LIVE: Houston woman files lawsuit after claiming officers held her face down in a pile of fire ants

are you all ready my name is Randall Kalin and I'm a civil rights lawyer and I'm here today with Taylor Rogers and members of the community because Taylor Rogers was stopped by the Santa Fe police and for no reason thrown on the ground right into a bed of fire ants in the middle of the day and then held there while she's screaming that there's fire ants on her they put they put handcuffs on her so she can't even brush them off her face and I just wanted to show you what this case is about here you go this and this is just some of the ant bites because these ant bites fire ant bites that is and us here in the South we all know what fire ants are and we know that actually on occasion they kill animals and even sometimes they can kill people with enough bites and I was counting these bites and I stopped at 300 300 bites and she can't brush them off her face and she's asking she's telling these officers there's ants on my face and they don't brush them off this was their punishment they knew what they're doing this was no mistake and so we're here today to uh ask Santa Fe Police Department to discipline its officers we saw the video we gave gave the media the video clip and it shows officers uh three or four officers just hanging around watching well she isn't danger you can see she's not armed she's uh not a large uh person she's a female and that officer is on top of her she's got her constrained she got got the handcuffs on and they're still in the ant bed is is it Torture yeah that's a strong word but I call it torture but the people can make up their own mind what the word is but when the police hold you down in a fire ant bed when you're saying fire ants ants screaming and they keep you there what is that and the Santa Fe police department has not disciplined any officer they have accepted this Behavior which means that there there are probably other situations where excessive horses used upon by officers because if if this is okay to do what they did to tailor then what else is okay punches in the face kicks shootings what else so we're here today to say hey Santa Fe Police Department get into the 21st century you need to discipline your officers and so uh we're here today to try to do something about that by raising awareness uh to the Santa Fe police department and we have a few people here to talk about uh police uh techniques and so forth and the first one will be Shelby Stewart can we before can we ask about the incident itself oh sure sure sure sure I think that would be that okay because according to the the lawsuit this was in 2021 yes all right that this was in front of the high school RJ at RJ wam okay can you get closer to no uh she's not going to uh talk about the cas because there's an ongoing case about let me give you the generalities according to the lawsuit it was about she wasn't pulled over so much she was going the wrong way in a circle time was that right and that was Santa Fe ISD Police at first and then said Santa Fe yeah that's correct there was both uh ISD Police there and the Santa Fe police and uh she didn't she never endangered a single person at the most she went in the uh wrong direction but and they changed their rulle all the time so it's understandable if she did go in the wrong direction but they and also they were uh extremely aggressive and it frightened her I mean they were pounding on her car and the this one officer pulls a gun on her and points it right at her but she's got her other kid in the child in the car I mean they're they're creating a dangerous situation like escalating it through the sky and apparently they have no deescalation uh training here and that's another thing they need is deescalation training so when she uh apparently for just a short period of time you know maybe move just a little bit all these squads show up next thing you know she's taken out of the car when she's not a danger to a single person as a matter of fact one of the squad cars runs into her when she's not even moving totaling her car now it didn't mean to smash the car to Pieces because the car was an older car so when I say total the the value of the repair would be more than the value of the car so that is basically uh what happened and so they put her on the ground once again and then you know what transpired what you know transpired and that's why went try cuz you start with San dpd and then sfpd gets called in at what time were they called for for like well we don't know the fine details of it yet because the reason being is we although we have a there's a civil lawsuit filed there are many protections that the government has when you even file a lawsuit against the government that the citizens don't have and one is that creates big delays in What's called the discovery process whereby you don't even get these uh pieces of information and and documents and and uh so forth until later and that's why we're now hearing about it even though it was 2021 this has been ongoing and well I mean the uh the lawsuit there's a two-year statute of limitations to file a lawsuit and this this particular lawsuit was filed near the end of the two years so it was only filed late last year uh and it was filed in Houston and then it was moved to the Galveston because Galveston has a federal courthouse and it started in Houston and really not much happened there and then it's been moved to the Galveston Courthouse and it moved to the galvon courthouse in January and you're asking for the disciplinary of the officers that were involved here was there a formal complaint bomb for a criminal investigation they they did an investigation and there was no discipline Meed out I mean uh I mean this