Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)
The Dallas Police Association’s president claimed the district attorney had political motivations behind the indictment of a former officer last Monday on a manslaughter charge for a 2013 collision.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, DPA President Ron Pinkston said the association “strongly condemns” District Attorney Craig Watkins for a Dallas County grand jury’s vote to indict Bryan Burgess on Thursday.
“This last minute, election eve indictment of an innocent police officer is just another example of the unethical, politically motivated actions that are all too common from District Attorney Craig Watkins,” Pinkston said. “His office has had more than a year to review the facts of this case but instead of seeking justice in a timely manner, he chose to slow down the grand jury process to allow for a questionable indictment the day before the election.”
The DPA has endorsed Watkins opponent, Republican Susan Hawk, a former prosecutor and state district judge, ahead of Tuesday’s election. Watkins did win the late endorsement of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas last week. Some BPA members are also DPA members.
The association has been at odds with Watkins over his decision to kick police special investigators out of grand jury hearings on the cases that they worked.
District attorney’s office spokeswoman Debbie Denmon said the DPA’s statement was “really disheartening” and “pretty ridiculous” since Chief David Brown fired the officer and then a grand jury considered the facts and voted to indict. She said the timing of the proceedings had nothing to do with election season.
“For the Dallas Police Association to basically make light of the criminal justice system by making an accusation that this is all political — it’s really a disservice to the way the whole thing works,” she said. “It’s a very serious matter.
“The only people being political at this point are the Dallas Police Association. They’re the ones knocking on doors right now, asking voters to vote for Susan Hawk. So if they want to talk about politics, really, the ball is in their court.”
DPA President Ron Pinkston
Burgess was chasing fleeing bicyclist Fred Bradford, 51, while driving a squad car in April 2013 when the two collided in east Oak Cliff. Bradford died weeks later of his injuries. Brown faulted Burgess and his partner for how they handled the aftermath of the collision.
Burgess, 28, was originally arrested on a lesser charge, criminally negligent homicide, after the incident.
His attorney, Robert Rogers, said Monday that he wasn’t aware that the charge had been enhanced to manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
“Nothing has changed from the time DPD originally looked at this case,” Rogers said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Rogers said the evidence shows that Bradford was at fault for the collision. And he said Burgess passed a polygraph despite Brown saying the officer hadn’t been truthful with investigators.
Brown had said Burgess and his partner failed to call paramedics for nearly eight minutes after the collision. But Rogers said Bradford was belligerent with officers after the collision and had no visible injuries.
“They had to struggle to handcuff him while he was cursing at them like someone would who didn’t want to get arrested,” Rogers said.
He said the officers called for help once Bradford began to complain that he was in pain.
The city agreed to pay more than $1 million to Bradford’s mother to settle a lawsuit.
“Tell her it’s political,” Denmon said.
Burgess is currently free on a $5,000 bond.