8 June 26 - July 2, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “Law enforcement is unique due to the occupational culture and regular exposure to stressors and trauma,” reads a page with substance abuse resources for officers on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website. “These issues can increase the chances of engaging in unhealthy behaviors, such as overuse of alcohol, to provide a small relief from the stresses related to work.” Stephanie Samuels, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of the anony- mous help hotline CopLine, says many struggling officers are scared to reach out even if their department offers services similar to Dallas’. At CopLine, all phone op- erators are retired police officers who can empathize with the struggles of officers still in the line of duty. As civilians, they are not mandated reporters. It’s an integral compo- nent of the organization’s business model, Samuels says. “The reason why these officers needed to be retired has to do with confidentiality and the integrity of the lines,” Samuels said. “Co- pLine takes no state or federal money to truly ensure the confidentiality of COP Line. ... It really gives an extra layer of comfort for the caller to reduce both the barrier and the anxiety about reaching out for help.” CopLine, which operates 24 hours a day, receives just under 4,000 calls each year, and Samuels says alcohol use is a common denominator for many callers. “It hasn’t been uncommon for CopLine to speak with officers who have been ar- rested for DUIs, and the anxiety that goes along with that,” she said. “That has proba- bly been one of the more rewarding things because an officer who has been arrested has tremendous concerns about, obviously, whether or not they’re going to be able to continue to work.” Samuels says, despite departmental ef- forts, the fear of consequences and occupa- tional stigmas that prevent officers from seeking help still exist. “The importance of reducing barriers is quite real,” she said. “No matter how far I think we’ve come in officer wellness, there is still not just a stigma, there’s truly a reality that is part of it. That is, officers can be sub- jected to fitness for duty exams, and officers who are struggling can face different hur- dles within their own department. Their fear of losing their gun and badge is signifi- cant and still quite realistic.” CopLine is not partnered with any police departments or agencies, intentionally, in- stead relying on donor support to avoid any conflict of interest for callers. “We don’t care where they’re calling from, we just care that they call,” Samuels said. The OWL Unit does offer anonymous support, and DPD says officers do not waste the program offerings. “The Dallas Police Wellness Unit directs employees to a variety [of] resources, in- cluding counseling and addiction treatment, as well as resources for the employee’s fam- ily,” said the DPD spokesperson. “Addition- ally, the Wellness Unit proactively reaches out to employees involved in traumatic inci- dents to ensure they have the assistance they need. These resources, offered confiden- tially and voluntarily, are well-utilized across the department.” ▼ CRIME PAXTON FRAUD CHARGES DROPPED THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL AGREED TO PAY RESTITUTION AND PERFORM COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS TO END A DECADE-LONG SAGA. BY EMMA RUBY T en years, $271,000 and 100 hours of community service later, fraud charges brought against Texas Attor- ney Gen. Ken Paxton have been dismissed by the state. A Collin County grand jury brought the charges in 2015, the same year Paxton be- came Texas’ chief legal officer. Paxton was accused of soliciting investors in a Texas- based tech startup while failing to disclose his own financial stake in the company. Paxton pleaded not guilty to the multi- ple securities fraud charges brought against him. In March 2024, he agreed to a pretrial diversion agreement that kept the case from going to trial just weeks before it was set to begin, without requiring Paxton to plead guilty. That agreement required 100 hours of community service at a Collin County nonprofit, 30 hours of ethics train- ing and a restitution payment of $271,000 to his accusers. “To be sure, justice was delayed. But to be equally sure, justice was not denied because today’s resolution was the fair, right and just outcome for both sides,” special prosecutors Brian Wice and Jed Silverman said in a joint statement Wednesday. Paxton faced similar federal charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Com- mission, but they were dropped. According to the SEC, Paxton convinced fellow Texas House members to invest in the tech group Servergy and was given a commission of some shares afterwards. When Paxton asked to pay for the shares, the company’s founder, William Mapp, responded, “God doesn’t want me to take your money.” Dan Cogdell, an attorney who has repre- sented Paxton through his 2023 impeach- ment trial before the Texas Senate and various federal