Psych Admit

Amateur acrobat causes havoc by doing flips in the middle of the freeway: Dodgescars & charges

A woman was taken to Ben Taub's NeuroPsychiatric Center after reportedly doingflips in the HOV lane of the North Freeway.
A officer arrive at the scene swerved to miss the woman, striking a guard rail.

Houston police found themselves in the midst of some sort of bizarre Olympic-style performance late Monday night, after a mysterious suspect apparently darted across the North Freeway to unleash a series of dances and acrobatics in the high-occupancy lanes.

Just before midnight, according to Houston Police Department spokesperson Kese Smith, officers responded to reports of a woman running across the middle lanes of I-45 near New Haven Drive.

"Callers said she was hiding in the HOV lane and doing flips from the concrete barriers," HPD spokesperson Kese Smith said.

"Callers said she was hiding in the HOV lane and doing flips from the concrete barriers," Smith told CultureMap Tuesday.

"A tow truck driver attempted to detain her until police could arrive and they were both standing in the freeway . . . Luckily, there were no injuries."

KHOU reports that police were attempting to close southbound lanes as a means to better take the woman into custody. At some point, she ran onto the northbound frontage road and an arriving HPD car swerved to avoid her. The vehicle crashed into a nearby guardrail.

The 46-year-old woman was taken to the NeuroPsychiatric Center (NPC) at Ben Taub Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. Contrary to several early reports, Kese Smith said HPD would not press charges.

Watch the KHOU video:

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”