DALLAS (1080 KRLD)-The capital murder investigation into former Dallas Police officer Bryan Riser apparently isn't over, even though a judge dismissed charges for a lack of evidence.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said he was disappointed by the ruling from Dallas County Criminal Court judge Audrey Moorehead that probable cause had not been established. But Garcia still considers the investigation open and active.
"We agree with Judge (Tammy) Kemp's initial decision after our statement of probable cause that we had probable cause."
The charges were dropped after an hours-long examining trial that featured the unlikely sight of the lead investigator repeatedly interrupting and butting heads with the prosecutor. Det. Esteban Montenegro ultimately blamed Garcia for insisting that the case move to the arrest of Riser, despite the warning by prosecutors that the evidence was uncorroborated. Riser was released from jail hours after the judge's finding, angry and demanding Dallas police apologize.
"I can't order an arrest, even if I wanted to." said Garcia. "What we did say to do was to write a statement of probable cause, present it to a judge to see if we could make an arrest."
But there were also problems with the arrest affidavits, as Montenegro admitted he had copied and pasted incorrect facts into the original probable cause affidavit, only having to correct the document, and get Kemp's signature again.
"The fact that the detective admitted those mistakes, reissued the affidavit, admitted those mistakes to the judge, who signed the affidavit, which is an arrest warrant, to me, is something we will consider as well." Garcia said.
The new chief declined to answer more than a handful of questions, claiming he was prohibited from discussing the ongoing criminal investigation. He did not address the issue of the meeting between his investigators and District Attorney John Creuzot, who told police they needed more evidence. Creuzot, a former District Court judge, later issued a statement that said "Because of this office's obligations under the law, we alerted the defense team and the judge of our opinion that there currently is insufficient corroboration of co-defendant statements and accomplice testimony to prosecute the case. "
The meeting between the prosecutors and police came up during the examination trial, Assistant District Attorney Jason Fine asked Montenegro why no officer raised a hand when they were polled over the DA's concerns.
"I didn't want an argument." replied Montenegro, during the hearing.
Riser's defense attorney, Toby Shook, did not have any comment to Garcia's news conference.