is such a simple one look at the video this is not a he said she said this is what the video said just look at the videos of everything that happened no danger uh nobody uh nobody injured except for her no uh I mean there's look at the video there's four officers looking down you know not excited about anything while she's had has her face in the ants and the other officer is uh you know uh uh just holding her down in there and saying and she's saying ants I mean it's so obvious now there is this um uh maybe uh an old custom of the police that if you run or disrespect an officer you get excessive force used on you and maybe one of these officers will and I think that's really what it was as the other Officer says uh they just assumed that the first officer knew what he was doing and he's saying oh this woman whatever must deserve this punishment for whatever she did so that's why we're not reacting to it it's not that they didn't see it or that not they that they didn't realize it it's that this is the form of punishment you get when you don't you know stop immediately or you disrespect an officer which is a very archaic form like from the old west and that's why we say get into the 21st century Santa Fe and if I could just clarify too is that you said officer standing around and two things on the clip there it's a shorter clip is there more to oh yeah there's a whole bunch more yeah there's a whole bunch more and and how many F SFP officers are there and how many the exact number I do not know okay but they're both there what they're saying the ones are staying around are they Santa Fe PD or the CU they may have different rules of engagement I'm trying to get kind of the cont have different rules of same obligation yeah they have the same because they're both licensed peace officers as a matter of fact one of them some of them might have worked for one agency then transferred to the other so they don't change change the Constitution does not change depending upon which police agency you work for well actually sfpd as r that when they turned over any incident to sfpd they're just stand back unless they're ask for assistance that's why I'm asking that's their actual policy so well if that's a if that's a policy right but they don't up their policy not to intervene in other words like if you like let's say they were stab the police were shooting her and stabbing her what what are you saying that you say oh okay well I'm sorry we've turned it over no uh what if you're a police officer on the scene the law says you're required to intervene in unconstitutional Behavior at least by words I mean you're not required to tackle the other officer or or punch him but you you you could say something as hey get that lady out hey brush those fire ants off boom I mean and but they didn't do that they failed to intervene right and any of the information you've gathered so far as has come out have any of the other officers said post fact that hey yeah what I saw was wrong and I just didn't intervene or you have any of that information yet well I mean you can see on the video they didn't intervene so whether a person says I didn't intervene or not once again the video is right there where they're not intervening so uh plus you know officers generally stick together so the first thing they do is they don't start uh saying negative things about other officers if they wish to keep on working well I'm just saying you're saying that if they recognize it was legal they may not have thought that's why I'm trying to you're trying to put thought then they need then they needed some then they need severe training because uh uh if you put a a woman's face into an Ile and leave it there and get all bitten up and they don't know that they're not supposed to do that that is that would be bizarre and I I don't think they're going to say that what no no I'm I'm just going to your course of what you're saying is is that at any point it's any off all when you say say on the video no not on the well we haven't taken the deposition and so forth once again officers don't come forward in any one of my hundreds of cases even though I've won many cases for excessive no officer in any of those cases that's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of officers have ever come forward to me and admitted or to anywhere and admitted that what they did was wrong they stick together till the end and do you know the status of the officers did that you said one was promoted uh there's no been no discipline whatsoever even though they saw the video the department yes they are s has Santa Fe PD made any comment to you at all have they they reached out at all to her anything any contact tell us about that no there's been no contact but I'm I'm the only the recent lawyer there was a lawyer before and I don't know about all of his interactions in the case I've been on the case now for a few days why did you take over because the other other lawyer is not on the case any longer by his choice or do you want to switch up well uh what's a fair question I mean well I don't know what a fair question is but we don't have to sit here and answer every single single question I wish we could get conference yeah we did call the press conference and next we'll hear from Shelby Stewart my name is Shelby Stewart s h e l b y s t e w a r t I am a civil rights activist and I'm a retired Houston Police Sergeant where I spent 28 years at hbd when I looked at that video it was one of the most horrific things i' ever seen all these officers standing around while her face is in a mound of fire ants doing nothing it indicates these things the officer stood around like it's normal okay like they had they didn't have to take any type of action that means this department