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Ryan Grant, owner of the Flashdancer Cabaret, agreed to shut the club's doors for one year in order to settle a lawsuit with Arlington city officials.

A Texas strip-club owner accused of hiring a hit man to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and attorney Tom Brandt was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday.

According to an FBI criminal complaint, Grant, of Kennedale, offered to pay $10,000 for each murder.

Grant, 34, was reportedly angry with Cluck and the attorney after he agreed to close his strip club, Flashdancer Cabaret, for one year in order to settle a nuisance lawsuit filed by the city and the Texas attorney general.

Read the original report at NBCDFW.com

Grant sought to hire two Mexican hit men to kill Cluck and Brandt, according to affidavits. Court documents say that Grant went so far as to set up a meeting at which he met with a man about the murder-for-hire plot and provided pictures of Cluck and Brandt.

"Obviously, he's very, very, angry, and when I heard the facts from the FBI, obviously we were very concerned about it," Cluck said in April. "We're still concerned, but he is in federal custody and will remain that way for the foreseeable future."

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FBI Special Agent Matthew Wilkins testified during a detention hearing that an informant had contact with Grant on at least four occasions, beginning on April 3, and that there are audio and video recordings of some of those conversations.

According to the indictment, "during the next few days, Grant and the intermediary spoke via cell phones, and during those conversations Grant directed the intermediary to not proceed with the murders until they could meet to discuss the matter further. 

On April 9, 2012, the intermediary and Grant met at Grant's residence, where Grant confirmed that he wanted Mayor Cluck killed.  The intermediary left Grant's residence and Grant was arrested shortly thereafter."

Grant was arrested April 9, the same day he had ordered the hits on Cluck and Brandt.

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At the time of his arrest, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Grant's home and seized 22 firearms and nearly $150,000 in cash.

Grant now faces one count of murder-for-hire and one count of the unlawful transfer of a firearm for giving a Norinco semi-automatic rifle to an individual he knew to be a felon.

If convicted, each count carries a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The investigation is being conducted by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

NBCDFW.com's Scott Gordon, Randy McIlwain and Ben Russell contributed to this report.

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Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP

An Air Force carry team carries the casket with the remains of Air Force Col. Joseph Christiano, Col. Derrell B. Jeffords, Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers, Chieft Master Sgt. William K. Colwell, Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton, during a burial service at Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Va., on Monday

It was Christmas Eve 1965 when the Air Force plane nicknamed "Spooky" took off from Vietnam for a combat mission. The crew sent out a "mayday" signal while flying over Laos, and after that, all contact was lost. Two days of searches turned up nothing.

For years, that was all the families knew about what happened to the six servicemen aboard the plane. Now, nearly 50 years after the AC-47D went down, a measure of finality has finally arrived: Remains from the six men were buried Monday with full military honors in a single casket at Arlington National Cemetery.

The burial comes after the recovery of remains in 2010 and 2011 by joint U.S.-Laotian search teams. Examiners relied on dental records, personal items recovered from the site and circumstantial evidence to conclude that the recovered remains are representative of all six Air Force servicemen: Col. Joseph Christiano of Rochester, N.Y.; Col. Derrell B. Jeffords of Florence, S.C.; Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chief Master Sgt. William K. Colwell of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger of Lebanon, Ore.; and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The Air Force gave all six posthumous promotions, a military spokeswoman said.

Dribs and drabs of information came in over the years, and some family members heard rumors that loved ones had been seen alive. But mostly it was the passage of time that led relatives to conclude their loved ones had perished.

"The sad part about our situation is for seven years, we hoped he was alive," said Jeanne Jeffords, 86, of Temecula, Calif., whose husband, Derrell, was on board. Their son, Terry, was 16 years old when Jeffords died and their daughter, Deryl, was 13. "We hoped he was a prisoner. Seven years later, they released all the prisoners. The Air Force called me at 3 a.m. one morning and said, 'We're sorry to tell you, but your husband is not among the prisoners.'"

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP

Members of the Air Force Honor Guard hold American flags to be presented to family members during a burial service.

Ron Thornton, who now lives in Bozeman, Mont., remembered reacting to news his father's plane had gone missing with the optimism of the sixth-grader he was in 1965: At some point, he was just sure his father would come walking out of the jungle and back into his family's arms.

"The world being the size it was, I just thought he'd been misplaced," Ron Thornton said. "I really believed they would find him." 

Weeks turned into months, months to years. The family kept Thornton's picture on the wall of their home in Great Falls, Mont., along with his medals.

Even now, he said, he didn't  expect the burial will completely erase the questions from his mind, given that there is no definitive DNA evidence of his father's remains.

"There will always be this little hint of doubt at the back of my mind," he said. "It would be nice if they would have the proof positive."

