Ft. Worth Criminal Attorneys Blog

Used coat with communications police patch from "The Colony Police Department" gets man arrested for impersonating a police officer.

A Texas City man was charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer as he was arrested for public intoxication. Police stopped the man for swerving on the road on his bicycle around 11:30 pm, and he reportedly reeked of alcohol. The officer then noticed that the man's jacket had a patch that said 'The Colony Police Department', and added the more serious extra offense.

A Fort Worth medical examiner has ruled that the death of a mentally ill man is a homicide, after the victim had been tasered twice by Fort Worth Police Officers.

The family of Michael Patrick Jacobs, Jr. called the Fort Worth Police Department for help after he started causing problems while being off his medication for bi-polar disorder. When police arrived they felt 24-year old Jacobs was combative and they stunned him with a taser gun twice, once for 49 seconds and then another 5 seconds after a one second pause. Taser guns apply a 50,000 volt shock that causes muscles to lock up by over-stimulating the nervous system.

Jacobs began having difficulties breathing while he was being handcuffed, though reportedly the police waved off a paramedic crew. When Jacobs collapsed, they called paramedics back to the scene, but did not initiate CPR. Paramedics could not revive Jacobs either at the scene or at the emergency room, and he was pronounced dead about an hour after the taser had been used on him.

Videotape shows Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Arturo Perez slamming a 22 year old woman into concrete barrier while handcuffed.

The trooper who is the subject of an investigation by the Texas Rangers for using excessive force during a DWI arrest on the Dallas North Tollway, has retired from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Arturo Perez responded to a single vehicle accident on the Dallas North Tollway on October 11, 2009 at around 3 in the morning. The 22-year old woman driving the vehicle was suspected of driving while intoxicated in Dallas, and Tropper Perez initiated a field investigation. The suspect reportedly failed several field sobriety tests and smelled of alcohol. As Perez was walking the woman to his squad car, she jerked and tried to walk away from him. Perez warned her not to resist or she would get hurt.

The video camera in his cruiser then captured images of him jerking the woman in an effort to take her to the ground. Instead, the officer ended up pushing the handcuffed woman chin first into a concrete ledge with such force that her feet left the ground. She then collapsed "like a sack of potatoes." Perez denied using excessive force, saying it was not his intent to hurt her.

Popeye Jones, an 11 year veteran with the NBA and current assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated Sunday November 1, 2009 in Richardson, Texas. The Richardson Police Department received several phone calls from motorists about an erratic driver in a GMC Yukon. After being stopped, Jones refused to submit to a breath test to check his blood alcohol content. The Richardson Police Officers felt there was enough evidence of intoxication to initiate an arrest for DWI.

The General Manager of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium entered a plea of guilty to charges of driving while intoxicated in Tarrant County. Jack Hill was then sentenced to 15 days on the county sheriff's labor detail and fined $925.

The Tarrant County district attorney's office initially sought 2 years of probation, a standard penalty for first offense DWI. Hill requested a jail sentence instead, to which the DA recommended 60 days and opposed the option of a labor detail. Hill, however, did not enter into a plea agreement with the DA and asked the judge to issue sentencing.