Last month, Sara Gonzales of Blaze Media posted a video to Twitter of Dallas police officer Jackia Miles allegedly shoving her at Beto O’Rourke’s townhall. Now, Dallas County’s Democrat District Attorney John Creuzot is refusing to release records related to Officer Miles.
The video appears to show Gonzales filming O’Rourke speaking to a constituent when one of his campaign staffers reaches for Gonzales’ phone and tells her to stop filming. An officer, later identified as Jackia Miles, pushes Gonzales away from O’Rourke and the staffer, saying, “I don’t even gotta touch your phone, I can just touch you.”
After the event, in addition to requesting the body camera footage from the police department, Gonzales filed a complaint against Officer Miles. In response, the Dallas Police Department said they do not have any footage from the encounter.
Following the incident, Texas Scorecard submitted an open records request to Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot (D) for “all Brady and/or Giglio Information for City of Dallas Police Officer Jackia Miles.”
A district attorney will not call officers to testify if they have “Brady” or “Giglio” information in their file. This is because “Brady” or “Giglio” information shows the officer(s) in question “have had sustained incidents of untruthfulness, criminal convictions, candor issues, or some other type of issue placing their credibility into question.”
In response to Texas Scorecard, District Attorney Creuzot’s office appealed the request to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Texas Scorecard previously reported on questionable practices within DPD, including a 2019 incident where an officer under investigation for murder continued serving in the department. The officer involved was reportedly on Creuzot’s list of officers with Brady information.
Another incident occurred in September 2021 when former gubernatorial candidate Allen West’s wife, Angela, was arrested for driving while intoxicated with a child under 15 years old. DPD later released a video of the arrest, but the Wests claimed DPD edited out key moments.
According to the Wests, these moments included Angela informing the officers that her previous aneurysm could affect her balance during a sobriety test. Despite previously stating they would release the full video, the City of Dallas later appealed Texas Scorecard’s open records request for the unedited footage to Paxton.
Additionally, Angela alleges that the arresting officer refused her request to speak with a lawyer.
A toxicology report later showed no evidence of alcohol or drugs in Angela’s blood at the time of her arrest. In light of this evidence, Creuzot decided to not prosecute her.
After the 2020 George Floyd riots, Creuzot positioned himself as someone who would hold police accountable for bad actions. Yet, he appealed to Paxton the open records request seeking to discover how many Dallas police officers had Brady information. Last year, a spokesperson for the City of Dallas told Texas Scorecard it was her “understanding [that] hundreds of officers are on the Brady list.”
In a statement to Texas Scorecard, Gonzales called on DPD to better protect citizens from officers with a history of violations.
“Dallas has an obligation to its citizens to ensure law enforcement officers are properly trained and vetted,” said Gonzales. “It is a dereliction of duty for city officials to allow officers with bad track records to remain on the force, and worse yet to hide the information from the citizens who pay for these corrupt officers.”
