The year of 2008 in Denton featured its share of intrigue, from the indictment of a former police detective to a mayor’s race brimming with lawsuits and conflict-of-interest allegations.

Denton County law enforcement officers finally secured a conviction against a man they dramatically christened “a dedicated, committed, violent, lifelong criminal.”

Neighboring cities grabbed headlines, too, particularly Argyle, which endured the resignation of its school superintendent, a town hall scandal and the indictment of a husband and wife in an alleged illegal voting scheme.

It wasn’t all bad news for Argyle, though. Its high school marching band won a state championship this fall.

In national politics, the hard-fought race for the Democratic presidential nomination drew record numbers of voters to local polling sites. The nation’s economic struggles also hit home, with Denton County residents experiencing record residential foreclosures and rising unemployment, and developers watching as several large-scale projects languished.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Political signs line the area near a voting site on Sherman Drive on Nov. 4.

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Finally, the University of North Texas football program continued to struggle in 2008 but scored a major victory with the students’ vote to approve a fee for a new stadium.

Here’s a recap of the year’s top stories.

Under arrest

A Denton County grand jury indicted former Denton police Detective Robert “Bobby” Lozano in September for murder in connection with the 2002 shooting death of his wife, Virginia “Viki” Lozano. The indictment came less than three weeks after a Denton Record-Chronicle investigative report detailed the case against Lozano, 43, who was indicted in connection with his wife’s death that year and then released from the indictment in 2004.

Also in September, a Denton County couple, Ralph and Teresa Rather, were indicted on felony charges of illegal voting after registering to vote in Argyle using a commercial address and casting ballots in Argyle’s town council election this spring. A local developer, Teresa Rather, had formed a political action committee with her business partner, John Michaels, to oust two of the three incumbents in the election. Both Mark Bogosian and Jayne Marshall lost their e-election bids. Teresa Rather, Michaels and the committee spent more than $6 per registered voter on the election. The couple’s criminal case is pending.

In Oak Point, the town’s former administrative services coordinator, Jennifer Ashenhart-Hawkins, 27, was arrested April 27 and charged with abuse of official capacity. According to her arrest affidavit, $758.22 in credit card charges had been identified as questionable, and $314 was missing from the petty cash box. The city of Rhome had hired her to be its city administrator before learning of the criminal investigation, but fired her after the allegations came to light, citing lack of confidence. City Manager Richard Martin resigned his post after an executive session on April 21 in connection with the incident, but he was not arrested or charged with any crime. Financial dominoes continued to fall as the city had to pay more to finish its annual audit and hire an accountant to help manage its cash-strapped finances.

Contest of interest

Future candidates will have to work hard to match this year’s Denton mayoral race in cost, acrimony and general oddity.

Lawyer Mark Burroughs defeated incumbent Perry McNeill in a June runoff to take the mayor’s seat, with the candidates combining for more than $120,000 in campaign spending. Burroughs survived a lawsuit challenging his eligibility under the city’s term limits statute, along with claims that his law firm’s contract with the city to collect overdue taxes was a conflict of interest.

Fallout from the race continued throughout the year. The mayor’s lawsuit seeking to find out who funded a series of anti-Burroughs campaign mailers is pending. The target of that lawsuit, political activist Bob Clifton, claimed credit for the mailers but did not initially file paperwork disclosing who funded them.

In October, a state district judge dismissed the term limits lawsuit, which also targeted McNeill and Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp. Clifton, who was among the plaintiffs, is appealing. The lawsuit revealed confusion over the city charter’s term limits language, and officials are planning a possible charter election next year to address it.

Finally, in November the council voted 4-2 to renew the city’s contract with Burroughs’ firm, with the mayor abstaining.

Long-awaited conviction

Local law enforcement officers praised the conviction in November of Earnest Lynn Ross on federal firearms charges, calling it the first step in protecting the public from a lifelong, violent criminal. Ross, 43, was convicted in Sherman on two federal charges of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He awaits sentencing.

Officers said they believed Ross had committed more than 70 armed robberies. He had escaped with scant punishment numerous times for crimes he was believed to have committed, including the 1993 execution-style shooting of Bobby Turner outside Turner’s home off Fort Worth Drive.

Argyle scandals

Argyle town leaders ended their on-again, off-again search for a new town hall location by authorizing $930,000 in August for an old town church property owned by the mayor and his investment partners. The move surprised residents who had expected a new town hall as part of a widely publicized, council-approved plan from 2006 that included an elliptical park.

Also, the Argyle school district ended a tumultuous relationship with former Superintendent Jason Ceyanes, who resigned in May nearly three months after the school board placed him on paid leave. Ceyanes came under fire in October 2007 over his handling of dress code and possible “dirty dancing” issues at the high school’s homecoming dance.

Financial insecurity

Concerns about the economy abounded in 2008, although local economists say Denton County is somewhat protected by its strong potential for growth.

This fall, residential foreclosure postings in the county set an all-time high. Earlier this month, Denton County topped the list of regional counties in the number of commercial foreclosure postings.

In Denton, redevelopment on Fry Street continued to stall. The anticipated Rayzor Ranch development at Interstate 35 and U.S. Highway 380 finally started moving dirt in September after a change in financial backers, drainage problems and other factors sidetracked the nearly $1 billion development.

The year ended with Denton city leaders announcing they were shelving plans for the so-called Wells Fargo Catalyst Project and a downtown taxing district because of the sputtering economy.

Voters turn out

The hotly contested race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination helped account for unusually high turnout at local polling places.

In February, as early voting turnout shattered previous levels, county Elections Administrator Don Alexander could only respond with a “Holy mackerel.”

Predictions of throngs of Election Day voters didn’t materialize Nov. 4, though, as many Denton County residents took advantage of early voting.

Weathering the elements

A late-winter storm blanketed Denton with up to 7 inches of snow on March 6, spawning school closings, traffic accidents and more than a few snowmen.

Six months later, the city welcomed residents of coastal Louisiana fleeing the wrath of Hurricane Gustav — evoking images from Hurricane Katrina three years before. Evacuees had barely left local shelters to return home when buses arrived carrying more visitors, this time escaping Hurricane Ike’s ruinous path.

After the storm steered clear of Denton County, local emergency personnel mobilized and headed south to help with the massive cleanup along the Texas coast.

State champs

Argyle High School’s marching band claimed the 2008 Class 3A state championship in the University Interscholastic League finals Nov. 3 at San Antonio’s Alamo dome. The band performed a four-movement piece titled Exodus.

Argyle previously won state championships in Class 2A in 2003 and 2005.

Catching a lifeline

In the midst of another disappointing season, the Mean Green’s football program caught a lifeline in October when UNT students voted to approve a student fee to help build a replacement for Fouts Field.

For at least one night, the talk was not so much about how UNT would dig itself out of an ever-growing hole on the field, but how a new stadium would help pull the program out of it.

Staff writer Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe contributed to this report, which also includes material from the Denton Record-Chronicle archives.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.