The woman you see at right, in a mugshot posted to the Collin County website, is Sergeant Stormy Magiera, a Dallas Police officer since September 2000. According to an email dispatched by the DPD this morning, Magiera was detained by Garland Police and arrested by Murphy PD on a warrant out of Murphy. The charge: "Assault Causes Bodily Injury-Family Violence," a Class A misdemeanor for which bond has been set at $1,500.
If the name sounds familiar, that's because it is; Magiera, as a matter of fact, has been on administrative leave for a month, following a 1 a.m. incident on December 28 at the intersection of Forest and Audelia. As DPD described it at the time in a media release that still lives in my in-box:
While at the light the officer was approached by a suspect with a knife demanding money. The officer and suspect became involved in a struggle. The officer fired their weapon at the suspect and the suspect fled on foot. It is unknown if the suspect was struck by gunfire. The officer sustained minor injuries in the struggle.But only a few days ago it was revealed that perhaps Magiera wasn't being entirely truthful about the incident -- and that the man with whom Magiera got into the tussle escaped with her Sig Sauer .357, which was later recovered. The officer, a November recipient of the department's Medal of Valor after she helped rescue residents of a burning South Dallas apartment in 2011, has denied any wrongdoing; as she told The News, "You either love me or you hate me, and there's no in between. And I'm OK with that." But now she will be the subject of yet another Internal Affairs investigation for reasons that remain unclear; several messages have been left for Murphy PD.
We first wrote about Magiera two years ago, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that her discrimination suit against the city could go forward. The suit stemmed from a 2005 incident that resulted in her claiming sexual harassment and retaliation, including her being removed as a field training officer because, said one supervisor, "she lacked the proper temperament."