Larry Taylor Jr., managing partner with the Cochran Firm in Dallas, has worked on police misconduct cases for about a decade. He said it’s difficult in many places for police misconduct suits to result in actual relief for the victim or for a dead victim’s family. “These cases are extremely difficult, because in large part, law enforcement gets the benefit of a doubt,” he said.
The case drew national headlines in 2015 after Houston authorities criminally charged Pean and attempted to justify the off-duty officers’ decision to shoot an unarmed man in his hospital room. Off-duty Houston Police Department Officers Roggie Law and Oscar Ortega responded. They were working as paid security for the hospital at the time. The officers entered Pean’s hospital room and closed the door. There were no hospital staff members or cameras in the room with them.
None of these charges would stick—a Harris County grand jury dismissed the assault charges, and the Harris County Criminal Court nixed the reckless driving charge. But Pean was still forced to post bond. He later had to travel from New York back to Texas to surrender himself when he found out about the reckless driving charge.
Didn't the Federal government threaten to withhold funding to St. Joseph's because of this?