DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Moats Hasseled by Cop...mother-in-law dying

Moats Hassled By Cop Outside Hospital Where Family Member Was Dying
Posted by Mike Florio on March 26, 2009, 9:52 a.m. EDT
Texans running back Ryan Moats recently was involved in a disturbing incident with a Dallas police officer, and the situation sufficiently disturbed the officer’s superiors to result in a temporary reassignment, pending a full investigation.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Moats drove with his wife, her grandfather, and her great-aunt to Baylor Regional Medical Center, where Moats’ mother-in-law was dying of breast cancer at age 45.

Moats drove with the hazard lights on, and at one point he went through a red light. Robert Powell, a 25-year-old officer, followed Moats until he parked outside the hospital’s emergency room.

The ensuing confrontation was memorialized via a dashboard camera. It went a little something like this.

“Just give me a ticket or whatever,” Moats said.

“Shut your mouth,” Powell said. “You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light.”

“If you’re going to give me a ticket, give me a ticket.”

“Your attitude says that you need one.”

“All I’m asking you is just to hurry up.”

“If you want to keep this going, I’ll just put you in handcuffs, and I’ll take you to jail for running a red light. . . . Understand what I can do. I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult.”

Thirteen minutes after Moats arrived, the officer finally let him enter the facility. In the interim, hospital security guards and a Plano police officer explained to Powell that Moats’ mother-in-law truly was dying inside the hospital.

By the time Moats and his mother-in-law’s father had gotten inside the hospital, Moats’ mother-in-law had died.

Moats and his wife, who are black, believe that Powell, who is white, might have been motivated by the racial differences. Either way, Moats thinks Powell should be fired.

Dallas police are investigating.

“When people are in distress, we should come to the rescue,” Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson told the Dallas Morning News. “We shouldn’t further their distress.”

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/2...mber-was-dying/

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Robert Powell, a 25-year-old officer

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Over eager rookie cop, perhaps?

I don't know. Did Moats tell the officer that his mother-in-law was dying to start off with? If the officer was reasonable he probably would've let the guy go immediately. Although, he was parked at a hospital ... dunno. If I were a cop and someone pulled to stop at a hospital, I'd first ask what the problem is and is it life-threatening. If it was, I'd ask how I could help.

Just as long as the Reverend Al Sharpton doesn't get a hold of this.

Well, the security for the hospital was vouching for Moats. Don't know if they came into the scene near the end, at the beginning, or somewhere in between.

What bothers me about this is that Moats wasn't trying to get out of getting a ticket. He just wanted things to proceed faster. The cop should have just gave him the ticket. Moats than could show up in court to fight the ticket if he chose, but the officer would have done his job and moved on without incident.

Sounds like an officer with short-man's disease.

I hope this officer is fined and suspended. If not fired outright.

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Understand what I can do. I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult.”

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A lot of cops have power issues. It's what turns a cop into a pig.

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“Just give me a ticket or whatever,” Moats said.

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I dunno, but I think if you look at the officier and say,, I'm sorry, I know I was wrong to run that light, but I wanted to get my wife here in a hurry,,, you see, her mother is in there dying and time is of the essence... Please, come in and see for yourself...

THen if the cop takes that same attitude,,, then yeah, there may be some racial overtones to it.

But I think the tact that Moats took may have caused the officer to think differently and react differently.

I wish we could see the video... voice inflection can make all the difference...

Looks sort of like I'm coming in on the other side of the popular opinion again...

First, the story is lacking information, such as..... Had the officer already taken his license and registration back to the car to look it up or was this the initial walk up to the window?

It does appear that the cop didn't ask and Moats didn't volunteer that somebody was dying until well into the conversation... It just appears that Moats wanted to leave in a hurry.

Now I'm sorry but if I've got a driver who just ran a red light and is begging for a ticket just so I'll leave him alone and let him go, then that throws up a red flag to me.. why is he in such a rush to leave? My first thought would be that he doesn't want me looking any deeper into something, whatever that might be.

So I'd say the officer might be at fault for not putting 2 and 2 together, man in a hurry in front of the hospital... but Moats didn't help the situation... in fact based on what this article says, he made it worse.

**Disclaimer - I reserve the right to change my opinion if/when new information comes available.

I agree with ya DC. From what was told i don't see where the cop really did anything wrong. If i was a cop and i pulled someone over and the person got an attitude with me as soon as i walked up i think i would be inclined to have one back too.

If this pans out the way it looks like it is going to then there will be an unemployed 25 year old that will have learned a big lesson in humility and the consequences of being an assbag.

Even if that's the case, which is very possible ... and I could see the red flag with, "just give me a ticket so I can get out of here" ... coming back with the attitude of "well I can arrest you, or tow your car, or pull out my tazer, etc" just wreaks of power-trip syndrome and should have no place in law enforcement.

Dallas police: Officer drew gun during traffic stop of NFL player outside hospital

12:17 PM CDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009
By STEVE THOMPSON and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News


The Dallas Police Department confirmed Thursday that an officer drew a gun on NFL running back Ryan Moats and his wife after he stopped them to give them a ticket even as they begged to hurry to the bedside of their dying mother.


