Fort Worth Officer Fired For Excessive Force Will Be Reinstated
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A Fort Worth police officer who was at the center of a controversial arrest of a woman and was fired for excessive force has been reinstated to the department.
Sgt. Kenneth Pierce was fired by Chief Joel Fitzgerald in December 2017 after the department investigated the confrontation with a woman during a domestic disturbance call. The entire confrontation was captured on an officer's body camera.
The incident happened in August 2017 when Pierce arrived at the woman's apartment to respond to the call. The woman, Dorshay Morris, had called police about a situation involving her boyfriend.
Dorshay told CBS 11 News she did have a knife on her at the time of the incident but said she had it for self-defense in regards to the disturbance call. She said she willingly handed it over when asked.
She began to protest after she was asked for identification and told the officers she felt like she was being treated like a suspect. At that point, Pierce tried to handcuff her, and she resisted. He then ordered a rookie police officer to use a stun gun on her.
A statement from the department agreed that Dorshay was producing her identification and went on to say that Pierce became "impatient, initiated an unnecessary physical confrontation, and then ordered use of the Taser."
She was initially charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, but those charges were later dropped.
Pierce was placed on indefinite suspension later in the year for excessive force.
On Wednesday, a settlement was reached to reinstate Pierce to the police department. According to Pierce's attorney, he will receive a 35-day suspension for failure to supervise, which is retroactive since he hasn't been on the job. The attorney said the allegations of unlawful arrest and use of force were not sustained.
Pierce will be reinstated at the same rank of sergeant and will receive backpay.
Morris and her attorney reacted to the decision to reinstate Pierce.
"It's no justice being done. No justice has been done. He [doesn't] deserve his job back," said Morris.
"This is absolutely ridiculous. This is turning out to be the Fort Worth way. We have see time and time again where Fort Worth has decided to use excessive force and then they'll do a slap on the wrist and say, 'It's okay, we did something,'" said attorney Jasmine Crockett.