Court Says Homeless Man Beaten By Firefighter Can Continue To Sue City For Ignoring First Responder Misconduct
from the only-[kick]-you-[kick]-can-[kick]-prevent-[kick] dept
This isn’t the kind of response one expects from a firefighter arriving at the scene of a fire. (via Courthouse News Service)
In August 2019 [Brad] Cox and other DFD [Dallas Fire Rescue Department] personnel were called to extinguish a grass fire. When Cox and other DFD personnel arrived, [Kyle] Vess, who is mentally ill, was walking near the fire. Due to Vess’s proximity to the fire, Cox thought Vess was responsible for starting it.
Cox and other DFD personnel attempted to detain Vess. Meanwhile, other DFD personnel called the Dallas Police Department (“DPD”) for assistance. Cox confronted Vess in an effort to detain him. Something provoked Vess, however, and he errantly swung at Cox, who swung back at Vess and hit him. According to the second amended complaint (“SAC”), Cox then beat Vess “senselessly” and subdued him. After subduing Vess, Cox continued to beat him, kicking him six times while he was on the ground. It was necessary for another firefighter to restrain Cox.
That’s from the recent federal court decision [PDF] allowing Vess’ lawsuit to move forward. The beating involved one more kick, delivered to the head of the “clearly subdued” Vess by Cox: one that resulted in a fractured orbital socket. The entire beating delivered more injuries, including a fractured sinus, cracked teeth, and facial paralysis to the right side of Vess’ face.
There’s body cam footage of the beating so neither Brad Cox nor the DFD could deny it happened.
They could, however, choose to do nothing about it.
DFD did not conduct an internal affairs investigation, and the Dallas Public Integrity Unit (“DPIU”) cleared Cox of any wrongdoing. Both entities “worked to ensure that no further or deeper investigation was done” because both had a practice of concealing internal disciplinary measures from the public. The office of the Dallas County District Attorney did not pursue an indictment of Cox, later “indicated remorse” for not having done so, and “admitted that a thorough investigation was not undertaken.”
And it had never bothered to seriously discipline Brad Cox, who has apparently been a problem for the DFD for nearly two decades when this incident took place:
According to the SAC, Cox was arrested in 2002 for suspected assault at a birthday party; was reprimanded three times for refusing to provide medical treatment to patients; was counseled in writing in 2011 for “unacceptable conduct” related to a patient; pleaded guilty to falsifying a government report; and is currently being sued in a case where he allegedly laughed at, and refused to give care to, a homeless man, who ultimately died.
Cox isn’t an anomaly.
[W]hen DFD personnel do engage in inappropriate behavior (whether in poor communities or elsewhere), DFD has refused to terminate any of these personnel in the last 30 to 40 years. This is so despite numerous examples of such inappropriate behavior—not punished by termination—including refusing to render care because of the person’s sexual orientation; refusing to transport a child to the hospital because the paramedic thought the mother was lying about the seriousness of her child’s illness; refusing to treat a man with a terminal condition because the paramedic believed the man was already dead; and refusing to follow standard procedures for a gunshot wound.
Brad Cox asked for qualified immunity, claiming the beating he handed out was unrelated to any “seizure” of Vess by law enforcement and, therefore, did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights. Wrong, says the court. A seizure takes place when an officer (or first responder, as in this case) uses physical force or a show of authority to restrain someone’s liberty. Cox may have felt he was just handing out a beating, but he did so as a government employee while in the presence of officers called to the scene. No immunity.
The city of Dallas tried to dismiss the lawsuit as well, arguing that the allegations did not sufficiently tie the city to Cox’s beating or the DFD’s unwillingness to terminate employees over severe misconduct. The court says that Vess has actually alleged all he needs to at this point. With the DFD making a four-decade run at never terminating an employee over severe misconduct, the city is at least partially responsible for this accountability vacuum.
[T]he court holds that Vess has alleged sufficient facts for the court to draw the reasonable inference that the City has a “de facto policy and/or custom of protection for previously disciplined personnel by refusing to terminate or separate from employment individuals unfit to serve as members of the Dallas Fire Department despite good cause for termination and the risk these individuals pose to the public.” And the court concludes that Vess has plausibly pleaded that this policy was the moving force behind Cox’s actions.
That’s enough to keep the lawsuit alive. And now the city of Dallas will have to confront its failure to oversee an agency that was created to fight fires and save lives but has ended up housing people like Brad Cox — a firefighter who assaults citizens, falsifies reports, and refuses to help the people he’s paid to help.