is full of goons and cowards the goons side did what happened to her on the fire an situation but the coward part is that none of those officers intervene to save this woman and since there's been no uh discipline on these officers they had the expectation that the chief wasn't going to do anything and he didn't do anything either Chief say it again there's two chiefs involved here one here one in the isv so neither Chief took he's one of them right there right High police is on scene okay did he stop him no he's the one who ran to my car that's why we're trying depart okay I would say this Santa Fe is crying to have Mery Garland and the G doj come down here and straighten out this Police Department because you don't have police officers these are not police officers that stood around and watched what happened to her and they bring shame to the badge as a as a trained as a trained police officer 28 years you said you had yes what would your reaction at that scene have been I would have stopped it I would have stopped I would have stopped them from first of all she shouldn't have been in a fire a or Pile in the first place I would have had them take her out that pile and process her but I also would have questions for the individual and would open up an investigation on the individual that put her in that mouth Sergeant did you see the full video or only the clip I C okay so in your experience with the HPD do you ever see something similar in which you actually stepped in and try to stop it I never saw anything like that so you've never I never saw anything where officers were standing around watching the law being broken and doing nothing okay so you've never experienced that in your 28 years no have you have you ever been in a situation like that where there's two two different departments is there any question as to who is in control or does does that matter I don't I I'm not certain that it that it really matters because we all should be under the same rules as far as criminal conduct is concern and how people that are arrested how they're treated it should be no difference in that so neither department has a quote out saying well it wasn't us it was them and well they it was them they do they have this they were standing there and they watched her her get brutalized they're responsible Sergeant let me just ask you have you've only seen the one clip have you looked at any other reports about so you basing the so judgment on this one clip yes all right so you is that normal tactic as well given your experience just looking at one thing and that's the evidence well look that one clip tells me everything her face is in the fire at Mountain other officers are standing around watching it not doing anything and so I mean I don't know how much I need to see but I saw guys that did not take the proper action if they say it was resisting arrest beforehand that's why she ended up on the ground then you don't know if that happened or not I don't I don't know how many police officers were there at the time I saw a bunch I mean how does she end up why does she end up why does her face end up asking it is the it is the courts who punish people officers do the investigation and arrest so but you're presenting him as an expert witness or witness in this thing and I'm in his experience cuz he wasn't there I'm trying to say he's experien as an HPD officer I'm asking him so would you normally base it on a short clip and that's how you make a decision if I see anybody not just her being abused by a police officer and five others are standing around doing nothing what more do I need to see if the officers were to claim that she struck first matter that doesn't mean they can whip her ass wasn't that hard offic standing around so but I'm just saying I'm just going through everything because we don't have their side obviously and so you're being presented here as an expert so I'm just trying to figure out what you do know all all I can go back what I see got uh yeah and Sergeant you've never had any exper Santa Fe PD do anything you're just talking about your background never had any experience with Santa Fe why don't you hand him that first one and ask him okay no no no I know I know I no I know I know you want to hold that I mean I don't know maybe maybe there's a big difference I knew I know I I already hi my name is Jeff Reese it's uh Jeff Reese r e I'm currently with the greater us and Coalition for justice former president of the US peace and Justice Center but I also was in the law enforcement firm was 26 years I was with the Harris County Sheriff's Office and uh you know the bad thing is people want to believe the best about the police okay and there's a Thin Blue Line that that if you work no matter what agency you work for you're going to come to the aid of another officer regardless of what agency he works for okay right and and so but there's a thing called po I don't know if you've ever heard of it it's called pissing off the police and and where I come from this is what happened when you angered an officer you know there was a saying you can you can beat the you can beat the rat but you can't beat the ride I don't know you ever heard that some of the old heads that that I I I work with one thing I also did I helped form the middle health unit for the sheriff's department I was a trainer at our Academy for for the CIT I did that for over two years and and I helped form the Train the trainer I've uh been a hostage negotiator and I've I've talked to people in crisis I was also a crisis hotline uh suicide counselor so the thing with this I think while I am here is there is a propensity to give the police the doubt and when something like this happens we are automatically give the police the doubt even you know