Dallas (WBAP/KLIF News) – A Dallas police officer is suing the department, and Chief David Brown, for pay he says he’s owed from a wrongful firing in 2014. Jesus Martinez was fired after a video of him arresting a panhandler went viral.
“We believe it was a rush to judgment,” said attorney Andy Atkins. “It was really to, sort of appease the mob. There were lots of these incidents all over the country, and people were calling officers out. Unfortunately, in this case, Officer Martinez did nothing wrong.”
Atkins says Martinez was fully cleared, and got his job back after appealing the firing. But he says the city still owes him a substantial amount of back pay.
Martinez says the firing put him and his family into a tough financial situation, so he took part time work to make ends meet. When he was cleared and won his appeal, he got his back pay, but the money he earned working part-time had been deducted. He says active duty officers who work part-time aren’t penalized, and he shouldn’t be, either.
At a press conference at Three Links Deep Ellum, business owners and residents of the neighborhood Martinez patrols turned out to support their neighborhood officer. One woman wore a T-shirt saying “Jesus is my Homeboy”.
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