Comments on “Court Says Homeless Man Beaten By Firefighter Can Continue To Sue City For Ignoring First Responder Misconduct”
The Perfect Job...
Come to work as needed. When there’s not an immediate need for your skills, brew some beer, make some chili, and have the New Guy wash the truck.
When you’re thinking it’s time to go, go home and beat your wife, lock your kids in a cement floor basement, and go beat up people in bars or “out walking because they’re clearly culpable of something, OR beat up people for not walking because they are interfering with your work or “an investigation.”
Then drive drunk, and not just “Hey I had one too many and that was a poor choice I made” drunk, no it’s “blotto with my other work friends” wasted.
There’s an all-hands meeting you really should go into work for, because the union rep is going to be explaining how your stupid boss and your stupid customers are unhappy. A friend raises his hand and say “They’re always unhappy, always complaining. That’s why we need the union to be on our side.”
Because, you know, there are sides. On that thing red or blue line, and like a game of Frogger, the goal is to make it safely for 20 years and then live better than everyone you’ve hurt for those two decades — for the rest of your life.
Each year you are less accountable, your transgressions better hidden, your opportunities for “lateral advancement” to other departments unlimited, and no amount of Consent Decrees will stop the gang you and your buddies are in, the killing homeless your Albuquerque buddies are in, or the indiscriminant firing of MORE THAN 60 ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION at the back of a guy running from you BECAUSE HE DOES NOT WANT TO DIE like the guy your friends killed two days ago, or last week, or last month.
Service weapons come in all shapes and sizes, but there are some rules you learn in firearms handling. If you can’t control the path of the bullet then absent EXTREME exigent circumstances, do not fire. If there are six of you, that doesn’t mean six guys unload all their rounds. It means IF the situation calls for shooting, best position shooter takes it. A “double-tap” are two rounds. Not 60.
Firefights are envious of cops. They don’t get to shoot people. Kicks to the head, eye socket breakages, face paralysis… that goes on their weekly magazine. The one in the break room. The public one has firefighters rescuing kittens from trees.
What needs to be done, and this has literally been the case for hundreds of years, but NOBODY wants to “antagonize the heroes.”
Coward cops who let children and teachers die, and coward firefighters who beat up innocent people (let alone start fires to up their work hours) are NOT HEROES. There’s NOTHING heroic about their work even if they do it right. That’s why when you’re out with your buds and two cops walks in, everyone stiffens up. Sure — you haven’t done anything wrong — but that taillight isn’t going to go bust itself.
Hundreds of years, dozens of consent decrees all the way from California, New Mexico, Illinois, New Jersey, etc. Still no improvement.
Solution: 1. Create a grading system with published grades. 2. Independent inquiry boards will yearly evaluate the cops or firefighters and apply those grades. 3. Those who violate laws, rules, or procedures will be removed. Better to have understaffed teams than those made up of rabid criminals. 4. Fired for cause from one place means you can’t get hired in another. Like a released felon, first you must do your time. Then you must petition to restore your rights. In that process you must show why you understand your conduct was wrong and why our society should give you those same powers again. 5. Gang membership, participation, or insisting it’s an “us vs them” world will be grounds for dismissal. Let’s face it, in this country we don’t go after gangs. We just hassle people with cash driving one way on a highway (and sometimes the other way).
I’d like to see one person reading this forum call up 911 for a kitten stuck in a tree and see what falls out 🙂
As I said in the subject line: “The Perfect Job…” and now add “for a homicidal sociopath.”
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“Dallas Public Integrity Unit”
Dear Dallas residents, they have no integrity which is why this unit never did shit.
The tired clichés bootlickers say about cops (e.g. “isolated incident”, “bad apples”) seem to apply to the Dallas Fire Rescue Department.
It also gives me an excuse to share this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JkrJUAg8aI
The Perfect Job...
Come to work as needed. When there’s not an immediate need for your skills, brew some beer, make some chili, and have the New Guy wash the truck.
When you’re thinking it’s time to go, go home and beat your wife, lock your kids in a cement floor basement, and go beat up people in bars or “out walking because they’re clearly culpable of something, OR beat up people for not walking because they are interfering with your work or “an investigation.”
Then drive drunk, and not just “Hey I had one too many and that was a poor choice I made” drunk, no it’s “blotto with my other work friends” wasted.
There’s an all-hands meeting you really should go into work for, because the union rep is going to be explaining how your stupid boss and your stupid customers are unhappy. A friend raises his hand and say “They’re always unhappy, always complaining. That’s why we need the union to be on our side.”
