun of like other shows seem to do to local residents.

“We were a little reluctant to do it because oftentimes media make fun of us,” Smith said. “They just do because we talk a little slower and take up a little more time with these things, so we were a little bit concerned about looking hokey. We didn’t want to look like Hee Haw, so we were a little reluctant. But they made us feel very comfortable, and we settled in very quickly.”

Rasco said the trio chose 10 or 12 cases that were then pitched to members of the production company, who decided on the final homicides to focus on.

Smith was quick to point out that although the show will dive into horrific stories, Tyler, Texas, and its environs are like any other place in the United States.

“Well, law enforcement is essentially the same all over the nation,” the sheriff said. “There was a statement made one time by a reporter with the Dallas Morning News that all crazy roads lead to Tyler, Texas, and I think the reason for that is we are the hub of East Texas, which is an area the size of Arkansas or the size of Louisiana. I mean, it’s this huge area, and so a lot of these major arteries come right through our county, and so that’s one of the reasons. Over the years that I was in office, we worked approximately 146 murder cases in over three decades — probably more than that in the long run. These were just a few of the high-profile cases we worked because a lot of the cases have gone nationwide. We had a preacher here that murdered his wife. That made national news. It was on Dateline. We had a young girl that killed her mother and father on Christmas Eve. Joe did that investigation, and it went national. So we’ve had a lot of major coverage on some of these murder cases.”

While on the job, the three complemented one another with their unique talents, making for a holistic approach to each and every murder investigation. Smith recruited them from other professions and utilized their skill sets.

“Pam was working in dispatch, and I noticed that she was very, very good at handling crisis situations — two 9-1-1 calls at a time, dispatching, with people looking over her shoulder,” Smith said. “Then I found Joe who’s a retired lieutenant colonel out of the Air Force that flew C-130’s, and he was working as a detention officer. I brought him over and said, ‘What the heck are you doing working at a jail?’ He said, ‘Well, I always wanted to be #1 a truck driver and #2 law enforcement. I got the truck driving behind me, and now I want to be in law enforcement.’ So needless to say both of them are very analytical. They’re both very intelligent. They both love their jobs, and the #1 thing that was so impressive about these two is they always put the victim first. They were always concerned about the victim, and I just was very impressed with that. Me, my contribution to it is I couldn’t track a bleeding elephant in the snow, so that’s why I hired them. And they made me look good, and I did the press releases. And I was sort of the song-and-dance man.”

Dunklin said the previous careers that she and Rasco had before becoming detectives helped their investigating.

“We got into it being older than most people that start law enforcement, so we had probably more life experiences than some of [our] younger counterparts,” she said. “Women and men have different perspectives on things, so I think that was one of the things that made us a good team because he was looking at maybe a crime scene and sees one thing. I would look at it and maybe see another, and then we would come together and form a plan to decide what direction. I think that helped us being different.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Lone Star Justice will premiere Wednesday, June 5 at 10 p.m. on Investigation Discovery. Click here for more information and tickets.