The Wrong Guy

If Wooley was exaggerating how badly he was mistreated, he certainly had his family and physicians fooled. "Paul was totally and single-mindedly focused on what they did to him in jail," says his sister Mary. "His self-absorption was not healthy, but a year after it happened, it was as fresh as if it happened that day."

Legal fees ate through what little savings he had. He sold his home and lived off the generosity of friends and family, staying in their homes as he searched for a job. What would begin with the best of intentions, a chance to reconnect with relatives, would end in an argument over some perceived injustice. Invariably he would wear out his welcome and be forced to move on.

In September 2002, he made one weak attempt at suicide. Staying with his half-sister in Euless, he grew frustrated when he accidentally damaged the plumbing in a bathroom. The next morning he informed her that he had overdosed on pain medication. He would be all right, though. He had changed his mind and already called the paramedics.

He would tell Dr. Clayton that he had no reason to get out of bed in the morning. He would tell attorney Lynch that when he sat in a restaurant, people would suddenly leave, and when he entered a bank, police officers would suddenly appear. If he seemed paranoid, it may have been for good reason. A police officer claimed that Wooley, while still in jail, had threatened James Simmons and his wife. After the shooting, the company immediately beefed up security and hired off-duty Allen police officers to protect them from Wooley. Xtera's renewed fear proved as groundless as it was in the first instance.

"Paul didn't want to harm anyone at Xtera," says his criminal attorney Ed King. "He wanted to sue them."

In December 2002, he did just that, suing Xtera Communications in federal court after he relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana. Attorneys for Xtera would insinuate in depositions that Wooley only moved to another state to take advantage of federal diversity jurisdiction. But Wooley claimed he had no money, no prospects, no home and no choice. In Shreveport, he attended truck-driving school, but his career as a long-distance hauler came to an abrupt end when he flipped a truck in Peoria, Illinois, and lost his job. He seized another opportunity to teach hardware compliance in China, but his contract ended, and he returned to Dallas.

Living in an inexpensive motel, he would have been destitute and in the streets if not for the advances he received from his attorney. The only thing that kept his life from spinning totally out of control was the pending litigation. "I thought we had a good case," says Lynch, who also intends to sue the McKinney and Allen police departments as well as the Collin County Sheriff's Office. "Nobody deserved what happened to him--even if they were guilty."

Lynch sued Xtera first, hoping he could "pop them for a quick settlement" because they might feel guilty about what had happened. On the contrary, says Lynch, Xtera was "astounded Paul would sue them" and vigorously denied any wrongdoing. But Lynch was tenacious, and in a matter of months got the case primed for settlement.

On Friday, December 12, all the parties met at the Admirals Club at DFW airport. After six hours of trading offers, they managed to negotiate a confidential settlement. At the end of the marathon session, Wooley was exhausted, seemed to be fighting a cold and was bothered by his perennial bad back. Nonetheless, he was pleased with the outcome, envisioning it as an opportunity to restart his life. "Quite honestly," Lynch says, "it was the first time since his arrest that he had a moment's peace."

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Dallas, Studio Six Motel, December 15, 2003, 8:20 a.m.

On Monday, a friend grew concerned when he couldn't reach Wooley by phone. The friend called the motel directly and asked the clerk if she would check on the man in Room 108. The clerk didn't recall seeing Wooley since midafternoon on Saturday, December 13, and she went to knock on his door. When he didn't answer, she entered the room and found him lying on a bloodstained bed, dead.

An autopsy was performed, the results of which indicated the cause of his death was the "toxic effects of oxycodone," a prescription drug he took to alleviate his backache. The Medical Examiner's Office ruled the manner of his death was "undetermined."

These findings will certainly become relevant when Wooley's heirs, as planned, sue the various police agencies who they believe illegally arrested and incarcerated him. Until then, whether Paul Wooley finally made good on his threats and took his own life, or just wanted to stop his pain and took too much medication remains a mystery.