we we don't want the police to be seen in a bad light all right they're the heroes but what we saw happen that day there was nothing heroic about what happened now you you mentioned she was going to be arrested or for resisting arrest no I didn't I just asked okay well many times people are arrested for resisting arrest but what were you going to arrest him for in the first place right and many times the judge dismissed the charges in this case this was so horrific I I couldn't believe what I saw on on these pictures when Randall sent them to me I was like dude no way I cannot believe that this happened even though it happened a couple years ago for me that's not surprising there there I have friends that are mothers that sons have been murdered for over two and three years and they're still waiting for an autopsy why because the police did it and this is kind of sad I I and um I know it's bad people want to believe the best of the police but what happened there was not the best I I think and and so if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them you know and and so but yes you said you said at the beginning that you had in your experience you you did training but you said there was the PO as you said yes where you came from did you ever see any incident like this and what did you do about it well no fire answer no but yes no but just in general of course I've seen people rip the skin off their face and you intervened every each time but you have to How Could You Stand By and not intervene and I say if you see this picture here how could you not intervene all you had to do is pick her up get her off there but number she's not a threat why would you have her face down you know she's not a felon she didn't have a weapon and she's at the school dropping her kids off right so common sense would tell you what you know you can interact with common sense hopefully but sometimes the officers in their way of thinking they view everyone as this terrific threat and and they're going to neutralize the threat and what evidence you see from this video only for yes just just a picture just a picture and in randle's word Randall's you know his word is good with me we've done many many you know cases together and um I mean what threat could she be you know and why was she pulled over in the first place you know did did she call in a bomb threat say hey I'm driving a white Mercedes and I'm coming with a bomb no she was just dropping her kid off and even if she went the wrong way that's far excessive and what what's bad is the police didn't do that they didn't sting her face but they put her in an ant bag and then when she asked to get off did they let her off no they pushed her down even further yes sir on this that uh when we talk about these what about any charges on her case and all what happened on those um uh what happened on her case is they charged chared um her with evading detention in a motor vehicle which uh she was in the motor vehicle and I don't know if she drove 10 feet or whatever uh but when the car uh but when she was stopped uh one of the one of the officers rammed into her and total out her vehicle and uh and so that was you know excessive that was the sfisd chief you mention I never left school property yeah so you didn't go again that that sounds like sounds like she ran ran but this is like to a well the uh the actual law evading with a motor vehicle sound you know you you might imagine oh those are those freeway chases where people crash and kill people no it can be anything just like let's say an off let's say you're in this camera truck here and an officer says Hey pull over you see some lights and you go well I'm going to drive one block so I can pull into this gas station they could you know based upon the law itself say no you vited detention cuz you saw me a whole block back there and during that whole block those 12 seconds you knew I was behind you trying to stop you for those 12 12 seconds and the law doesn't make any consideration it doesn't say you can go one block or anything so uh but she's currently on deferred adjudication which means that if she uh completes her her dation she have no conviction and we're not dealing with a rich person who going hire you know lawyers uh you know like dick de Garen or even if this is about any lawyer because she's a young woman trying to make it she's hardworking woman she got a a child and uh we're not talking about rich people here just she took a yeah well that's sort of like it but uh if she completes her her deal she won't even she won't be convicted and it'll be all over so that's good but uh anyway um so the next question okay so next we'll hear from do you want to speak I was just to ask to be clear uh she never around a public or anything like that well uh what do you say well it's a public school district right but it's not a public roadway yeah it's not a public it's not a public public roadway like we have here she was uh Avenue West yeah so anyway but no one was ever in danger yeah I mean it's not like you were on the road running right right now no yeah no I was just scared because the lady was you said they banged on your car right so you didn't know and pointed a gun at her with with her child with a child in the in the back so a L's just punching my car like from the back all the way to the front my son's in there I how do I open the door and I don't know what she was doing just to clarify me you say lady was an officer orand thought at the time it was like a security guard well uh let's not discuss the facts of the case because once again the case is under litigation but you did have a have a statement there say why didn't you come here and give your statement please sorry I just have it on my so hello my name is