The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) has finished its investigation of the June raid of the Rainbow Lounge, which resulted in several arrests and an injured patron, and has decided to fired two of its agents and a supervisor while disciplining two others.
The two agents, Christopher Aller and Jason Chapman "failed to report that they used force when arresting the customer or that he was seriously injured . . . were accused of participating in the raid without their supervisor’s approval, disrupting the business during the raid and wearing improper attire," the AP reports.
Sft. Terry Parsons, their supervisor, who had taken leave while the investigation was underway, was also fired. He didn't follow-up with his officers resulting in their failure to file a use of force report during the raid arrests, did not take appropriate action for their improper attire and did not notify supervisors about the arrests.
Parson's director supervisor, Lt. Gene Anderson, will be suspended without pay for three days and put on a six month probation. Capt. Robert "Charlie" Cloud who oversees Dallas/Ft. Worth TABC offices, has received a written reprimand.
On Tuesday, Fort Worth Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead, in front of the Fort Worth City Council, cited “flawed policies within the police department" for the problems stemming from the June 28 raid of the LGBT nightclub Rainbow Lounge. Seven people were arrested and patron Chad Gibson suffered a head injury which led to a week's stay in the hospital. The story became national news and was met with local protests.
“On today’s progress report, I am apologizing for the actions and the reflection that this gave our community,” said Halstead. “This resulted from flawed policy within the police department.”
He said a revised policy should be in place by Sept. 1 with rules for a three tiered-system: bar checks, inspections and investigations.
“Once the policy is complete, we’re never going to come here again,” he said after giving his preliminary report on the investigation into the raid. “We are recovering from this, and I’m very proud of that.”
The Fort Worth Police Department has endeavored to mend relations with the LGBT community by hiring a liaison and having meetings.
Halstead informed the city council that he has learned that his police department led the bar raid, not the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), which is contrary to what was earlier reported.
A separate TABC investigation cited three agents violating policies. Two have been relegated to desk duty and the supervisor has resigned. They face disciplinary action.
Halstead's investigation faces a December 28 deadline, though it is expected to be completed in September or October.
Agent Christopher Aller and agent trainee Jason Chapman:
Failed to gain their supervisor's approval to participate in the raid
Failed to report they used force during an arrest
Failed to follow bar raid procedures, disrupting business during the raid
Failed to wear approved attire.
Failed to file a complaint card against Rainbow Lounge
The Dallas Voice has the full report with all violations, which indicates Aller has the most.
The investigation found that one of the agents’ supervisors, Sgt. Terry Parsons, failed to ensure the agents submitted a report on using force during the arrest, did not take appropriate action after learning they didn’t wear proper attire during the raid and did not notify supervisors that multiple arrests had been made that night, the report states.
The officers are on desk duty while disciplinary actions are being decided and Parsons, who has taken full responsibility, has since decided to retire.
Aller and Chapman accompanied six Fort Worth police officers on a raid of the just opened Rainbow Lounge in what police initially billed as a routine liquor license inspection for a new business. The raid led to several arrests and one patron, Chad Gibson, was hospitalized with a severe head injury he suffered while in the agents’ custody, the agency and police have said.
Fort Worth Police Department is still investigating its part of the raid.
"I hope I’m not the scapegoat for some things. . . . I’ll take the responsibility for the things I did wrong," Aller told investigators. He added that the inspection “had nothing to do with it being a gay bar.”
Chapman, a trainee, told investigators: "We conducted ourselves in a professional manner. We had some hiccups on policy. There’s no two ways about that, and that’s my responsibility."
The report does not address whether the agents used excessive force during the inspection. That investigation is continuing, and the commission will release a report later addressing that issue.
The Dallas U.S. Attorney General's office has agreed to take on the case, and it will be the fourth investigation.
"The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is investigating the conduct of two of its officers, and the Fort Worth Police Department has launched two parallel probes – one by the internal affairs department and one by the major case unit," reports the Dallas Morning News.
Forth Worth officials also released files on the personnel involved in the raid.
At least one of the officers involved in the raid has a documented history of misconduct, according to the records.Officer Jason R. Ricks, 32, was disciplined multiple times in 2006.
In the most serious case, New Braunfels police arrested him on an assault charge in July of that year after he punched a bus driver in the face during a fight, the records show. Ricks was off-duty and had been drinking for a few hours, he told investigators.
The charges were later dropped, but one of Ricks' supervisors, Captain W.A. Read, wrote in a September 2006 letter to a deputy chief that Ricks had "shown a history of poor decisions and bad judgment."
"I have to ask myself, when will this officer mature to the level that is required of him and can we afford to allow him to keep making bad decisions that can affect the department and the community," Read wrote. He added that a lieutenant "has put forth a valid argument that Officer Ricks does not show the maturity level that is required of a Fort Worth police officer."
