McKinney pool party officer’s past includes allegations of racial profiling, questionable police pra

[marble falls]

McKinney pool party officer’s past includes allegations of racial profiling, questionable police practices
Records: A look at two cases from Eric Casebolt’s career
Jason Sickles, Yahoo By Jason Sickles, Yahoo
13 hours ago
Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/mckinney-pool-party-officers-past-includes-allegations-of-racial-profiling-questionable-police-practices-014210547.html 

<snip>

Tommy Brown was jailed by Eric Casebolt, a McKinney police officer, in 2007 for a defective headlight. Casebolt …
McKINNEY, Texas — The latest law enforcement officer to fuel the national uproar about race and policing once jailed an African-American man for a defective headlight and was sued by another man for racial profiling, excessive force and other civil rights violations.

McKinney police Cpl. Eric Casebolt, who is white, was thrust into the country’s ongoing controversy about police conduct this week after a video of him responding aggressively to a disturbance at a suburban pool party went viral on social media. On the footage shot last Friday, Casebolt is seen drawing his gun on unarmed African-American teens and throwing one of them, a 15-year-old girl wearing a bikini, to the ground.

<snip>

Tommy Brown of Dallas was watching the controversial video on a local TV news report earlier this week when a broadcaster identified the officer involved as Eric Casebolt.

“Casebolt!” Brown recalls shouting. “That’s his name! This is the guy that took me to jail. I never will forget that name.”

Nor will he forget the charge that put him behind bars: defective headlight.

“Who goes to jail over a headlight?” said Brown, who is black and grew up in McKinney. “If I was a different color, I believe I wouldn’t have been going to jail for a headlight.”


Brown, who has a history of misdemeanor convictions, had just graduated technical college and had landed a job. “I was clean,” Brown told Yahoo News. “I didn’t have any warrants, my driver’s license was good and I had insurance on the car.”

The auto mechanic admits having smoked marijuana before getting in the car, but said he was not high while driving. He said his shirt likely smelled of pot when Casebolt stopped him for the headlight. “But he was very adamant about me selling some drugs,” said Brown, who is now 45.

In below-freezing weather, Brown said he stood for nearly an hour while the officer checked and re-checked his car.

“There wasn’t any papers, paraphernalia, any roaches, no seeds, no nothing,” he said. “The car was clean. He just wasn’t hearing it.”

As the hour wore on, Brown said Casebolt began threatening him with jail.

“He said, ‘I know you deliver some marijuana here in McKinney. I’m gonna put you in jail and I’m going to go to the East Side and anybody I find with some drugs or marijuana, I’m going to charge you for it.’”

<snip>

By all accounts, Albert Brown was at first cooperative. A check of his driver’s license returned no active warrants, despite a lengthy rap sheet for drugs and other non-violent offenses.

He consented to Casebolt searching him and the car. The officer found $180 in Albert Brown’s pocket and $50 and two marijuana seeds in the car.

“With all the nervousness, implausible and contradicting stories, I believed that someone was in possession of illegal drugs,” Casebolt wrote in his report.

Teaching others how to identifying liars, cheats and misfits has apparently been a part-time job for Casebolt. Before last week’s incident at the pool party, the 41-year-old was a featured instructor trainee on the website for Executive Self-defense and Fitness, which provides private lessons to law enforcement and citizens.

According to a bio of Casebolt posted on the site, “He has a strong working knowledge of human behavior, indicators of deception, criminal behavior, the development of situation awareness, and experience in the use of all levels of force.” The description has since been removed.

<snip>

Then Casebolt asked the female officer to search the 17-year-old again. This time, a small baggie of marijuana was found in her waistband. The teen told Casebolt it belonged to Albert Brown and, “That’s not all he has.”

Casebolt asked Albert Brown if he could search him again, according to the arrest report. “Yes, sir, but you just searched me.” The officer said Albert Brown began to struggle. “I pushed Brown onto the hood of his car, fearing he may pull a weapon out of his pants, and I told him he was under arrest [for the traffic offenses].”

<snip>

Jason Sickles is a reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickle

[brush]

1. There were two cases with men named "Brown" that Casebolt stopped and detained

The snips in this story conflate the two cases and make it seem that the first Brown stopped for a busted headlight was found to have drugs on him.

It was the second "Brown" on an entirely different stop, with two women passengers was arrested for allegedly possessing drugs.

You might want to edit the post.

[marble falls]

2. I think I'll leave it. Whoever didn't notice the different ages between the the two Browns will ....

read your post if they haven't already used the link. But thank-you for the suggestion.

[brush]

3. Why not state it clearly that there were two different "Browns"?

It's important for people to know that we're talking two additional cases of Casebolt abusing his authority to humiliate people of color;

There's quit a bit of info to digest and it's quite easy to miss age references and think there was only one other abusive incident involving the ex-officer — especially if readers don't go to the link.