New testimony is raising never-before-heard allegations in the case involving a Fort Worth police officer who was suspended 10 days for using excessive force in his arrest of Jacqueline Craig and her two teenage daughters.
Officer William Martin is appealing his punishment.
This is a complex case that's caused the police department a lot of controversy. At issue in the hearing is whether to reverse Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald's ruling that Martin used excessive force.
But lots of new details and allegations came out in Thursday's testimony, including about Jacqueline Craig's behavior that day.
This story starts as a dispute between neighbors, after Itamar Vardi allegedly grabbed Craig's 7-year-old son by the neck for littering in his yard.
A second neighbor testified about what he saw the Craig family do next.
"They surrounded him, a lot of really loud shouting, a lot of abusive language toward my neighbor," said neighbor Gary Ryan.
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Ryan stepped in to try and to break it up and says Craig threatened him and Vardi.
"She was going to kill us," Ryan said.
Ryan was one of several people to call 911, including the Craig family. He said he was impressed with how Martin handled the scene.
"He came into a very bad situation. He was able to control it," Ryan said.
But Martin himself admitted on Wednesday that he escalated the situation when he asked Craig why she didn't teach her son not to litter, instead of checking if the boy was OK when she said he'd been choked. Martin also questioned why littering didn't give Craig's neighbor a right to touch her son.
"I regret my choice of words," Martin said Wednesday. "I shouldn't have asked her that."
Martin, though, denies using excessive force. Thursday afternoon, the Fort Worth Police Department's use of force expert, Cpl. John Pogue, testified that he agreed. He said he reviewed the videos of the crowded scene and didn't see any violations.
"Did Officer Martin use excessive force?" asked attorney Terry Daffron.
"No, ma'am," Pogue answered.
Daffron also raised allegations that Assistant Police Chief Abdul Pridgen and Deputy Police Chief Vance Keys, who were both demoted for allegedly leaking information in the case, also tried to influence the outcome.
The internal affairs investigator in charge, Detective Jake White, pointed out several things he said were unusual, including that Pridgen and Keys tried to get Craig and her daughters released from jail the first night before all the facts were gathered.
White also said that he felt rushed and that, if given more time, he would have interviewed more witnesses.
"I would make sure that we're turning over every stone," White said. "In an investigation that's rushed like this, I didn't have that opportunity."
Throughout Thursday's testimony, the city's attorney kept trying to narrow the focus and bring it back to how Martin treated the Craig family that day. An emotional Jacqueline Craig testified Wednesday that a dog would have gotten more respect.
"I felt worthless as a parent to know that I called somebody as help for my son and I didn't get it," Craig said in her testimony. "My children were there, and it was to the point that I couldn't protect my kids. And that's my job to protect them, and he took that away from me."
