The family of Botham Jean, the Dallas man who was shot by a police officer in his apartment in 2018, issued a letter demanding congressional candidate Jasmine Crockett stop representing herself as their attorney for political gain.
“Botham’s name is not an endorsement you can parade, and his legacy is not a sound bite you can use to garner media coverage,” the letter from the family reads.
Crockett is currently a state representative from Dallas who is also in a runoff election against Jane Hamilton for the seat of retiring U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson.
The family stated in the letter that they had previously asked Crockett not to use Botham Jean’s name in any capacity related to her political career, but she has ignored those wishes.
As a result, they shared the formal letter with several news outlets in Texas and stated that they are asking their legal team to send Crockett a cease-and-desist letter.
“For you to misrepresent yourself as one of our attorneys is absolutely disgusting,” the letter reads. “You do not represent my family in the interest of Botham and have never represented my family in the interest of Botham, so for you to publicly publish these lies, both written and audibly, is unacceptable and unbecoming of any civil servant and any decent human being. Clearly, this is only for political gain, and we, the family of Botham Jean, want no part of it!”
The letter was released by The Vault Consulting Group and was signed by “the family of Botham Jean.” Allison Jean, Botham Jean’s mother, told The Dallas Morning News that Crockett’s campaign website incorrectly stated that she represented her family.
“I don’t like politicians misrepresenting my family, especially my son, who is not here to defend himself, for political mileage,” Allison Jean said.
Crockett has since removed the statement from her website, saying that it was “a mistake” and that no one had contacted her campaign about the issue until the DMN reached out for a comment.
“While nothing was directed towards our campaign regarding this issue, I do want to respond and say that as a civil rights attorney, I’d never intentionally inflict additional distress upon any family. There may have been confusion about some information on our website, which was remedied as quickly as it was brought to our attention,” Crockett said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
Crockett is a civil rights attorney who has represented several families against police misconduct in the past.
According to reports, the Jean family was represented in court by civil rights attorney Lee Merritt.
Botham Jean was shot in his apartment by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who claimed she mistakenly walked into Jean’s apartment and believed that he was an intruder in her apartment. In actuality, Jean’s apartment was one floor directly above Guyger’s.
A jury convicted Guyger of murder, and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Guyger appealed her conviction, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld her conviction just last week.
“Having to fight overzealous police officers and now having to fight overzealous lawyers such as yourself (Crockett) to protect our loved one’s name is absolutely traumatizing,” the Jeans’ letter said.
Allison Jean also told the DMN that she was upset by comments Crockett made during a 2020 podcast in which the representative stated that Botham Jean’s father was a big fan of hers.
“She indicated in her video that my husband is one of her huge fans,” Jean said. “But that is not true. My husband is not on social media. He doesn’t know Jasmine currently, so I don’t know how you can be a fan of somebody that he doesn’t know.”
Crockett responded, saying she had had conversations with Botham Jean’s father in the past.
“As it relates to the video, that was not recorded during any campaign, and while I won’t go into the specifics of the conversation that I had with Mr. Jean, I’ll say that in no way was I attempting to campaign in that moment, but that was a genuine comment made as a result of some conversations that we’d had. I’ve continually focused on bread and butter issues in every way in this campaign and will continue to do so,” Crockett said.
