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[Dallas] NFL player's police saga at Plano hospital captured on dash cam

Discussion in 'Football: NFL, College, High School' started by Air Langhi, Mar 26, 2009.

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  1. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    NFL player's police saga at Plano hospital captured on dash cam

    By STEVE THOMPSON and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

    As he rushed his family to the hospital, 26-year-old NFL running back Ryan Moats rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the emergency room.

    Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital.

    "You really want to go through this right now?" Moats pleaded. "My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!"

    Officer Robert Powell, 25, was unmoved. He spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest.

    "I can screw you over," the officer said. "I'd rather not do that."

    The scene last week, captured by a dashboard video camera, prompted apologies and the promise of an investigation from Dallas police officials Wednesday.

    "There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least," said Lt. Andy Harvey, a police spokesman.

    Moats' mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, was struggling at 45 with breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. Family members rushed to her bedside from as far away as California.

    On March 17, the night of their incident with Powell, the Moatses had gone to their Frisco home to get some rest. Around midnight, they received word that they needed to hurry back to the hospital if they wanted to see Collinsworth before she died.

    The couple, along with Collinsworth's father and an aunt, jumped into the SUV and headed back toward Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. They exited the Dallas North Tollway at Preston Road, just down the street from the hospital.

    Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.

    Powell, watching traffic from a hidden spot, flipped on his lights and sirens. In less than a minute, he caught up to the SUV and followed for about 20 more seconds as Moats found a parking spot outside the emergency room.

    Moats' wife, 27-year-old Tamishia, was the first out. Powell yelled at her to get back in.

    "Get in there!" he yelled. "Let me see your hands!"

    "My mom is dying," she explained.

    Powell was undeterred.

    "I saw in his eyes that he really did not care," Tamishia Moats said Wednesday.

    Tamishia Moats and her great-aunt ignored the officer and headed into the hospital. Ryan Moats stayed behind with the father of the dying woman.

    "I waited until no traffic was coming," Moats told Powell, explaining his passage through the red light. "I got seconds before she's gone, man."

    Powell demanded his license and proof of insurance. Moats produced his license but said he didn't know where the insurance paperwork was.

    "Just give me a ticket or whatever," he said, beginning to sound exasperated and a little argumentative.

    "Shut your mouth," Powell told him. "You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light."

    There was more back and forth.

    "If you're going to give me a ticket, give me a ticket."

    "Your attitude says that you need one."

    "All I'm asking you is just to hurry up."

    Powell began a lecture.

    "If you want to keep this going, I'll just put you in handcuffs," the officer said, "and I'll take you to jail for running a red light."

    Powell made several more points, including that the SUV was illegally parked. Moats replied "Yes sir" to each.

    "Understand what I can do," Powell concluded. "I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult."

    "I understand," Moats responded. "I hope you'll be a great person and not do that."

    Hospital security guards arrived and told Powell that the Moatses' relative really was upstairs dying.

    Powell spent several minutes inside his squad car, in part to check Moats for outstanding warrants. He found none.

    Another hospital staffer came out and spoke with a Plano police officer who had arrived.

    "Hey, that's the nurse," the Plano officer told Powell. "She said that the mom's dying right now, and she's wanting to know if they can get him up there before she dies."

    "All right," Powell replied. "I'm almost done."

    As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture.

    "Attitude's everything," he said. "All you had to do is stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have let you go."

    It had been about 13 minutes.

    Moats and Collinsworth's father went into the hospital, where they found Collinsworth had died, with her daughter at her side.

    The Moatses, who are black, said Wednesday that they can't help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them.

    "I think he should lose his job," said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native who attended Bishop Lynch High School and now plays for the Houston Texans.

    Powell, hired in January 2006, did not return a call for comment. Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson said Powell told police officials that he believed that he was doing his job. He has been reassigned to dispatch pending an investigation.

    "When people are in distress, we should come to the rescue," said Simpson. "We shouldn't further their distress."

    Collinsworth was buried Saturday in Louisiana.

    Rebecca Lopez of WFAA-TV contributed to this report.
     
    #1 Air Langhi, Mar 26, 2009
  2. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    posted in the correct forum. :p
     
    #2 Rocketman95, Mar 26, 2009
  3. Two Sandwiches

    Two Sandwiches Contributing Member

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    This is absolutely ridiculous. This guy probably won't be fired, but should at least be suspended without pay for a WHILE. Sad thing is, if this is not an NFL player, I don't know if this gets any attention, and the person driving probably gets multiple tickets while their family member dies.

    It kind of reminds me of the scene from Meet The Fockers where Greg and Bernie get pulled over in Florida....

    RIP. :(
     
    #3 Two Sandwiches, Mar 26, 2009
  4. Yonkers

    Yonkers Contributing Member

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    Wow. That's just horrible. It sounds like he tried to do everything right and the cop still wouldn't listen.
    Really makes me think I need a dashboard camera now.
     
    #4 Yonkers, Mar 26, 2009
  5. Two Sandwiches

    Two Sandwiches Contributing Member

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    I could actually see this thing going into the D&D....
     
