FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF News) – The attorney for a Fort Worth woman whose arrest was seen in a viral video said he is planning to file a federal lawsuit against the City of Fort Worth.
Lee Merritt said his client Jacqueline Craig and her family have been routinely humiliated by the Fort Worth Police Department.
Jacqueline Craig and her two daughters were arrested by Officer William Martin after she called police to report that her neighbor, Itamar Vardi, had allegedly choked her seven-year-old son for littering.
Martin, who returned to work after a 10-day suspension without pay, has filed an appeal against the disciplinary action taken against him.
The Fort Worth Police Department filed misdemeanor assault charges against Vardi and dropped the charges against Craig and her daughters on Thursday. Merritt said the fact that the department waited so long to take this type of action is insulting.
“For over a month, Craig and her family have been under the cloud of criminality. She was taken to jail. She was placed in handcuffs and placed in a cell with her daughters. Anybody who has had to experience that unjustly knows how humiliating that process is,” he said.
Merritt said he suspects an ulterior motive behind the department’s actions.
“I believed that there was information that they were going to keep out of the public eye. With that information now being in the public eye it gives them more impetus to drop the charges against the Craig family. It has been my suspicion for a long time that they left themselves exposed by keeping the charges out against the Craig family,” he said.
Local activists and the community have been holding protests against the Fort Worth Police Department’s handling of the case. City officials even held an open meeting to help ease tensions between the police department and the community.
Merritt said Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald lied when someone asked if Officer Martin had ever been involved in any excessive force allegations and he said no.
“There can be no trust. He diminishes the integrity of his office and the integrity of the police department. In the same breath he said Officer Martin was apologetic and contrite. While he was saying that Officer Martin was appealing his 10-day vacation. It’s starts with being honest,” he said.
Merritt said he believes Chief Fitzgerald and city officials underestimated the community’s outrage over the incident.
Chief Fitzgerald said Martin will not return to the Rock Garden neighborhood in southwest Fort Worth where the incident occurred.
The police department issued a statement to address the latest developments. It read in part:
“The Police Department recognizes we must work to repair the fractured relationships in our community. We are committed to ensuring all Fort Worth Police officers live up to restoring the trust you have lost in our department.”
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