WFFA says that, "Ricks, however, had little involvement in the Rainbow Lounge raid; he was assigned to stay with a van of previously-arrested suspects."
"Fort Worth has yet to release the files of the supervisor and one other officer involved in the raid," reports WFFA. "The wrong files for those men were released on Tuesday."
In an interview with the Dallas Voice, Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission Administrator Alan Steen apologized for the raid on the Fort Worth LGBT bar Rainbow Lounge.
“I don’t think you have to dig very deep to figure out that TABC has violated some of their policies,” Steen said. “We know that, and I apologize for that."
On top of the apology, Steen informed that the supervisor of the two TABC agents present at the raid (the rest were Forth Worth police men) had retired last week while an internal investigation is ongoing. The two agents have been put on desk duty.
Steen went on to say that he didn't believe there was sufficient cause for the inspection, despite the fact a man had been arrested for public intoxication at the bar two days earlier, and that the officers should have been wearing plainclothes as is custom, and that along with the paddy wagon, it constituted excessive show of force.
“You can read that policy and you can figure out really quickly, TABC shouldn’t have even been there,” Steen said. “If our guys would have followed the damn policy, we wouldn’t even have been there. … We have these conversations all the time, and we don’t participate in those kinds of inspections when there’s not probable cause or reasonable suspicion or some public safety matter to be inspected.”
Steen is interested in an LGBT liaison for the TABC and said he'll have to be creative in how to pay for the position.
He said he will announce the results of the internal investigation when they're available and that he went to the Dallas Voice to the keep the LGBT community updated.
“I just think the people of Fort Worth deserve to know that we’re very interested in this and very diligently working to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
The controversy surrounding the police raid of Texas LGBT bar Rainbow Lounge in Ft. Worth has led to the question, "Why did the officials raid the bar in the first place?" Given that is happened on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, suspicions have remain high.
Ft. Worth Police Department released documents that give its reasons. According to the reports, two days before the raid, police arrested an intoxicated man leaving the Rainbow Lounge after having been warned to get a ride.
Later that weekend, they returned for an inspection along with Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission officers. A police radio recording reveals that an officer called for back up.
"I need help in here," he could be heard saying. "I'm by the restroom." (See News 8 video report that contains video and radio recordings.)
That call came when officers said a customer blew a kiss at the officer, and then struggled with police as they tried to arrest him. The report also claims a woman made a sexual move at the officers with her hips and also states that Chad Gibson, the bar patron who received a head injury while being arrested, tapped an officer's genitals.
"[It] didn't happen," Gibson said. "It's a big lie."
In records, a Fort Worth officer admitted involvement in the physical struggle with Gibson inside the bar, which ended with Gibson on the ground as they arrested him. At some point, Gibson suffered a brain injury.
"We've got a guy, alcohol intoxication," an officer could be heard saying in a recording. "Also, a bruised head."
The big question is whether the injury happened inside with Fort Worth officers or outside with TABC agents. TABC agents said Gibson fell on concrete. Pictures show Gibson covered in vomit outside and his head bleeding. The sudden nausea, his family said, is evidence the injury happened inside the bar.
Officers being investigated have been relegated to desk duty.
Forth Worth, Texas mayor Mike Moncrief apologized for the police raid on LGBT bar Rainbow Lounge that resulted in controversy and claims of police brutality. One bar patron, Chad Gibson, incurred a head injury that kept him in the hospital for a week.
At Tuesday's meeting, 250 people packed City Council chambers while another 150 overflowed into the hallway and other rooms as city officials discussed the raid.
Someone in the audience called out for an apology. The mayor then said: "If you want an apology from the mayor of Fort Worth: I am sorry about what happened in Fort Worth." The crowd erupted in applause and stood.
Two council members called for independent investigations into the raid, after which Moncrief started to discuss other items on the meeting agenda.
Blake Wilkinson, founder of Queer LiberAction, interrupted and said those who wanted to comment on the raid shouldn't have to wait. Moncrief tried to explain that public comments are always last on the agenda.
But Wilkinson and another person kept arguing with the mayor, and several people in the hallway started shouting, "Hear us now!" "Hear us now!" Wilkinson and six others were then led out of the building.
The Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission and Fort Worth Police Department are investigating the raid, which was conducted jointly by their agencies, but the community is demanding an independent investigation.
Also on Tuesday, Fort Worth police chief Jeff Halstead said he appointed Officer Sara Straten as the department’s liaison to the LGBT community.
Straten stated her main goal is to improve communication with the LGBT community and that she would meet with them to "try to make things better." Though the police department has said that they will have its officers undergo diversity training, she did not say if she would be leading it.
