In another recent case involving a grand jury, white cops, and a black civilian, a grand jury in the east Texas town of Jasper, about two hours from Houston, chose last month not to indict two police officers for the brutal beating of Jasper resident Keyarika Diggles. Diggles had been arrested and jailed in May 2013 over an unpaid $100 parking ticket (which, it turned out, she had been paying in installments.) As you can see in the surveillance video below, at some point officers Ricky Grissom and Ryan Cunningham grab Diggles, slam her head on the counter, pull her hair and drag her across the floor by her feet:
According to the Texas Observer, the officers proceeded to drag Diggles into a dark “detox cell,” where her lawyers said she spent hours before being strip-searched by another officer. Here’s more from the Observer on the aftermath of the attack:
Diggles settled a civil rights lawsuit against the city and the officers last December for $75,000. And less than a month after the incident, Jasper’s city council voted to fire Cunningham and Grissom. That alone was a stronger response than many allegations of police brutality get, and Jasper Mayor Mike Lout said the council would work with the district attorney to consider criminal charges against the officers. Lout and other city leaders stressed that the Diggles case wasn’t a sign of some deeper racial divide in the city, but an isolated incident with the perpetrators swiftly punished.
“We are shocked by the failure of the prosecutor to get an indictment,” said Cade Bernsen, Diggles’ attorney. “I’m wondering what investigation was done because the video speaks for itself.”
According to records obtained by the Observer, Cunningham was hired to join the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office in September.