Joseph Christiano's wife, Josephine, took an especially active role in the search, according to her daughter Elaine. Josephine Christiano addressed Congress and a special session at the Paris Peace Talks, went to Thailand and Laos looking for information, and joined a family support group.

'The family still has questions'
She said her mother's greatest fear was that her father was captured, held prisoner and died in captivity.

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP

Barbara Annechino is comforted by her brother Jeffrey Christiano during the burial service for their father Air Force Col. Joseph Christiano, on Monday.

"The military will continue their search at the site to hopefully find more remains and artifacts," Elaine Christiano wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The family still has questions but we have to accept this as our (closure)."

Dean Eilers remembered getting the news about his brother Dennis around Christmastime.

"After weeks or so, you think maybe with the training ... and survival, you think they'd escape or get away from somebody. Then after a year or two, you thought they might be prisoners. Then after that, you don't give up hope, but you figure they probably died in the crash, you know, after 40 some years."

He said the family still wonders what happened that night.

The first joint U.S.-Laotian team didn't visit the crash site until 1995 in the southern province of Savannahket, which was heavily bombed during the war as it lay on the Ho Chi Minh supply route that supplied Vietcong communist guerrillas in southern Vietnam. A villager recalled seeing a two-propeller aircraft crash near the village. A second villager had found wreckage of it and took the team to the crash site.

Follow-up teams revisited the site four times between 1999 and 2001 and recovered military equipment but no human remains, and excavation was suspended.

Excavations resumed in 2010 and 2011, when human remains and personal items from the crew were found.

AP Photo/Courtesy Eilers family

This undated family photo provided by The Fry Funeral Home shows Air Force Lt. Col. Dennis Eilers, who was shot down on Christmas Eve 1965 over Laos.

It is not uncommon in situations like these for joint sets of remains to buried at Arlington. The Pentagon's Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office lists more than 83,000 servicemembers as missing in action, the vast majority from World War II. In 2011, the office identified the remains of 62 service members previously unaccounted for.

Colwell's family, after years of holding out hope, had him declared dead in 1977 "for paper reasons," said his niece, Ann Famigliette, who described her uncle as a "lifer."

"He loved it. He loved flying," she said.

When the military called to tell her that her uncle's remains had been identified, "it took me a while to process it," she said. "I just didn't think this day was going to come. ... I'm so grateful it has come, and he's able to be buried a hero on American soil." 

Hassenger's daughter, Robin Hobson, said she takes comfort in the fact that the remains were found near the wreckage of the plane, which she takes as evidence that the men died quickly and did not suffer.

"It's just a big relief that he has come home. It's been a long time, and it was time for him to be home." said Hobson, who was 8 when her father deployed. "We know where he's at now."

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A Virginia woman who asked a Catholic priest to rid her of the devil is suing his former employer, alleging he sexually assaulted her over a two-year period, The Associated Press reported. 

The suit seeks $5.3 million in damages from Human Life International, an anti-abortion ministry, as well as the Catholic Diocese of Arlington and its bishop, Paul S. Loverde.  

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer served as president of HLI when he told the woman in 2008 he would rid her body of "unclean spirits," The Washington Post reported.

Euteneuer is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit because he reached a settlement with the woman out of court, the paper reported.  

The AP reported that he told the woman he believed her case was "severe" and needed an exorcism.

The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, signed a document pledging complete cooperation in spiritual work with Euteneuer, according to the lawsuit. 

The suit, filed on June 19 in Virginia's Arlington County Circuit Court, alleges Euteneuer sexually molested the woman during exorcism sessions conducted mostly in HLI offices. 

According to the suit, she claims he kissed her on the mouth and touched her in inappropriate places on her body. 

"To the extent Father Euteneuer has already admitted to engaging in highly inappropriate conduct with a young adult woman, we can only emphasize that such behavior was never within the scope of his employment with HLI," HLI director of communications Stephen Phelan said in a statement. 

The woman's attorney, Demetrios C. Pikrallidas, told the Post she suffered emotional distress from the abuse she endured.

"She placed her trust in a man of faith," he said. 

Arlington Diocese spokesman Michael J. Donohue told The Post that Euteneuer has never been a priest for the diocese.

"He was not authorized to perform an exorcism on this woman. He may have lied to her and said he was, but he was not," he said.

According to the lawsuit, the Arlington Diocese was named in the lawsuit because it "was responsible for the governance of the Roman Catholic priests practicing within its assigned geographical borders,' the AP reported. 

Euteneuer performed the exorcism independently from his job at HLI. He resigned from the organization in 2010. 

The AP reported the woman contacted the Arlington Diocese after realizing his conduct was inappropriate. 

Officials at the Diocese of Palm Beach recalled the priest to Florida to undergo counseling after the Arlington Diocese made them aware of the allegations. 

