9 cases dropped after Dallas officer charged with murder
Prosecutors have dismissed at least nine cases that were investigated by the former white Dallas police officer charged with murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in his own apartment, according to court records.
A grand jury indicted Amber Guyger on a murder charge in November, nearly three months after she fatally shot Botham Jean, 26, on Sept. 6.
Records indicate one county prosecutor asked that their case be dismissed because Guyger had been accused of “murdering an innocent man in his own home,” The Dallas Morning News reported.
Four of the dismissed cases pertained to Guyger and another officer apprehending two men during a January 2018 traffic stop. Most of the dismissed cases involved drug charges.
Since Jean’s shooting, court records show that judges have dismissed at least five more cases at prosecutors’ request in which Guyger was the arresting officer. Though the prosecutors did not mention Guyger in their motions to dismiss the cases.
Chris Knox, a Dallas defense lawyer, said that anytime an officer is indicted, “it places prosecutors in the precarious position when deciding whether to sponsor the officer’s testimony at an unrelated trial.”
Prosecutors said they could still call Guyger as a witness in cases. But her indictment for shooting Jean would likely come up.
“It is entirely normal for the district attorney’s office to be wary of calling that officer as a witness against another defendant,” said Knox, who is not working on the Guyger case.
John Fullinwider, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, said that the dismissed cases “illustrate how police brutality impacts legitimate policing.”
It remains unclear how many cases could be impacted by Guyger’s murder indictment.
Guyger is scheduled to go on trial for murder in September.
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
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