Unfair Park from p6 At the same time, given recent legislation, it’s fair to wonder how the governor’s office can live up to its vision of “[leading] the nation” with an “effective, survivor-centered, trauma- informed response to sexual violence.” Specifically, academics, experts and advo- cates argue that laws like Senate Bill 8 and, more broadly, the backlash against abortion can harm rape survivors and even curb report- ing. As illustrated by a late 2021 story from NPR, this backlash has recently intensified in a way that is out of step with public opinion in Texas and throughout the country — and even with many in the Republican Party. “For decades, public opinion — even in Texas — has been pretty consistent about al- lowing some exceptions to laws that restrict abortion,” the NPR story notes. The article quotes Carole Joffe, a professor and sociologist who studies abortion policy at the Bixby Cen- ter for Global Reproductive Health at the Uni- versity of California, San Francisco. Joffe told NPR that, “despite public opinion on the mat- ter, most of the anti-abortion bills introduced across the country in recent years haven’t in- cluded exceptions for rape or incest. “I think what Texas shines a bright spot- light on is what disdain we have for the needs of women and girls, or people who can get pregnant even if they don’t identify as female,” Joffe said. “The kind of restric- tions we are seeing are the product of grow- ing power in state legislatures of the anti-abortion movement.” The same story goes on to note that “the problem of pregnancies arising from sexual assault is not a small one. One study estimates that almost 3 million women in the U.S. have become pregnant following a rape.” And according to the article, that “grow- ing power in state legislatures of the anti- abortion movement” started happening in Texas roughly 10 years ago — right around the same time the state’s backlog of 20,000 untested rape kits came to light. That revela- tion gave even more steam to the work done by Masters and Neave, work that is drasti- cally different from the anti-abortion move- ment, but also inextricably linked. “The survivors, workers, and advocates I spoke to are concerned that, as abortion is restricted, people with uteruses may face less access to other basic medical care and may be deterred from reporting their abus- ers or undergoing rape testing, lest it be used against them if they ever become pregnant and wish to terminate,” Herchenroeder wrote in The New Republic. If the anti-abortion movement continues to dominate the Texas Legislature, more survivors’ advocates might share those wor- ries. That said, it might be foolish to bet against Masters, who has already proven an ability to do the unthinkable: unite Demo- crats and Republicans. “In regard to the Supreme Court’s recent 88 decision, I was very disappointed that they had no consideration for victims of rape, sex trafficking, incest and a woman’s serious health conditions,” Master says. “I believe that this should be an option for the victims of these circumstances if they so choose to exercise their rights after their trauma.” She says she feels the same way about the restrictive abortion law signed by Gov. Abbott. “This subject matter has been brought up to the task force and is still in talks on how we can empower victims after such a devas- tating blow.” ▼ CRIME ‘OFFICIAL OPPRESSION’ I A DALLAS CITY MARSHAL WAS CHARGED OVER AN ARREST IN WHICH HE ALLEGEDLY USED EXCESSIVE FORCE. BY JACOB VAUGHN n February 2021, as plunging tempera- tures brought on by Winter Storm Uri froze much of Dallas, Dallas’ homeless residents headed to the Kay Bailey Hutchi- son Convention Center for warmth. Among them was Deshode Rayvon Pat- ton, who was 29 at the time. Patton’s stay at the convention center was cut short for a trip to jail courtesy of Dallas city marshal’s officers. They said he resisted arrest. Patton says that wasn’t true and that one of the offi- cers, Charles Ibarra, used excessive force during the arrest. “I really got the ass end of all of it,” Patton recalled by phone to the Observer. “I went to jail for that.” Late last month, over a year after Patton was charged, the Dallas Police Department arrested Ibarra for official oppression and tampering with a government document re- lating to Patton’s arrest. Ibarra’s telling of the events that day are detailed in police reports of the incident ob- tained through an open records request. Here’s what Ibarra said happened at the convention center. Around 2 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2021, officers with the Dallas City Marshal’s Office re- sponded to a complaint about smoke coming from one of the restrooms at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. One of them was Ibarra. The other was identified as J. Calloway. When they entered the restroom, the two heard a flush and smelled “fresh cig- arette smoke,” according to a DPD report of the incident. Then, they saw Patton exiting one of the stalls. Patton was apparently the only other person in the restroom. When of- ficers checked the stall, they found what looked like loose tobacco in the toilet. Officers escorted Patton out of the con- vention center to identify him and issue a ci- tation for smoking in a prohibited place. The report claims Patton became agitated and started yelling at officers. Then, it says offi- cers tried to “usher [Patton] toward the doors.” Patton turned toward the officers “with closed fists,” the report claims. Offi- cers told him to turn around and continue out the convention center doors because he was causing a disturbance, it says. Things es- calated from there. “As [arresting officer Ibarra] again ush- ered [Patton] towards the doors, he tensed up and began to raise his hand which was still in a fist,” the report says. “[Arresting of- ficer Ibarra] utilized an open hand take down and commanded [Patton] to turn over and place his hands behind his back. After several repeated commands, [Patton] re- fused to comply. After a brief struggle, [Pat- ton] was placed in hand restraints and escorted out of the convention center.” A separate records request turned up a similar report of the same incident. This report Dallas County Sheriff Dallas City Marshal’s Officer Charles Ibarra was arrested and charged with official oppression and tampering with a government record. came from the Dallas City Marshal’s Office. There are some key differences, though. For one thing, it’s a lot more direct. Another thing: it redacts Ibarra’s use of force without much of an explanation. It starts: “At approximately 2 p.m., ar- rested person Patton, Deshode was found smoking in the restroom of a public building and did intentionally resist officers in full police uniform by tensing up, pulling away and refusing to comply with commands.” The report also identifies Calloway as one of the other arresting officers. Calloway was the one who found the loose tobacco in the toilet, according to the report. It then de- tails how Patton became agitated, the same way the DPD report describes it. The rest of the incident, ostensibly the part where Ibarra uses force, is blacked out. Either way, a DPD public integrity inves- tigation into the incident that was con- cluded last month found that body camera footage didn’t support Ibarra’s claim that Paxton was resisting arrest. “It appears a false entry was made,” the DPD public in- tegrity investigation said. Patton told the Observer that on the day of the arrest he was just using the restroom when the cops came in. Someone was smok- ing in the restroom, but it wasn’t him, Patton said. Ibarra and Calloway didn’t believe Pat- ton, so they asked him to leave and began es- corting him out. Patton said he had his hands in the air. Then, he turned around and was slammed to the ground three or four times, he said. “It was real excessive force,” said Patton, who is still homeless. “There’s like five, six of them and only one of me.” The Observer’s efforts to get the body camera footage that covered this incident were rejected. Both the city and DA’s office said there was a pending investigation, which barred the release of the body camera footage. That’s because Patton was still fac- ing a warrant for his arrest over the incident with Ibarra until May this year. The charges against Patton have since been dismissed, but now the body camera footage is being used in the case against Ibarra. An anonymous complaint filed with the city auditor’s office claims several of the marshal’s office’s top brass received verbal and written complaints about Ibarra’s ac- tions and saw footage of the arrest but deter- mined he did nothing wrong. The ethics complaint names four individu- als at the Dallas City Marshal’s Office: Marshal Gary Lindsey, Sgt. David Hobbs, Chief Clifton Knight and Chief Scott Whitworth. It claims that Lindsey, Hobbs, Knight and Whitworth violated several city policies, including derelic- tion, corruption and falsification of docu- ments, all in an attempt to cover for Ibarra. The complaint says that someone re- ported an illegal arrest to Knight, the arrest of Patton by Ibarra. Hobbs investigated, ac- cording to the complaint, and “protected Charles Ibarra … by stating in the report that Charles did nothing wrong.” Knight signed the report, the complaint said. “David, Clifton, Gary, and Scott saw the vid- eos of the illegal arrest and said that Charles did no wrongdoing because even though it was apparent that the arrest was wrong, Charles was covered due to the relation be- tween David, Clifton, Gary, [and] Scott,” the complaint says. It also says that Ibarra and Hobbs are close, which created a conflict of in- terest when Hobbs was the one investigating the claims against Ibarra. The complaint says, for example, that Ibarra would often refer to Hobbs as “dad.” Hobbs would call Ibarra “ju- nior,” according to the complaint. In April, Lindsey resigned to “pursue other opportunities” and was replaced by DPD’s David Pughes as the interim city marshal, according to a memo sent by City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Pughes was most recently the director of the Office of Inte- grated Public Safety Solutions. He was also the interim chief of police for DPD. Reached for comment, Lindsey said he’s now doing investigative work for a law firm. The anonymous ethics complaint, he said, didn’t have the facts straight — he had every intention of investigating Ibarra. “Somebody had filed a complaint with ethics saying that I wasn’t going to do a fair investigation,” Lindsey said. “I had gotten the body camera video put together and then the ethics complaint got filed, and they said, ‘We need to send that over to the police department’ and it got transferred. That was the bottom line to it. I started the investiga- tion, then it got moved.” The other officers named in the ethics complaint didn’t respond to the Observer’s requests for comment. Lindsey attributes the ethics complaint to a disgruntled employee. B efore working at the Dallas City Mar- shal’s Office, Ibarra was an officer with the Dallas Independent School District Police Department. In 2015, when Ibarra was still with DISD, he tried to pull over 20-year-old Phillip Wil- son near Spruce High School. According to The Dallas Morning News, Wilson “ignored [Ibarra’s] commands” and a fight broke out between the two. According to the News, witnesses told po- lice that Wilson was on top of Ibarra, punch- ing him. That’s when Ibarra fired his gun. The shot missed Wilson, who tried to flee, the News reported. Ibarra was left with minor scrapes and bruises, and Wilson was charged with assault on a public servant. >> p10 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 AUGUST 11–17, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
