Fort Worth city panel declines investigating leaked body cam

A Fort Worth city panel will not investigate who leaked body cam video of a controversial arrest even after the officer came to them and asked them directly.

Officer William Martin went to the city's Civil Service Commission meeting Tuesday night to ask it to investigate who leaked the video and who leaked his personnel file. The video is of a controversial arrest of a mother and her daughters last month.

Martin was ready to testify to the commission. However, the meeting was very brief and didn't end the way Martin or his attorney wanted.

Officer Martin filed a motion in which he said he has no faith in the Fort Worth Police Department to investigate who leaked body camera video and information from his personnel file. He wanted the Civil Service Commission to instead investigate the source of the leak, but it ruled it would not investigate.

The body camera video shows last month's arrest of Jacqueline Craig and her daughters. The arrest was also posted to Facebook and went viral.

But a past complaint against Martin for excessive force, which could not be used against him in his punishment for the current incident, was leaked to Craig's attorneys.

While Craig's attorney, Lee Merritt, denies getting the information from a police source, Fort Worth police are investigating as if it came from one of its own.

Martin's attorney, Terry Daffron, said the Civil Service Commission has the power to investigate and should.

"It has been very difficult for Officer Martin. There have been threats on his life, his safety, which makes it very difficult for him to do his job," the attorney said. “Officer Martin has done his time he served his 10-day suspension. As far as his punishment, it's far from over because he is punished daily in the public eye and on the internet."

There was also public comment to the city council regarding Officer Martin and demands from the Craig family and community activists to have him fired. Craig's attorney spoke to council members to demand Martin's termination.

“We're not looking for anything extraordinary, just good old fashioned American justice,” Merritt said. “Why that has been denied, why such a hesitation is beyond me.”

Martin’s attorney said she appeal the commission’s decision to the district courts.