In an official statement last year, Euteneuer issued an apology for his actions and acknowledged overstepping his boundaries. 

"I take full responsibility for my own poor judgment, my weakness and my sinful conduct that resulted from it, the statement read. 

Pikrallidas commended his client for coming forward under strenuous circumstances.

"When someone gets to a point where they believe they are in need of an exorcism, that is very difficult," he told the station. "To come forward is more difficult."

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Police believe the drowning deaths of twin 4-year-old boys in a north Texas swimming pool were accidental, Arlington Police spokeswoman Cheryel Carpenter told msnbc.com.

The father of Mark and Luke Nguyen called Arlington police around 10:30 p.m. after finding his boys face-down in the pool behind their grandmother’s home. It was still warm outside from a day that had reached triple digits.

The boys’ mother, Huong Nguyen, told wfaa.com that her husband and sons were checking in on her mother-in-law because she has diabetes.

Carpenter said the father's brother-in-law was also at the home.

Within minutes, the boys apparently slipped away to the pool, Carpenter said, managing to breach a black iron fence around the perimeter of the pool. She said police do not know if the gate was latched.

The father found the boys unconscious in the pool. He jumped in, pulled them out and administered CPR while waiting for paramedics. The boys died en route to the hospital.  

The parents, who also have a 1-year-old child, face no charges. 

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An owner of an Arlington, Texas, strip club was charged Tuesday with trying to hire hit men to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and a city attorney involved in an ongoing legal fight with the bar.

Ryan Walker Grant, co-owner of Flashdancer, offered to pay $10,000 for each murder, an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint.

Flashdancer recently agreed to close for one year to settle a nuisance lawsuit filed by the city of Arlington and the Texas attorney general.

"They just jacked me for a year of business, and they're trying to jack me indefinitely," Grant was quoted as telling the supposed hit man, who was secretly cooperating with federal agents.

The FBI also said Grant requested that people from Mexico come to North Texas and commit the murders so they could quickly leave the country. He said he would use his child as an alibi, the complaint said.

The names of the city officials allegedly targeted were not mentioned in the court documents, but a city news release Tuesday night confirmed they were Mayor Cluck and contract city attorney Tom Brandt.

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Both expressed appreciation for the FBI investigation.

"I feel confident this case will be thoroughly investigated," Cluck said in the statement. "We as a city council must always act in the best interests of the city of Arlington. I believe we've done that and will continue to do so."

Grant was arrested Monday by FBI agents after he met with the supposed hit man at Grant's Kennedale home, according to the criminal complaint.

Grant appeared before a federal judge Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held without bond until a detention hearing on Friday.

The Drug Enforcement Administration was also involved in the investigation.

Steven Swander, a Fort Worth attorney who represented Grant in the city lawsuit, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Grant's father Ron said his son was upset about losing business but would never have tried to hurt anyone.

"Oh good Lord no, because as far as -- he was looking forward to re-opening," Ron Grant said. "He certainly didn't have any, you know, animosity -- well, he wasn't happy about it. But he didn't voice any desires to harm anyone about it, that's for sure."

A Texas teacher is fighting to keep her job after she admitted to losing her temper and telling a Hispanic student to “go back to Mexico.”

Shirley Bunn, a math teacher at a middle school in Arlington, has been on paid leave since the Sept. 30 incident at Barnett Junior High School, according to a report on myFOXdfw.com.

She was handing out forms to her eighth-grade students when one of them repeatedly asked her for a form in Spanish, by saying, “I’m Mexican. I’m Mexican.”

According to documents made public in the case, the Fox station reported that Bunn told the student he could get the form in the office but he continued to argue by repeating, “I’m Mexican.”

She then blurted out, “Go back to Mexico,” the website reported.

“It was almost instantaneous. I thought, ‘God, I don’t believe that came out of my mouth,’” she told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It was a very, very hard week, the end of six weeks. It was late in the day. It was a Friday. We were on the third day of the first curriculum assessment and I knew it wasn’t going well. It was just an extremely bad day.”

Larry Shaw, a representative from the United Educators Association, told the Fox affiliate that the district should reinstate Bunn.

“This is a wonderful excellent teacher who simply made a mistake, and the administration jumped to the worst-case scenario of termination when they didn’t have to,” he said.

Independent Hearing Examiner Jess Rickman III, in a 23-page opinion issued late Wednesday, said the district failed to provide sufficient grounds to terminate Bunn, according to the Star-Telegram’s report.

Whether she’s allowed to return will be up to the School Board, the newspaper reported.

District spokeswoman Amy Casas told the Star-Telegram that the case would be presented to the School Board "at an upcoming meeting."

Bunn, 63, told the newspaper that she was “thrilled and relieved” by the examiner’s opinion.

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