"It's a huge job, but it's doable," Straten said of her new position.
Chad Gibson, injured victim of the Ft. Worth police raid on the gay bar Rainbow Lounge, says he wants the officers responsible prosecuted and calls the response from the city of Ft. Worth a cover up.
"I was at the bar buying drinks for my friends and I. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ICU," Gibson told CBS 11. "I'm just appalled that they took it to the level that they did."
The Ft. Worth police are claiming that Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) officers are responsible for Chad's injuries, saying they're the ones that manhandled him and not the Ft. Worth police. But Chad finds that inexcusable. In a taped interview with WFAA, he said they just stood their and watched, making them equally responsible.
"They have blamed it on me, that I was drunk [and] that I hit my head," he said. "I groped the officer. I did this. I did that. You know what, no ... Accept responsibility."
Gibson said he is also frustrated at the city pointing the blame at the TABC.
"Even if the Fort Worth Police didn't touch me, they watched it," he said. "They watched other people do that to me."
"A lot of the doctors I've talked to say you can't get this kind of blow to the head from just falling, if I had just fallen like they said I did," Chad said.
After a week in the hospital, Chad has been discharged, though a blood clot in his brain behind his right eye still exists.
The TABC officers are on desk duty during the internal investigation. The city of Fort Worth is still asking eye witnesses to come forward for their internal investigation. Any findings will be independently reviewed by the U.S. Attorney General.
Today, Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead responded to criticisms that last Saturday night's violent raid on the gay bar Rainbow Lounge, which fell on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall and landed one of the patrons in the hospital with bleeding in the brain, was justified:
Monday, police chief Jeff Halstead said the officers' actions are being investigated. However, he also said that officers that entered the bar during the scheduled inspection were touched inappropriately.
"You're touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive," he said. "I'm happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that."
Dan Savage has angrily responded, voicing the homophobia behind the quote:
"Them faggots in that thar bar touched mah officers and now they're complainin' about some rough stuff and one little ol' faggot with a brain injury? Those perverts should be grateful they're alive."
The Fort Worth Texas police department conducted a raid on the gay bar Rainbow Lounge on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn raids, arresting seven people for public intoxication. Police have been accused of excessive force and 100 demonstrators showed up Sunday night in downtown Forth Worth to protest the raid.
Witnesses say one person was seriously injured and excessive force was used. Eyewitness Todd Camp talked to the Dallas Voice:
The not awesome thing was the paddy wagon of homophobic police that showed up ... looking for trouble. My group and I were sitting on the back patio at a picnic table. Nobody was being wild out there. [The police] came through with flashlights, being loud asking what was going on out here, then asked why everyone was all the sudden being quiet. When one group started up their conversations again, they took one guy away. I left shortly after and as I walked through the front bar there were numerous cops with plastic handcuffs all ready to go. I [left] the bar and they [had] a big van in the parking lot and numerous cars on the street. And just so you know, it wasn't fire hazard crowded or seedy wild in there. ... The worst part is [friends later told me] that [the police] had numerous people face down on the ground outside. I just moved to Fort Worth from Dallas, so this is such a shock to me. I know Dallas would not put up with this. ... I am still so shocked it is 2009 and this just happened.
One of the patrons who was arrested is reported by his sister to have been roughed up so badly that he's in the hospital, suffering from bleeding in the brain. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what kind of bar you are in,” she said, “none of this should have happened, to anybody. It’s excessive force, and it shouldn’t have happened."
Police disputed the accusation of excessive force and said the department would thoroughly investigate any allegations. The raid was one of three bar checks conducted by police and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Police said two intoxicated individuals made sexually explicit moves toward officers and a third grabbed a TABC agent’s groin. Several patrons told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the officers weren’t assaulted.
"He was just walking to the bathroom when an officer grabbed him and shoved him against a wall and pulled his head back," said Chris Hightower of Fort Worth told the Star-Telegram, a friend of the injured patron. "He was then thrown to the ground, and three other officers were on him." Several patrons said the officers were never assaulted.
"I have friends who are cops, and I know what to do when officers are working," Camp said. "No one was acting aggressive to officers."
General manager Randy Norman said the bar had been open just a week, and it had complied with all ordinances.
"Rest assured the people of Fort Worth, or the government of Fort Worth -- will not tolerate discrimination against any of its citizens," Fort Worth Councilman Joel Burns stated to Fort Worth CBS 11 who has a news video report. He's now calling for accountability.
A Facebook Group has formed to keep the community abreast of the situation and informed of future demonstrations.
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The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) has finished its investigation of the June raid of the Rainbow Lounge, which resulted in several arrests and an injured patron, and has decided to fired two of its agents and a supervisor while disciplining two others.
