A white Texas police chief has been cleared of the racial allegations pertaining to an arrest of a beauty queen last month.
As reported, 23-year-old Carmen Ponder was arrested for ‘evasion of arrest’ at a Walmart parking lot. She accused Police Chief Kerry Crews of calling her a ‘Black b*tch.’
via NYDN:
An independent investigation led by the City of Commerce culminated yesterday, clearing Crews of the allegations.
“The investigation revealed that there was no evidence that Chief Crews made any racial statements to Ms. Ponder or to anyone else. There is also no evidence that the arrest was racially motivated,” a release said.
The investigation also refuted Ponder’s claims that Crews had allowed his daughter to operate a vehicle illegally.
“Additionally, it was determined that Chief Crews was not involved in the initial dispute between Ms. Ponder and the other driver. As such, there is no way that his daughter could have been operating a motor vehicle illegally.”
Ponder said she was driving to Walmart behind a black truck that was swerving, and stopping suddenly, before she pulled around the car and parked.
“When I parked, the same black truck sped up on my car and began yelling at me and cussing me out. He screamed that he was teaching his 14 year old daughter how to drive and I shouldn’t have drove around her,” Ponder said in a tweet following the incident.
She entered the store, and when she exited, “he kept saying that it was a 14 year old driving. That’s when he screamed, ‘oh whatever, you black bitch!’”
She initially identified the driver of the other vehicle as Crews, but later admitted that he might not have been the driver of the vehicle.
Conflicting accounts of what happened led the city to launch an outside investigation into the incident.
It was headed by Fort Worth-based firm Lynn, Ross and Gannaway, LLP.
S. Lee Merritt, Ponder’s attorney, slammed the investigation when its outcome was announced.
“I’m afraid @CityOfCommerce missed the point. Chief Crews directed the unlawful arrest of @CarmenSierraaa under unjustifiable circumstances.”
He continued, calling Ponder’s arrest “UNCONSTITUTIONAL!” on Twitter.
We believe Miss Ponder.
