Sep 21, 2007 7:29 pm US/Central
Did Southlake Teens Get Special Police Treatment?
by Chris Salcedo
SOUTHLAKE (CBS 11 News) ―
CBS 11 News has learned that several officers with the Southlake Police Department have asked the Tarrant County District Attorney to investigate alleged preferential treatment in some cases at the department.
This centers around a case involving five teenagers, four 17-year-olds and one 15-year-old. They were arrested at the future site of Saint John's Baptist Church in Southlake. The teens would have had to scale a security fence around the site to gain access. They were subsequently arrested and charged with criminal trespassing and evading arrest.
However, the final charge for these teens was
attempted criminal trespassing, leaving some to think that they received special treatment because the father of one of the teens is the CEO of 7-Eleven, Inc.
According to Chief Wade Goolsby of the Southlake Police Department, this type of thing happens all the time.
He said that the District Attorney had suggested that an officer lower the charge, as it would be more appropriate and easier to get a conviction for the teens. "The attorney he was speaking to, which was a different intake attorney than the one that had originally accepted it, was telling him that, more than likely, this case will end up dismissed somwhere down the road," Goolsby said. "And somewhere in that conversation, it was suggested that we take it and file a Class C charge, which was one step below what it was."
Attempts to get confirmation of an investigation were unsuccessful. Curt Stallings at the District Attorney's office was familiar with the allegations, but said that it was being handled by someone else in the department.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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