DALLAS (KRLD) - The President of the Dallas Police Association is blasting the decision by Dallas Police and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office to present the case of Officer Michael Dunn to the grand jury. That grand jury has returned a murder indictment against Officer Dunn for the shooting death of Juan Moreno, Junior earlier this month.
"We have never had an investigation completed in less than eight days and ready to hand over to the District Attorney," said Dallas Police Association Mike Mata. "It has never happened. We have never handed over an investigation this quickly. It is outside our standard protocol and procedure."
Mata says the grand jury should have had access to more information, including the autopsy report on Moreno, toxicology reports, and ballistic reports. "Those things should be in the investigation packet before it's given to the grand jury," he said. "You will not get a a completed autopsy report in eight days. You will not get ballistics results in eight days."
Earlier this year, Dallas County District Attorney John Cruezot set a new policy that his office would refer officer-involved shooting cases to the grand jury within 45 days whenever possible. The goal, Cruezot said, was to ensure that those cases to not linger for months or years without appropriate action. Mata believes Cruezot's office should have waited until the end of that 45-day period before presenting information to the grand jury.
"We did not do it in this case because it's a political machine that lead this," Mata said. "I know for a fact they were attempting to prevent any type of social unrest and protest. I've got news for this department - it is a citizen's right to protest."
The District Attorney's office issued a statement following the indictment, saying that "this restores confidence in the community that the system can work quickly, fairly, and efficiently".