NFL player pulled over while rushing to see dying mother-in-law
03/26/2009
Unedited Dallas police dashboard camera video shows traffic stop of NFL player Ryan Moats



As he rushed his family to the hospital, Ryan Moats, 26, rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the emergency room at the Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano.

“He was pointing a gun at me as soon as I got out of the car,” said his wife, Tamishia Moats. “It was the weirdest feeling because I’ve never had a gun pointed at me before under those circumstances.”

Seconds later, Ryan Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital.

“You really want to go through this right now?” Moats pleaded. “My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!”

A Dallas police spokesman said that Officer Robert Powell told his commanders that he drew his gun, but did not point it. Lt. Andy Harvey said it is not unusual for officers to draw a gun without pointing it. Drawing a gun is not unusual in traffic stops where officers feel threatened.

Officer Powell could not be reached for comment.

Powell, 25, spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest during the incident.

“I can screw you over,” the officer told Moats. “I’d rather not do that.”

The scene last week, captured by a dashboard video camera, prompted apologies and the promise of an investigation from Dallas police officials.

“There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least,” said Harvey.

Moats’ mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, was struggling at 45 with breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. Family members rushed to her bedside from as far away as California.

On March 17, the Moatses had gone to their Frisco home to get some rest. Around midnight, they received word that they needed to hurry back to the hospital if they wanted to see Collinsworth before she died.

The couple, along with Collinsworth’s father and an aunt, jumped into the SUV and headed back toward the hospital. They exited the Dallas North Tollway, just down the street from the hospital.

Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.

Powell, watching traffic from a hidden spot, flipped on his lights and sirens. In less than a minute, he caught up to the SUV and followed for about 20 more seconds as Moats found a parking spot outside the emergency room.

Tamishia, 27, was the first out. Powell drew his gun and yelled at her to get back in.

“Get in there!” he yelled. “Let me see your hands!”

“My mom is dying,” she explained to him.

Powell was undeterred.

“I saw in his eyes that he really did not care,” Tamishia Moats said. “Honestly, I don’t think I cared that he had a gun pointed at me. My train of thought is that I’m going to see my mom in the hospital before she dies.”

Tamishia Moats and her great-aunt ignored the officer and headed into the hospital.

“It was almost like a movie,” she said, “It felt like we had robbed a bank or something.”

Ryan Moats, who stayed behind with the father of the dying woman, said Powell also pointed his gun at him. He said he put his hands on the car because he was afraid that he might get shot.

“I put my hands on the car so he couldn’t say I reached for something,” Ryan said. “He didn’t ask me to put my hands on the car. I just did it to try to protect myself. I was pleading with him.”

He tried to explain the situation to the officer.

“I waited until no traffic was coming,” Moats told Powell, explaining his passage through the red light. “I got seconds before she’s gone, man.”

Powell demanded his license and proof of insurance. Moats produced his license but said he didn’t know where the insurance paperwork was.

“Just give me a ticket or whatever,” he said, beginning to sound exasperated and a little argumentative.

“Shut your mouth,” Powell told him. “You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light.”

There was more back and forth.

“If you’re going to give me a ticket, give me a ticket.”

“Your attitude says that you need one.”

“All I’m asking you is just to hurry up.”

Powell began a lecture.

“If you want to keep this going, I’ll just put you in handcuffs,” the officer said, “and I’ll take you to jail for running a red light.”

Powell made several more points, including that the SUV was illegally parked. Moats replied “Yes sir” to each.

“Understand what I can do,” Powell concluded. “I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult.”

“I understand,” Moats responded. “I hope you’ll be a great person and not do that.”

Hospital security guards arrived and told Powell that the Moatses’ relative really was upstairs dying.

Powell spent several minutes inside his squad car, in part to check Moats for outstanding warrants. He found none.

Another hospital staffer came out and spoke with a Plano police officer who had arrived.

“Hey, that’s the nurse,” the Plano officer told Powell. “She said that the mom’s dying right now, and she’s wanting to know if they can get him up there before she dies.”

“All right,” Powell replied. “I’m almost done.”

As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture.

“Attitude’s everything,” he said. “All you had to do is stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have let you go.”

It had been about 13 minutes.

Moats and Collinsworth’s father went into the hospital, where they found Collinsworth had died, with her daughter at her side.

The Moatses, who are black, said Wednesday that they can’t help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them.

“I think he should lose his job,” said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native who attended Bishop Lynch High School and now plays for the Houston Texans.

Powell was hired in January 2006. Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson said Powell told police officials that he believed that he was doing his job. He has been re-assigned to dispatch pending an investigation.

“When people are in distress, we should come to the rescue,” said Simpson. “We shouldn’t further their distress.”

Collinsworth was buried Saturday in Louisiana.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/032609dnmetcopstop.3e9c080.html

Happens all the time. So your gonna have to replace half the cops in the country.

