Legal Commentary

Officer Powell: Poor Judgment or Abuse of Power?

By TChris

Robert Powell, the Dallas police officer who detained Ryan Moats for a minor traffic violation outside a hospital where Moats' mother-in-law was dying, has demonstrated poor judgment before, according to former Dallas Cowboy linebacker Zach Thomas. Powell pulled over Zach's wife Maritza last year for making an illegal U-turn.

Thomas was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police cruiser, spent about three hours in the Dallas County Jail and was threatened with the possibility of spending the night behind bars.

In addition to making an illegal U-turn, Powell said Maritza ran a red light, didn't have her current address on her driver's license, didn't have a registration sticker on her windshield, and couldn't show proof of insurance. Maritza asked Powell to let her mother make the 5 minute trip to her home to retrieve the insurance paperwork, but Powell took Maritza to jail instead. (Maritza's mother, who speaks little English and was visiting Dallas for the first time, "was forced to ride with the tow truck driver when the car was impounded." Welcome to Dallas!) [more...]

An arrest (rather than the issuance of a citation) for routine traffic violations is rare, particularly when the driver is a state resident. The Dallas police claim that the number of citations Powell issued made Maritza's situation "egregious," justifying the arrest. Never mind that all the citations except the illegal U-turn were ultimately dismissed.

Powell seems to be the kind of officer who loves to exercise authority, particularly when he's abusing it.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 31, 2009 (boomark / email).