Three TABC Agents Fired Over Rainbow Lounge Bar Raid

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.

Fort Worth Police Chief Officially Apologizes for Rainbow Lounge Raid and Has Revised Policy

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.

Report Says Texas Officers Face 19 Violations, Disciplinary Action for Rainbow Lounge Bar Raid

A report released Thursday states that the two Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officers involved in June's raid on the Fort Worth gay bar, the Rainbow Lounge, face 19 violations for their conduct during the raid.

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.

Said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth said of the new report: "There were so many violations that one could readily assert that they had no business walking through the door."

U.S. Attorney to Investigate Rainbow Lounge Bar Raid

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Fort Worth city council requested a federal investigation into the bar raid of the Rainbow Lounge, an LGBT bar that was celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall at the time of the raid, which resulted in one of the patrons receiving a severe head injury.

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."

See WFFA news report.

TABC Chief Apologizes for Texas LGBT Bar Raid, Says, "[We] Shouldn't Have Been There."

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.

Reason Behind Texas LGBT Bar Raid Revealed in Police Report - Mayor's Apology Not for Raid, But Gibson's Injury

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."

News 8 reports:

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.

Earlier this week, the Ft. Worth mayor was reported to have apologized for the raid, however that report is being corrected to state he did not apologize for the raid itself but for Gibson's injury.

Fort Worth Mayor Apologizes for Police Raid on LGBT Bar

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.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

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.

See local news affiliate KTVT news video report or WFAA report.

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.

Second LGBT Bar Raid in Texas by Officers Wearing Ninja Masks

A second Texas LGBT bar, the Eagle, was raided this weekend by the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission (TABC) within weeks of the infamous raid on the Rainbow Lounge in the neighboring city of Fort Worth.

The Eagle says the TABC officials stated the purpose of the raid was to question whether or not the establishment had updated its liquor license indicating a change of address. The Eagle had moved just yards into a new building where their old parking lot used to stand and was celebrating its grand opening,

The officers came back later and shut down the bar after a drink was sold.

Pictures of the agents taken by bar patrons show the officials wearing ninja masks. The photo posted here comes from eyewitnesses posting from The Chaser Blog. You read that right. NINJA MASKS.

A TABC spokeswoman responded to the incident today, saying “Basically they were in the process of applying for a change of address, and it had not made it through the process,” TABC spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said. “They were doing what they were supposed to be doing, but then they jumped the gun.”

“Our agents were not wearing ninja masks, and we did not make any arrests,” Beck said. “Our agents did not make any arrests, and to our knowledge … there weren’t any underage drinking violations or undercover minors. The issue at that location was that they were selling alcohol without a permit for that location.”

Beck did say that it could have been the Dallas Police Department (DPD) who wore the masks. A DPD spokesman concurred it could have been one of their officers who do at time wear masks to conceal their identities, but they do not have the authority to shut down a bar.

“We’re out there doing this same kind of thing at other locations, and people just aren’t talking about it and aren’t hearing about it,” Beck told the Dallas Voice.

She also doesn't think this new incident will result in any investigation into how it was handled.

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything that makes us think that that would be appropriate or necessary, and I don’t know that I’ve heard any allegations from anybody who was actually there that would make us believe that there’s anything to investigate,” she said.

“But for the fact that they were both gay bars [Rainbow Lounge and the Eagle], I’m not sure there’s anything that these two incidents have in common, but tell me if I’m missing something.”

Gay activist Rick Vanderslice says he is "outraged" and wants to know what is prompting the raids.