    #5 Two Sandwiches, Mar 26, 2009
  6. BaMcMing

    BaMcMing Contributing Member

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    That is a heapin helping of bad karma for he cop

    What an a**hole
     
    #6 BaMcMing, Mar 26, 2009
  7. juicystream

    juicystream Contributing Member

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    #7 juicystream, Mar 26, 2009
  8. Fatty FatBastard

    Fatty FatBastard Member

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    "Moatses?"

    Good God, with all of the access to grammar tools we have these days, you'd think the ones getting paid to write would be a little better than this. Of course, it is Dallas.
     
    #8 Fatty FatBastard, Mar 26, 2009
  9. GlassHalfFull

    GlassHalfFull Member

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    In a convoluted kind of way, I am glad this happened to a high profile person so it could get the press attention it needed. I have a bad feeling this type of incidence happens all too often, but gets no attention. Maybe something good can come out of a bad event.

    Please do not misinterpret what I am saying. I am sorry that Moats and his family had to go thru this. The cop definitely deserves at least a reprimand.
     
    #9 GlassHalfFull, Mar 26, 2009
  10. professorjay

    professorjay Contributing Member

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    What an infuriating way to start this morning, reading this story. I can only imagine how maddening it was to actually live through it.

    That cop was full of sh** saying "All you had to do is stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have let you go." Moats did exactly that, and more than likely the cop just acted like the biggest a-hole possible.
     
    #10 professorjay, Mar 26, 2009
  11. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate
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    Cops with attitudes like this should be fired so the good cops don't get the blame.
     
    #11 VooDooPope, Mar 26, 2009
  12. Ra Ooh La La

    Ra Ooh La La Contributing Member

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    Wow . . . This is a really screwed up story. Protect and Serve? My nuts.

    I don't even know what kind of resolution would be appropriate for this. A real @sshole like Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell will forever be an @sshole (I hope this post stays burned in the annals of the internet forever; that his family will know throughout eternity how sh!tty he was; that they shall feel shamed and driven towards seeking redemption).

    It's flat ridiculous for the father not to be able to spend the last moments of his daughter's life by her side . . . all because of d!ckhead Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell.

    To the family, I'm really sad for their loss and that they had to deal with such a heartless situation through it all.
     
    #12 Ra Ooh La La, Mar 26, 2009
  13. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking
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    Man, it's popular to bash the police. I'd like to hear the officer's version of the events to counterbalance this story.
     
    #13 El_Conquistador, Mar 26, 2009
  14. Two Sandwiches

    Two Sandwiches Contributing Member

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    Lol.


    They had a dashboard cam. His version of the events doesn't matter. Neither does Moats', to be honest.
     
    #14 Two Sandwiches, Mar 26, 2009
  15. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate
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    Read the quotes above in the story taken from the dash camera. No excuse for abuse of power.

    CASE CLOSED
     
    #15 VooDooPope, Mar 26, 2009
  16. Ra Ooh La La

    Ra Ooh La La Contributing Member

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    What would be an acceptable version of events to counterbalance this story that would include 13 minutes waiting while your daughter lies dying inside a hospital only a few feet away?
     
    #16 Ra Ooh La La, Mar 26, 2009
  17. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking
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    Great, so let's see the dashboard cam's playback and see if it conforms to this depiction of the story. My guess is that some things are left out...
     
    #17 El_Conquistador, Mar 26, 2009
  18. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    I have to think tj is some 15 year old trying to rile everyone.
     
    #18 Air Langhi, Mar 26, 2009
  19. Nero

    Nero Member

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    Well, reading the report's selections from the dash cam do not paint a pretty picture.

    Chances are, listening to the officer's side, and then viewing the entire dash cam footage without the filter of the news' selections, and then going back over this story and then hearing an interview with Moats about it...

    All of that might paint a better picture.

    But it sure looks like that immature child wearing a badge utterly failed to understand that his role is to 'protect and serve'.

    I myself have had to rush to a hospital with emergency lights on and dashing through red lights, rushing my sick toddler to the emergency room. So I can empathize with that part. I have also had to make a mad rush to a hospital in another state to try and be there before my father passed (did not make it). It was not because of some prick cop though, it was just having to go from Houston to St Louis in a hurry. It has haunted me for almost 15 years now, not being able to be there. I can't imagine how it must hurt to have BEEN there and been prevented from taking that last step by some little cretin abusing his badge.

    I hope those folks sue the CRAP out of that police department and that cop. The kid should not ever wear a badge again.
     
    #19 Nero, Mar 26, 2009
  20. SwoLy-D

    SwoLy-D Contributing Member

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    I generally defend police officers when they stop someone breaking a law. This time, the police officer should have understood the human nature of the issue at hand.

    Obviously, through the description of the report, and even with stuff left out, Moats seemed to be genuinely properly conducting himself and to never disrespect the officer. The wife, however, messed things up by getting out of the vehicle... certainly you all will agree that those actions just made the situation worse.

    Sorry. Bad cop. Not ALL cops are like this; understand, please. :eek:
     
    #20 SwoLy-D, Mar 26, 2009
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