Plea deal offered to man tased by Godley officer withdrawn

A plea deal offered to a Johnson County man who claims he was wrongfully arrested and tased was withdrawn on Tuesday.

FOX 4’s Monday night story appears to have changed the way this case will be handled by the Johnson County District Attorney.

When FOX 4 first aired video showing 57-year-old Rickey Scott being tased in the front lobby of Godley City Hall in Johnson County, Scott was offered a plea deal of probation and a fine.

After the story aired, Scott's attorney says the prosecutor changed his mind.

"And they decided to withdraw the offer and that would automatically place it on the jury docket,” said Tim Altaras, Scott’s attorney.

That means it will be up to a jury to decide whether Scott was guilty of resisting arrest in July when he went to the city to pay his water bill.

"I'm ready to go to one ‘cause I think we'd do better that way because I'm bound to find six people that agree with me,” said Scott.  

FOX 4 now also has the officer's recollection of how the tasing incident played out.

In his own words, Officer Daniel Rogers gave his account of the video in the police report that was provided to Scott's attorney and the reason why he felt threatened by Scott in the lobby.

Rogers writes, "Mr. Scott then stood up from the chair in an aggressive manner while bowing out his chest and taking a step in my direction with his arms back as to strike at me with his fists.”

Officer Rogers also writes, "Mr. Scott took another step in my direction while yelling f*#@ you.”

He continued, "Mr. Scott fell to his knees and tried getting back to his feet. I tackled Mr. Scott while bringing him to the ground.”

Officer Rogers’ report describes yelling and cussing from Rickey Scott after he was tased and describes a continued effort to resist.

FOX 4’s story also prompted the police chief to issue a statement supporting Rogers. It reads in part, "The City of Godley stands unwaveringly by our police officers and personnel present during Mr. Rickey Scott's arrest. They have and will continue to serve our community..."

"Their statement says a lot of misleading things, but it didn't happen that way,” said Scott.

Scott says some of what the officer wrote in the report doesn't match the video.

But regarding standing up in an aggressive manner, "The officer said ‘You really wanna go this way?’” said Patricia Scott, Rickey’s wife.

“And I said, ‘You want to go? Let's go,’” said Rickey.

“You know, like he was intimidating Rickey first,” said Patricia.

"And I think the officer overreacted and pulled out his stun gun when it wasn't justified,” said Altaras.

The city attorney confirmed to FOX 4 the officer was not fired and is working as a reserve officer as he is going to school to learn how to administer lie detector tests.

FOX 4’s efforts to reach out to officer Rogers on Tuesday to allow him an opportunity to speak were not successful.

FOX 4 is on YouTube -- http://bit.ly/fox4subscribe