That May 27, 2012, confrontation between a Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and a motorcyclist with a helmet cam has led to a second lawsuit in two months — this one, a million-dollar complaint filed Monday in Dallas federal court. Christopher Moore, who was riding southbound on Stemmons Freeway near Inwood Road when he was pulled over and eventually arrested by Deputy James Westbrook, is suing Westbrook for, among other things, assault and battery, gross negligence and “intentional infliction of extreme mental anguish.” And he’s asking for $1 million in punitive damages, on top of $75,000 in actual damages and attorney’s fees. Westbrook’s already been punished by the department: He was suspended for 38 days for “conduct unbecoming of an officer,” according to legal documents, “and exhibiting a lack of professionalism during his contact with the driver of a motorcycle during a traffic stop on May 27, 2012.” That’s when Westbrook got behind Moore and pulled him over without cause, insisting the biker, who authorities eventually determined had been riding between the lines and by the book, was part of a group of riders intent on shutting down the freeway as others had done elsewhere in years past. Hoping to avoid a repeat of 2011′s freeway shutdown, Dallas police and sheriff’s deputies stepped up patrols last Memorial Day weekend; at times it seemed as though officers were posted along almost every highway overpass in town. Moore was riding down Stemmons with other bikers when Westbrook hit his sirens and pulled him over. Moore wanted to know why he’d been stopped. “The reason you’re being pulled over is because I’m going to take your camera, and we’re going to use it as evidence in the crimes that have been committed by other bikers,” Westbrook told him. Moore, who said he wasn’t with the other bikers, responded: What crimes? Eventually Westbrook came up with one, accusing Moore of having a partially obscured license plate. “That was indeed a strange charge for [Westbrook] to make,” says the suit, “considering that before he stopped [Moore], he had radioed his police dispatcher telling the dispatcher the license plate number of [Moores] vehicle which means the license plate was obviously not obstructed.” Eventually a Dallas police officer showed up, they removed Moore’s helmet (with “unreasonable force and violence,” says the suit), and he was taken into custody. Moore spent eight hours in jail, though the charges against him were eventually dropped. Long story short, says the suit: Westbrook violated Moore’s constitutional rights. Just last month, Westbrook filed his own lawsuit related to this incident: He claims in court documents that the sheriff’s department’s decision to suspend him for 38 days was “arbitrary, or capricious, characterized by abuse of discretion, or clearly an unwarranted exercise of discretion.” His suspension was ultimately shortened to 30 days, but he still wants the decision overturned, as well as back pay and attorney’s fees.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 02:07:44 +0000
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