investigations, posted to Ins- tagram that the dismissal of the fraud charges marked an end to “the decade long saga of the trials and tribulations of Ken Paxton. “At the risk of throwing my shoulder out of socket patting myself on the back … our team prevailed,” Cogdell wrote. “Ten years. Helluva slog.” If Paxton had failed to meet his diversion agreement requirements, he could have faced trial, and if convicted, he could have spent decades behind bars. He would also have lost his position as Texas attorney gen- eral. Instead, the dismissal comes just two months after Paxton declared his cam- paign for Senate. He is vying to defeat longtime incumbent John Cornyn. Accord- ing to The New York Times, early polling by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates found that Pax- ton would lead Cornyn by 25 points in a Republican primary. ▼ PUBLIC TRANSIT THROWING DARTS AT DART ‘POISONOUS’ AND A ‘CLOWN SHOW’: COMMUNITY RESPONDS TO PROPOSED DART CUTS. BY ALYSSA FIELDS “C lown show” was the term used to describe the abrupt nature in which Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has rolled out proposed service and fare changes that would eliminate several bus routes, reduce frequency across several fixed routes, increase fares and double the costs of paratransit services for riders with disabilities. The plan was conceived in March amid the progression of the “DART Killer” bill in the Legislature, which was preceded by a yearlong funding battle with the city of Plano. DART officials are halfway through a series of 16 community meetings across all member cities, sharing details on the plan and collecting public opinion before a hear- ing before the DART board of directors on July 8. The board will cast a final vote in Au- gust. If approved, the changes will go into ef- fect in January 2026. “DART doesn’t take this change lightly, and we don’t undertake these changes just because,” Tracy Cantu, a community rela- tions representative, said at a meeting in Cockrell Hill on June 17. “There are several factors that have led up to us having to take these actions.” DART officials emphasized that the pro- posed cuts, totaling $60 million, are prepara- tion for the “worst-case scenario.” The changes, described on the DART website as “the largest service cuts in agency history,” are in response to a new general mobility pro- gram (GMP) and new, unfunded service de- mands. The GMP is a recently approved initiative that will “redistribute 5% of the agency’s an- nual sales tax revenue among seven member cities for a period of two years.” The initiative, which the board of directors voted in favor of in March, is likely in response to a failed piece of state legislation that would have cost DART billions in tax funding, said some of the critics at the community meetings. “DART celebrated its 40-year anniver- sary in 2023,” Mark Broadhurst, an Amal- gamated Transit Union Local 1338 board member and DART mechanic, told the Ob- server at the meeting. Broadhurst, who testi- fied against the DART Killer bill in Austin, has attended four of the community meet- ings. “My question is, after all these years, why now does Plano all of a sudden have a problem? They’ve mismanaged their budget and destroyed their infrastructure. They need money from someone, and have pointed their finger at DART.” How We Got Here D ART and the city of Plano have been at odds for over a year now. It started in 2024, when Plano became the first of 13 member cities to support reducing their contributions to the transit system by a quarter if the opportunity presented itself. DART estimated total losses at several bil- lion dollars if Plano and a few other cities that passed similar resolutions minimized their contributions. The conversation became much more than just conversation when state Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Republican from Plano, filed a bill, dubbed “DART Killer.” The bill would restructure the long-standing funding pro- cess. DART collects a 1-cent sales tax from its 13 member cities, but the bill would redi- rect 25% of that sales tax to a fund that re- spective member cities could use for other general mobility projects like the construc- tion of sidewalks, installation of streetlights and improvement of drainage. DART estimated the bill would have stalled or delayed $3.5 billion worth of trans- portation projects, eradicated 5,800 jobs, and reduced service levels by more than 30%. After a mass public outcry, the bill failed. It was the third time a bill of that na- ture failed, but it made more progress than other sessions’ versions. “This bill isn’t a tweak to funding. It’s a full-on dismantling of the DART system,” said Jeamy Molina, DART’s chief commu- nications officer, in a May press release. “The people of North Texas voted twice to fund a unified, regional transit system. House Bill 3187 completely ignores Gabriel Aponte/Getty Images We are going to start using the phrase “God doesn’t want us to pay for that,” just to see if it works for us too. Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
