The Dallas Police Department has promoted the officer involved with the death of Tony Timpa in August 2016.
According to a video posted on the official Facebook page of the Dallas Police Department, officer Dustin Dillard, alongside several other officers, was promoted to the rank of senior corporal on May 24 in a ceremony.
Dillard’s promotion comes despite the excessive force accusations against him in a civil rights case filed by Timpa’s family. Timpa’s family accused Dillard of using excessive force on the victim by pressing his knee into Timpa’s back.
The City of Dallas is representing Dillard and the other officers accused of Timpa’s death in the civil case. In April, the City asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Timpa’s family from filing the civil suit against Dillard and his colleagues.
As reported by The Dallas Express, a federal appeals court ruled on February 4 that Timpa’s family could proceed with their lawsuit against Dillard and three other Dallas PD officers after U.S. District Judge David Godbey had dismissed the case, citing the officers’ protection by the qualified immunity doctrine.
The qualified immunity doctrine shields officers from potential liability while performing their duties legally.
Geoff Henley, attorney for the Timpa family, told The Dallas Morning News that the victim’s family would be angry about Dillard’s promotion when they learn of it.
“It (Dillard’s promotion) definitely indicates that the City doesn’t believe, in any regard, that its officers have done wrong here, and so the City should certainly bear responsibility for that,” Henley told the DMN.
Timpa died while in police custody on August 10, 2016, after he called 911 from a Dallas parking lot saying he needed help and was afraid of a man that was with him, according to court documents.
Upon arrival, responding officers found Timpa walking in traffic. Footage from the officers’ bodycam showed them restraining Timpa by pinning him to the ground for 14 minutes before discovering the victim had died. Dillard could also be seen kneeling on the victim’s back.
Timpa’s death was ruled a homicide after the Dallas County medical examiner who conducted his autopsy found that he had died from “sudden cardiac death due to the toxic effects of cocaine and physiological stress associated with physical restraint.”
Dillard and two of the responding officers — Kevin Mansell and Danny Vasquez — were indicted in 2017 by a grand jury on charges of misdemeanor deadly conduct. Dallas PD also disciplined the three officers internally for “conduct discrediting” the department.
However, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot dismissed the charges against the three officers in 2019. Creuzot noted that he decided to dismiss the charges against the officers after “a lengthy investigation and determination as to the official cause of death of Mr. Timpa.”
Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, defended Dillard and the other officers involved in Timpa’s death after Creuzot declined to prosecute them.
“These three officers who have been cleared by the department’s [investigative] divisions and also by the county’s investigative unit should have never been indicted,” Mata said.
Mata maintained that the bodycam footage shows that Dillard and his colleagues did not abuse Timpa and that they restrained him with the least amount of force while waiting for medical emergency personnel.
This reminds me of how Derek Chauvin who killed George Floyd had been the Field Training Officer even though there had been 18 complaints against Chauvin.