Officer involved in Texas pool incident resigns
McKinney police make announcement at press conference
The police officer filmed wrestling a teen to the ground at a Texas pool party resigned Tuesday, and the city's police chief blasted his actions as "indefensible."
McKinney, Texas Chief Greg Conley told reporters at an evening briefing that Officer David Eric Casebolt, 41, was "out of control." Casebolt resigned from the force earlier in the day, the chief confirmed.
A viral video showed Casebolt, who is white, pushing a bikini-clad black, teenage girl to the ground last Friday and brandishing his gun at other black teens after he and other officers responded to complaints about the pool party at a community-owned McKinney swimming pool.
"The actions of Casebolt, as seen on the video of the disturbance at the community pool, are indefensible," Conley said.
Conley had originally placed the former Texas state trooper on administrative leave after the incident.
The Associated Press reported that Casebolt’s lawyer, Jane Bishkin, declined to say where he is now and added the officer had received death threats.
The attorney said she would release more information at a news conference Wednesday.
At the conference, the police chief defended the actions of the other officers who responded to the party.
“There were twelve officers on scene. Eleven did exactly what we wanted them to do,” Conley said.
The chief also criticized those whose unruly actions triggered the call to police.
“I do not condone the actions of those individuals who violated the rules of the community, showed disrespect to the security person on scene and to the officers who responded,” he added.
The incident has prompted criticism of the affluent suburb of McKinney north of Dallas, which is among the nation's fastest growing cities, has highly regarded public schools and was ranked by one publication as America's best place to live.
“The actions of any one individual do not define our community as a whole,” Mayor Brian Loughmiller said at the briefing.
People who demonstrated this week at a McKinney school against the police response often used the city's name in the same sentence as Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri — cities where use of force by police triggered widespread protests and violence.
The NAACP is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to review the procedures of the McKinney police force, stopping short of asking for a formal investigation. A review of department policies is needed to ensure officers are responding appropriately to calls involving minorities, the local NAACP chapter said.
Casebolt had been accused of excessive force in a 2007 arrest as part of a federal lawsuit that named him and other officers. The officers arrested Albert Brown Jr., who authorities say was found with crack cocaine during a traffic stop. Brown, who is black, accused the officers of forcibly searching him after pulling down his pants and slamming his head against a car hood. A defense attorney denied Brown's accusations. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2009.
McKinney also has been the target of lawsuits accusing it of racial segregation in public housing.
A lawsuit filed in 2008 accused the McKinney Housing Authority of restricting federally subsidized public housing for low-income families to older neighborhoods east of U.S. 75. The lawsuit said that in the Dallas area, 85 percent of those receiving so-called "Section 8" housing vouchers are African Americans. The 2000 census found McKinney's east side was where 68 percent of the city's black population lived, while neighborhoods west of U.S. 75 were 86 percent white.
In 2007, 2,057 of the 2,485 housing units run by landlords willing to accept federal rent subsidy vouchers were on the east side. The lawsuit was settled in 2012 with a consent decree, which is an agreement to take specific actions without admitting guilt.
A message left with the housing authority seeking comment wasn't returned Tuesday.
The scrutiny contrasts McKinney's high ranking for its quality of life. A Time Inc. publication last year ranked the city the best place to live in America, with a median family income in excess of $96,000 and job growth projected at 13 percent. Crime is comparatively low and like other metropolitan suburbs in Texas, McKinney has seen unprecedented expansion. Its population has tripled in the last 15 years to approximately 155,000. About 75 percent of residents are white while nearly 11 percent are black.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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