HOUSTON SOCIAL WORKER ACCUSES POLICE OF USING EXCESSIVE FORCE

By Brian Rogers

Houston Chronicle
August 6, 2016

A Houston social worker charged with resisting arrest in March says she feels lucky to be alive after a traffic stop turned into a physical confrontation with a Metro police officer and a two-day stint in jail.

Earledreka White, 28, was handcuffed and arrested while talking to a 911 dispatcher, asking for police back-up for the traffic stop, the video shows.

"I would like another officer to come out here," she tells the dispatcher. "My heart is racing. I'm really afraid."

The officer can be heard talking -- and at times shouting -- but his words are indistinguishable on the 40-minute video released Wednesday to the Houston Chronicle by White's attorneys. The video was captured by a surveillance camera of a nearby business and combined with the audio recording of White's 911 call.

The video shows the officer -- not White -- initiated the altercation without provocation, attorney Zack Fertitta said.

"Being pulled over is not the troubling part -- what happened after being pulled over is what baffles me," White told the Chronicle Wednesday. "As I tell the dispatcher that this man is threatening to 'tase' me, he backs away, then comes back and literally tries to break my arm."

The incident drew comparisons to the arrest of Sandra Bland last year in Waller County after failing to signal a lane change. Bland died three days later in the jail in what has been ruled a suicide.

The Bland case -- which came on the heels of several other encounters between black residents and police -- sparked nationwide protests by the Black Lives Matter movement and others.

Officials with the Metropolitan Transit Authority police department said they investigated White's claim in April, including viewing the surveillance video, and found no wrongdoing.

"She was uncooperative but he did everything reasonable within the law," said Metro Police Chief Vera Bumpers. "He explained what was going on, what the violation was and that he was focused on her safety, as well as his."

Wants charges dropped

The Harris County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the charge against White and investigating the allegations raised by her and her attorneys, said Jeff McShan, the district attorney's spokesman.

Lawyers for White said the charges against her should be dismissed.

"I'm as pro-law-enforcement as they come, but that's not good police conduct," Fertitta said. "You can't escalate a situation and then claim someone is 'resisting arrest.' That's ridiculous."

Fertitta said he plans to take the case to trial if charges are not dropped.

On the video, White can be seen talking on the telephone after being pulled over in the 10000 of South Main Street by an officer identified in court records as G. Luca.

She was stopped for crossing a double white line while driving, according to police.

Video shows that White got out of her car to find out why she was pulled over. She said Wednesday that she erroneously believed her purse was in her trunk, so she was trying to retrieve her driver's license.

The officer can be seen approaching her with handcuffs in his hand. White says he ordered her to get back into her sedan, then cursed at her and threatened to use a stun gun to get her to comply.

White, who said she has a master's degree in psychology, pulled out her phone and called 911.

According to the 911 audio, White explains to the dispatcher that she does not believe she has done anything wrong and asks that another officer come to the scene because she feels threatened.

White then tells the dispatcher she is being "harassed." At that point, according to the combined audio and video, the officer grabs her and tries topin her arms behind her back, unleashing a minutes-long struggle with White screaming for him to stop.

"This man is twisting my arm," she tells the dispatcher. "Please get your hands off of me. What is wrong with you? ... Why are you doing this? I haven't done anything."

She eventually can be heard breaking down into sobs.

"Oh my god, oh my god," she says. "Stop. Please, stop. Can you stop doing this?"

'He got impatient'

White was jailed for two days after being charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor that could land her six months in jail. She was released after posting a $1,000 bail.

Houston NAACP President James Douglas, who watched an edited version of the video, said the officer was within his rights to ask White to get back in her car.

But, he said, if the officer immediately threatened to use a stun-gun to get her to comply, then the incident started off on the wrong foot.

"He got impatient," Douglas said. "This is obviously a police officer who needs some training on how to de-escalate a situation. And I would think it would be especially important in today's climate."

Larry Karson, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Houston-Downtown, had not seen the video but said Wednesday that officers in general are taught to be wary.

"The profession trains officers to have this level of paranoia at times," Karson said. "For an average citizen that can lead to a confrontation. We saw that in Sandra Bland's case."

Karson said a common problem in policing is the expectation that everyone knows how to comply in a police stop. That expectation, he said, can often lead to confrontations.

Fertitta and his law partner, Andino Reynal, took the case pro bono after seeing the video.

"It's just shocking," Fertitta said.

She 'wasn't listening'

White said she is worried about her career because a conviction, even on a misdemeanor, could affect her professional licensing as a counselor.

At Metro headquarters, the police chief said the incident would be included in training materials.

"She was just that upset, she just wasn't listening at that point," Bumpers said. "The lesson learned was that we could have been more patient and waited until someone got there who she might have been more comfortable with."

She said people should follow an officer's directions -- including a request to stay in a vehicle during a traffic stop -- for safety reasons.

"If you don't feel comfortable or feel that you've been mistreated, you can always file a report later," she said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A couple of observations.

The officer did nothing wrong. Contrary to what NAACP’s James Douglas said, the officer was not impatient. The video shows him standing patiently by for a couple of minutes while she talked to a police dispatcher on her cellphone. But when she told the dispatcher that she was being harassed by the officer, his patience came to a screeching halt and he got out his handcuffs. That’s when the situation escalated. Me thinks he got a little pissed off when she reported him harassing her.

As for the stop, it must have been a slow day because that was an unnecessary chickenshit stop.

From the Houston Press: “White, who is a social worker with a master's degree in psychology, was on her way home from work when she apparently changed lanes too soon and crossed that white line. According to Fertitta [her attorney], it's only a legitimate traffic stop if the driver crosses the line "unsafely," which he maintains wasn't the case for White. In fact, in his downtown office, Fertitta showed the Houston Press a video he took of ten cars doing the same thing over the course of a single minute.”

I see where she’s earned a Master’s Degree in Psychology. That should have taught her that accusing an officer of harassing her, when in fact he wasn’t, is likely to piss him off.