Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia held a news conference Monday to clear up some of the speculations around the DWI arrest of Angela Graham-West that occurred last Friday and voice the department’s support for the arresting officer.
“When we’re wrong, we’re wrong, and we will hold ourselves accountable, but no police chief can sit idly by while his officers get falsely vilified,” Garcia said. “False misrepresentations about my officers cannot go unchecked. They work too hard, and they sacrifice too much.”
Graham-West is the wife of former Texas Republican Party Chair and current candidate for Governor, Allen West.
West has been very vocal with his criticism of the arrest and the Dallas Police Department. Over the weekend, he took to social media to call for the firing of officer Lydia Harris and to demand an apology for his wife and infant grandson, who was in the car at the time.
The DPD showed a 19-minute video compiled from officers’ dash and body cam footage during the news conference, refuting West’s claims that his wife was pulled over for not using her blinker to change lanes.
In the video, Graham-West’s SUV can be seen entering the right shoulder of West Northwest Highway and then continue driving while straddling the white line.
When Officer Harris turned on her lights to signal Graham-West to pull over, she stopped the SUV in the middle lane of the highway, with traffic traveling past on either side of the vehicle. Next, officer Harris directed Graham West to pull up and onto a less busy street, at which time Graham-West pulled into the right lane and stopped again.
Upon being asked a second time to move off the highway onto a less congested street, Graham-West complied with the request.
During the subsequent field sobriety test, Graham-West can be seen struggling to complete some of the required tasks as directed. In the arrest affidavit, it is also noted that Graham-West’s eyes were bloodshot, and there was a to-go cup near the driver’s seat that officers felt was suspicious.
After her arrest, officers got a warrant for Graham-West’s blood, as she did not blow reliably into the breathalyzer, and they couldn’t get a clear reading from it.
The blood test results have not come back yet, but anything over a .08 is considered intoxicated.