Dallas police officer suspended 45 days after investigation into problematic motel search

Dallas police Chief Eddie García suspended an officer for 45 days and disciplined five others this week after an internal investigation into a problematic 2020 motel search.

Officer Jacob Hughes’ suspension was the most serious level of discipline for the group. Officers Nathan Newman, Bradley Williams, Thomas Foster, Moses Munoz and Dylan Nelson received discipline ranging from a written reprimand to three-day suspensions, their attorney Robert Rogers confirmed to The Dallas Morning News.

Police officials raised questions about the search in 2021 after noticing issues during a routine review of body-camera footage. The footage revealed officers entered a motel room without a search warrant after handcuffing a man suspected of shooting a gun, and some details were left out of police reports, according to court records.

Hughes’ criminal attorney previously said the handcuffed man consented that officers could open the room door.

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SUBMIT

“In 2020, these dedicated officers quickly responded to an active shooter situation and their brave efforts ensured that no one was injured,” Rogers said in a written statement. “It should not have taken 2 ½ years to reach a resolution on a clear training issue.”

The officers can appeal García’s decisions. García did not provide comment through police spokeswoman Kristin Lowman, who declined to release the decisions and referred a reporter to the open-records unit for any details.

The case was one of multiple heard internally this week in disciplinary hearings held by the chief.

Officer Javier Granados was fired Monday in connection with a misdemeanor family violence assault charge. Senior Cpl. Allison Brockford was terminated the next day on allegations related to her arrest on a DWI charge.

The chief this week also handed down a five-day suspension to Officer Caleb McCollum, who was investigated for making and trying to sell a challenge coin decried by the Black Police Association as racist.

Asked about the number of hearings held this week, Lowman said “they are scheduled when there is time available for all parties.” Hughes and the other officers were placed on leave in August or September 2021, which makes the motel case one of the oldest that awaited a disciplinary decision, according to police documents obtained by The News.

Rogers said Hughes was on administrative leave the entire time. The other officers were on leave more than a year until a grand jury cleared them in August on allegations of official oppression, he said, adding it was a combination of delays on the criminal and administrative side of the investigation.

Questions surface about motel search

Hughes originally faced a criminal charge of tampering with a government document in connection with the search, but the district attorney’s office rejected the case, Rogers said. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot’s office declined to comment through a spokeswoman on the status of Hughes’ case.

Court documents show the six officers were placed under criminal review in the case of Terry Yearling, a man arrested Dec. 9, 2020, on a firearm possession charge while he was on parole.

Officers responded that day to a call of a man shooting a gun about 8:50 p.m. on the third floor of a motel in the 8500 block of Interstate 30, according to an arrest report.

Officers found shell casings on the floor in front of a room, police wrote in the report. Munoz and Williams knocked on the door of the room close to the casings, the report says.

Yearling opened the door, then quickly shut it, according to the report. Officers heard what sounded like a handgun and stepped back from the door while yelling commands at Yearling.

Yearling opened the door again and put his hands up, but started to lower them toward his waistband, according to the arrest report. Newman took down Yearling and handcuffed him, the report says.

Police swept the room and found a gun holster, but not a gun, according to court records filed in 2022 related to Yearling’s appeal. Body-camera footage later revealed that Yearling at first refused to reveal the gun’s location, and officers took him into the hallway, the records say. The room door closed and locked automatically behind them.

Yearling then told police the gun was under the mattress, and police obtained a room key from the motel clerk and re-entered the room without a search warrant, according to the court records.

Court arguments

Yearling was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of discharging a firearm, which was upgraded to a felony because he had prior felony convictions. He took a plea deal in 2020 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Toby Shook, who was Hughes’ lawyer for the criminal charge, previously told The News that the investigation centered on whether officers needed a search warrant after the door locked.

Shook said Hughes was assigned to write an arrest report, but he did not include that an officer retrieved a card to open the locked door, only that Yearling gave consent. Hughes wrote the report from memory and did not have access to any of the officers’ body-worn cameras at the time, Shook said.

Police did not give prosecutors the body-camera footage until about four months after the plea, when a detective notified the district attorney’s office that officers misrepresented parts of the arrest, according to the court records for Yearling’s appeal.

Yearling was unaware of the body-camera footage when he entered the guilty plea, and argued he would’ve fought the case had he known the search was illegal, according to court records. Yearling’s appellate attorney Bruce Anton previously said his goal was to get Yearling released because he believed the police search was illegal.

A state district judge later ruled Yearling’s rights were violated and he was being unlawfully detained in part because police misrepresented facts in reports. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted relief last year, and Yearling is no longer in prison, said Brett Ordiway, one of his appellate attorneys.

“We are happy that the Dallas Police Department has held these officers accountable in some small way, but the disciplinary actions pale in comparison to the year and a half Mr. Yearling spent incarcerated at the hands of the officers’ deceit,” Ordiway said Friday in a written statement. “He will never get that time back.”