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The punishment for allegedly blowing through a stop sign didn’t exactly fit the crime.
When David Braxton Scherz, 26, saw flashing blue lights behind him as he drove down his street in 2011, he had no way of knowing his luck was about to go from bad to worse.
A police dashcam video shows officers in Harris County, Texas, confronting Scherz during the traffic stop outside his home in Houston.
“I was coming home from a friend’s house, an officer said I missed a stop sign, but before it even got to that I had already parked in my driveway,” said Scherz.
His mother approached from inside the house and was ordered back inside.
“Ma’am, either wait inside or wait in the backseat of my car. I’m not going to ask you again,” a deputy can be heard saying in an audio recording obtained by ABC in Houston.
“This is my house and I have the right to stand here,” protested Yvonne Scherz.
Then things got really ugly. A cop pulls the woman to the ground and drags her along the concrete.
“The next thing I remember she was screaming. I went inside, grabbed my sister and she got the rest of the family,” recalled Scherz.
Deputy Jimmy Drummond, of the Harris County Constable’s Office, can be seen kicking a family member who had been forced to the ground. The officer then escalates the beating by smashing his knee into the man’s torso, breaking his ribs.
A small poodle wanders into the street. Drummond kicks the dog, too.
All five members of the Scherz family were initially charged with interfering with an investigation, but those charges were eventually dropped. They are pursuing civil action against the county and the deputies.
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Harris County investigators have now filed a misdemeanor charge of official oppression against Drummond. He is expected in court Friday.
The former deputy constable has a history of excessive force his superiors are aware of, the victim’s attorney, Randall Kallinen, told the New York Daily News on Tuesday.
The statute of limitations will likely prevent future charges against any of the other officers.
Harris County law enforcement officials issued the following statement: “We firmly believe the District Attorney’s Office is following the appropriate course of action in reviewing the details of the overall incident, up to and including justification for dismissal of charges in the original case. No one in law enforcement supports abuse of official capacity in the use of force and likewise we do not support assaults on an officer in the performance of their duty.”