One Year Later — Grand Jury ‘No Bills’ McKinney Pool Party Cop

A  grand jury in Collin County, Texas, decided evidence presented against former McKinney Police Officer Eric Casebolt was inadequate to warrant an indictment. The former 10-year McKinney police veteran was seen in last summer’s McKinney pool party gone wild YouTube video wrestling a young black girl to the ground.

In the seven minute video, Casebolt, a white officer, drew his weapon and threw a bikini-clad black teenager, Dajerria Becton, to the ground after she refused to follow instructions and resisted his attempts to restrain her at the pool party. Casebolt and other officers were on scene, attempting to gain control of nearly 70 teenagers who crashed a private pool party in the Craig Ranch community.

The video went viral and social justice warriors stepped in around the country to overlay a racially-laced narrative onto the more likely actions of an over-zealous cop. Breitbart Texas and Breitbart News covered the highly politicized events extensively.

Four days after the incident, June 9, 2015, Casebolt resigned from the McKinney Police Department. At the time, McKinney Chief of Police Greg Conley called Casebolt’s actions, “as seen on the video of the disturbance at the community pool.” He said they were “indefensible” and “out of control.” Daniel Malenfant of the McKinney Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) clarified that Casebolt resigned under political pressure and death threats, calling him “a dedicated and decorated officer who in this instance was placed in a high-stress environment that he was not fully prepared for.”

Casebolt, a former police corporal, served in the Navy from 1993 to 2003. During seven of those years, he acted as an operations specialist and as a military police officer for three years. After the Navy, Casebolt became a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper for two years . He joined the McKinney Police Department in 2005.

The Texas Rangers, a division within the Texas Department of Public Safety, conducted the criminal investigation on Casebolt and presented their findings to the Collin County District Attorney’s office.

On June 23, 2016, a grand jury “no billed” any criminal charges against Casebolt in relationship to the June 2015 incident based on the investigation’s findings. Dallas’ WFAA 8 (ABC) reported the full results were not released. However, this ended the investigation into Casebolt’s handling of the Craig Ranch pool party.

The City of McKinney explained the grand jury’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against Casebolt in an email statement:

The McKinney Police Department’s mission is to make the city a safe place to live, work and visit for everyone. In light of this, we seek to work in partnership with all who live and work in this great city. The incident at the Craig Ranch Pool in 2015 was turned over to the Texas Rangers for investigation. The Rangers concluded their investigation and presented it to the Collin County District Attorney’s Office. On Thursday June 23, the District Attorney’s office presented the findings of the Ranger’s investigation to a Grand Jury. The Grand Jury’s decision was to “No Bill” any charges against Eric Casebolt in relation to the June 2015 incident.

In the statement, City of McKinney officials also announced a community forum on Monday, June 27, 6:30 p.m. in Downtown McKinney now that the grand jury made its decision. The event “Moving Forward, Strengthening Police and Community Relationships” invites all McKinney residents to attend.

The McKinney Police Department will be holding a community forum at the Old Settler’s Recreation Center 1201 E. Louisiana Street, McKinney, Texas 75069 on Monday June 27 at 6:30 p.m. Several community leaders involved with the Police Chief’s Advisory Council will be on hand to speak at the meeting focusing on the theme: Moving Forward, Strengthening Police and Community Relationships. All McKinney residents are invited to attend this meeting.

Becton’s attorney, Kim T. Cole, was not surprised by the grand jury’s decision but was not happy with it either. She told told WFAA 8: “I think more should have been done. I don’t think he should have just walked away.”

Cole also stated: “McKinney may very well be the best place to live in the U.S. — as long as you’re not an African-American.”

Despite best intentions of outside agitators to depict McKinney as a racist community, the Dallas suburb has a racial diversity index of 104.6 percent according to Money Magazine, which, in 2014, ranked it as the best place to live in the nation. Breitbart Texas reported the Craig Ranch subdivision is racially and ethnically diverse. At the height of the news coverage, a resident reached out to Breitbart Texas. She wanted people in America to know their community was not racist.

Becton’s family intends to sue Casebolt and the City of McKinney on the basis of alleged civil rights violations and personal injury.

Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.