Because, you know, there are sides. On that thing red or blue line, and like a game of Frogger, the goal is to make it safely for 20 years and then live better than everyone you’ve hurt for those two decades — for the rest of your life.
Each year you are less accountable, your transgressions better hidden, your opportunities for “lateral advancement” to other departments unlimited, and no amount of Consent Decrees will stop the gang you and your buddies are in, the killing homeless your Albuquerque buddies are in, or the indiscriminant firing of MORE THAN 60 ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION at the back of a guy running from you BECAUSE HE DOES NOT WANT TO DIE like the guy your friends killed two days ago, or last week, or last month.
Service weapons come in all shapes and sizes, but there are some rules you learn in firearms handling. If you can’t control the path of the bullet then absent EXTREME exigent circumstances, do not fire. If there are six of you, that doesn’t mean six guys unload all their rounds. It means IF the situation calls for shooting, best position shooter takes it. A “double-tap” are two rounds. Not 60.
Firefights are envious of cops. They don’t get to shoot people. Kicks to the head, eye socket breakages, face paralysis… that goes on their weekly magazine. The one in the break room. The public one has firefighters rescuing kittens from trees.
What needs to be done, and this has literally been the case for hundreds of years, but NOBODY wants to “antagonize the heroes.”
Coward cops who let children and teachers die, and coward firefighters who beat up innocent people (let alone start fires to up their work hours) are NOT HEROES. There’s NOTHING heroic about their work even if they do it right. That’s why when you’re out with your buds and two cops walks in, everyone stiffens up. Sure — you haven’t done anything wrong — but that taillight isn’t going to go bust itself.
Hundreds of years, dozens of consent decrees all the way from California, New Mexico, Illinois, New Jersey, etc. Still no improvement.
Solution:
1. Create a grading system with published grades.
2. Independent inquiry boards will yearly evaluate the cops or firefighters and apply those grades.
3. Those who violate laws, rules, or procedures will be removed. Better to have understaffed teams than those made up of rabid criminals.
4. Fired for cause from one place means you can’t get hired in another. Like a released felon, first you must do your time. Then you must petition to restore your rights. In that process you must show why you understand your conduct was wrong and why our society should give you those same powers again.
5. Gang membership, participation, or insisting it’s an “us vs them” world will be grounds for dismissal. Let’s face it, in this country we don’t go after gangs. We just hassle people with cash driving one way on a highway (and sometimes the other way).
I’d like to see one person reading this forum call up 911 for a kitten stuck in a tree and see what falls out 🙂
As I said in the subject line: “The Perfect Job…” and now add “for a homicidal sociopath.”
…claiming the beating he handed out was unrelated to any “seizure” of Vess by law enforcement and, therefore, did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights.
If Cox were to be takes as correct in this claim, why would QI even be an option? (Other than the System is fucked; i mean logically.
Re:
I was wondering the same thing. I mean, qualified immunity insulates Cox and the department for actions taken during the scope of work, but it sounds like Cox is saying, “hey, I beat him up on my own time, not as a Dallas employee.” So personal liability all day long.
…and is currently being sued in a case where he allegedly laughed at, and refused to give care to, a homeless man, who ultimately died.
Clearly, Cox is prejudiced against vulnerable people, especially if they’re homeless or he perceives them to be. I can only presume he hasn’t been fired already because the fire department that employs him is institutionally discriminatory against homeless people. Maybe Bradley Cox and DBA Phillip Cross are the same person.
Re:
That would imply that Cox is also a CCP shill as well.
Re: Re:
This CCP? He might well be. I wouldn’t put a lack of patriotism past either of them.
What is our country coming to?
If you can’t beat a homeless guy, who can you beat?
/s
Re:
Oneself? After all, DBA Phillip Cross does it all the time with his constant proojwction and self-flagellation. 😉
Re:
davec beats the meat of cops all the time.
Re: Re:
Especially his son’s, the incestuous pervert. 😈
Bad D&D rules lawyer
This sounds like a conversation that might’ve happened at a Dungeons and Dragons table:
Player: Hey, just because he can’t take any actions, doesn’t mean he was incapacitated.
GM: technically speaking what you said is correct, but he was stunned. The stunned condition applies the incapacitated condition.
Conclusion: he’s a bad rules lawyer.
Who does this guy think he is – a cop?
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The homeless don't have resources to defend themselves
I work at a homeless shelter. Crap like this happens way too often where government “officials” figure that since the person is homeless they are also helpless to defend themselves against brutality and abuse.
Who will the court believe? Homeless guy or government employee?
Sickens me…