Lane called the police over the incident but had to leave before they showed up because of his urinary and bowel issues. He eventually soiled himself. When two on-duty Dallas Police Department officers showed up to respond to Lane’s call, they laughed about the incident, which was caught on body camera footage. “So you guys made a guy pee himself?” one of the on-duty officers said with a laugh.
The two off-duty officers have been identified as James Smith and Juan Figueroa Luna, but the on-duty officers have yet to be identified. So far, the repercussions for the officers involved have been slow to arrive.
The officers were initially cleared of any wrongdoing until body camera footage of the incident was shown during an August meeting of the city’s Community Police Oversight Board. The footage attracted national attention and prompted DPD to reopen an internal affairs investigation into the officers.“The Dallas Police Department failed me." – DyNell Lane, veteran
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“The Dallas Police Department failed me,” Lane told the board in August.
Now, those officers have received written reprimands and will need to attend sensitivity training, DPD Internal Affairs Division Major Irene Alanis told the board at its meeting Tuesday night. Alanis didn’t have many specifics about the training, but said, “The academies will have to work with the assistant chief to see exactly what direction he's wanting to go in and what training those officers are to attend.”
Texas and many other states have what are called Ally’s Laws, allowing people with certain disabilities access to employee restrooms in retail spaces when public ones aren’t available, according to KERA. Lane, who was deployed in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq, was injured in the line of duty. He later had surgery on his lower extremities, the station reported.
Alanis said the officers will be afforded the opportunity to appeal their disciplinary action. Lane had previously called for the officers to be fired.
The reprimand is a form of discipline that will go into the officers' file but won’t affect their pay by default, according to The Dallas Morning News. It’s more severe than “summary discipline,” which entails advice and counseling or a supervisor’s report, the News explained. However, it’s a step below suspension.
For some, the decision marks an unsatisfying conclusion to a drawn-out investigation that lasted months and prompted complaints from board members and the board as a whole. “Just know, this isn’t good enough,” board member Jonathan Maples said of the disciplinary action at Tuesday night’s meeting.
In January, the board sent a memo to DPD Police Chief Eddie Garcia, copying the City Council, detailing its concerns with the investigation, primarily that it was taking too long. “The board perceives the progress and updates as unresponsive and lacking transparency, causing unease for the board, the complainant, and the residents of Dallas,” the memo said.
Alison Grinter, the board representative for Dallas’ District 9, told the Observer on Wednesday that the punishment was not commensurate with the officers' actions. However, it may have been easier to swallow if it had come in a more timely manner.
“Obviously, Mr. Lane wants these officers fired, but I think that a written reprimand would have been a more acceptable compromise if it had come in a respectably short amount of time,” Grinter said by text. “The delay here is really the tragedy. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a policy in place that will keep this from happening to someone else and I know that that is one of Mr. Lane's goals as well and I don’t think that’s been answered.”