POST DELETED

May wanna read that most recent article there, 66. Dude is a scum bag and should be fired.

I don't see a racial component. I do see a cop that appears to have zero compassion.

Un-edited Police cam car video

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/index.html?nvid=345818&emb

Just watching the dashboard video alone was enough for me.. ....Somebody is going to be in big trouble behind this one......God Bless the Moats family during this time of bereavement......

When you watch the video, the cop is tailing Moats for a while and Moats just keeps going. Frankly, if I'm the cop, I think Moats is running. How does he know where he's going?

I'm thinking if I'm Moats, I pull over and I tell the cop "look, follow me to the hospital so I can please deliver my family there and we can talk about it then."

Also in the video, the people are yelling at the officer that someone is dying, etc. Well, how is the cop supposed to know? You think that no one has ever tried that one before?

Now, if another cop came up and told him "look, let these people go", I'd probably let them go, or just hold back the driver.

But these cops have likely heard just about every excuse, so until I get someone with a little more credibility than the driver telling me what's going on, I'm not going to believe anyone.

Now, in the video, the cop is being a real hardbutt, no doubt about it. "I'll take you to jail!" "I can screw you over, but I don't want to." But that doesn't mean he was wrong.

We only know now that what Moats was saying was true. The cop didn't know at first.

But, once the cop figured out that it was true, he should have just either let them go with a warning, or kept Moats there but expedited things instead of continuing to yell at him and come across as "I'm the boss here."

JMHO

I can't tell you how many stories I've read about armed and dangerous felons driving through a red light (after stopping) with their flashers on and drive straight to a emergency room with family in tow. GMAFB

For the first few minutes ... I could maybe see the cop's side. He's just chased down an SUV, people are piling out and trying to rush in the hospital. He has no idea if someone's really dying or if they are just saying whatever to avoid an out-standing warrant. Moats is visiably upset (as he probably should be) and is yelling at the officer that he's got to go, while the officer has to make sure this guy isn't wanted for something. However, it didn't take long for the officer to turn into a complete a-hole with a power trip.

After watchin the video the only problem i have is that the cop did seem to flex his power a little to much after Moats had already calmed down. But like the Cop said if Moats had stopped like he was supposed to and calmly explained the situation none of this probably would have happened.

So what you're saying is that if I'm a felon trying to run from the cops, I should just turn my flashers on, make sure to stop at red lights before going through, and then drive to a hospital and pretend I'm there to see someone who's dying?

You wanna talk about giving me a break.

Exactly ... unless you're a cop ... You have no idea how many crazy stories people will invent to get out of stuff. Heck I worked as bar security for a few months, and heard some crazy stories.

However, the guy should of let him go about 14 minutes quicker than he did.

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Also in the video, the people are yelling at the officer that someone is dying, etc. Well, how is the cop supposed to know? You think that no one has ever tried that one before?

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You think maybe the fact that they stopped in a hospital parking lot might clue you into the fact .

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But, once the cop figured out that it was true, he should have just either let them go with a warning, or kept Moats there but expedited things instead of continuing to yell at him and come across as "I'm the boss here."

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Which is why he should be fired and be made to look like an ass in front of the entire nation. Maybe he can get a power trip on his next job as a night watchman for minimum wage.

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You think maybe the fact that they stopped in a hospital parking lot might clue you into the fact .

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But how does the cop know they stopped there intentionally for all he knows they could have just stopped there so they could bail and mix in with the hospital people where the cop can't tell who is who.

I get the feeling that some of you are arguing just for the sake of doing it . The cop was justified in the stoppage and his caution but what put it over the line was his lack of understanding and his massive ego .

Obviously the world would be a better place if cops just believed everything everyone told them and always assumed the best in people. Because NO ONE has ever lied or tried to pull a fast one on a cop before! NO ONE.

"Oh, he pulled into a hospital, he obviously has something going on there. There is not a single possibility in the world this guy is trying to give me the slip."

I'll say that the cop is acing like an A-1 jerk, but that's no reason to fire the guy. If we fired all the jerks in the world, there wouldn't be too many people working, myself included at times.

Heck, with people jumping out of the car and yelling at the cop, they're lucky he didn't just pull out the ol' taser.

Looks to me like someone has been watching a little more of 24 than they should be allowed.....

General question:

What SHOULD the cop have done? And I'm talking about from beginning when he sees the car go through the red light to the very end?

Yeah i guess we should just have cops that believe everything everybody tells them. Of course their would be alot less cops and alot fuller cemeteries.

Ill tell ya what the cop did in my case


already ran my license plates..saw the car was clean
took my license ran me...saw that I had no warrants..
and proceeded to ask me why everyone was running.. I
told him he follwed me to the floor waited 20 mins and gave me the ticket when I came out..


granted I got to say goodbye, but if I hadnt been able to say goodbye to the greatest mman in my life, I would have been infuriated

Most Police Officer's would actually call for back up and maybe in this case "escort" the family inside to verify the story. At least that's what I would've done. With the back-up, calls can be made and cooler heads would have been on site to alleviate the situation....hopefully.....