Taylor Rogers the morning of August 19th 2021 stands out in my memory as a day that underscored a significant issue the absence of empathy and human compassion among some individuals in law enforcement peace officers police officers are entrusted with maintaining peace through legal Authority they must not misuse this power to suppress or retaliate against victims of abuse instead they should be pillars of support whom we can turn to in times of need refraining from exacerbating conflicts with excessive force or Prejudice it's evident to everyone but is anyone taking action the distressing reality is that people across the nation are experiencing bullying abuse and even loss of life at the hands of those meant to protect them it's not just a failure of individual officers but also of the leadership and the First Responders who are called upon to resolve societal issues in disputes so what's the solution we urgently need enhanced police training focusing on deescalation techniques to diffuse tense situations with empathy and restraint Mental Health Training is crucial for officers to respond peacefully and effectively especially when encountering individuals facing mental illness abuse or hardship ultimately the answer lies in love the essence of God we must strive to make peace with our neighbors and extend compassion to those in need if we witness wrongdoing let us act but let our actions be rooted in kindness understanding and self-control I urge the Santa Fe Police Department along with all law enforcement agencies to embody the pr the principles they espouse within their own walls let us heed the words of Jesus who proclaimed blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God Matthew 59 in a world marred by violence and hatred let us embrace our role as agents of Peace as one Community let us Choose Love while I forgive those officers for their actions that day I refuse to remain silent in the face of the violation of my sons and my civil rights what the lawsuit claims that there was an incident before with the yeah there was a in incident before and I believe that's uh was a subject of a lawsuit correct was there a lawsuit okay so that that would be on file with the galon County Federal Courthouse it should be yeah so all that it was a federal law that's very involved you invol me and my mother they broke her teeth out gotcha yeah so um all righty well if you have any uh further questions uh wouldd be glad to entertain them explain she said her kid was in the car explain where their children did they see it where they were and that type of thing well I mean they're they're in the back seat so of course they saw everything I mean they're just they're awake I mean he's he or she's awake how old are they he's going to be 11 in July he was nine okay so there a 9-year-old in the back seat so he saw everything in fact at one point the officer refers say hey keep resisting it's the only reason that according to the lawsuit she stopped saying anything it went quiet because they said Your son's watching from the car then they you it kind of a kind of a well what well she was never convicted of uh or even in charge of resisting to my knowledge was no I'm just saying it went during the tap according to the lawsuit the recording hears an officers say hey quiet down your son seeing this basically I had hang on I I know you really want to say something but there's aw I just refer to the law and I know you just got in here R I know you just got it I'm just saying that was one kind of particular start out that yeah well he well she was can say anything and one thing they you know might want a psychological usage is you know maybe just to shame people like oh you tried to run away from us or disrespected us well you're not a good mother so look what you're doing basically it could be just like an insult I mean that's what the in the LW that he say hey your kid seeing this behave yourself right well I see it as I see it as like an officer insulting insult it's like you know because what's she supposed to do I mean uh they're they're they're pointing a gun at her they're ramming her car and clarify was an officer that pulled the gun I just want to make officer okay did officers offer any kind of first and if they did how long no but they didn't take her to the hospital when they saw all the bikes but or or I guess they didn't even take her to the hospital they must have they took you to the jail and in the jail of the hospital you go to hospit I didn't I went when I got out okay so they didn't even take her to the hospital they didn't do a medical check in oh my God I I didn't even know that cuz they just got the case some allergy like vadil because my face was swelling really bad yeah so uh and a lot of times officers will do that because when you go to the hospital then there becomes medical records of the incident whereas if she just goes home maybe she'll won't do it there'll be no medical records cuz when you you you don't want proof of what you've done and by going to the hospital taking to the hospital that would be proof when a doctor says oh look at all these ant bites and then document her injuries she went after I would take it now you do have those records on we do have medical records so so uh how long if she didn't getal ATT Hospital jail how long days two days two days you're in jail for two days okay all right if there's nothing further thank you so much for coming thank you all sorry St [Applause] [Music] he's co I don't know I just appreciate you can't Poli so you can put [Music] my hey can I ask you one thing I'm sorry hang just one second i' want to be on a hot no no I'm just trying to get a shot of the I know I was thinking the same thing I love it [Music] right no no no actually [Music]