The Firing of Officer Shelly Pierce

Allen Gwinn 2006-06-12 09:19 Dallas Police

Before reading this story, you really should read or watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While slogging through the 1-inch stack of Internal Affairs reports that led to the firing of Dallas Police Officer Shelly Pierce, a warning from the Guide popped into my head.

"On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry to you."

I'm not going to explain it. Go see the movie or read the book. You'll understand.

In a police department, it's all about the paperwork and it really has to be that way. "Document, document, document" is drummed in starting at the police academy. The most successful officers are the ones who take notes and write clear, concise reports.

So it's no surprise that, when you start with over a dozen officers involved in an incident, the stack of reports ends up getting pretty thick.

Now I'll warn you in advance about a couple of things. First, we're not going to take on the behavior of Officer Rachel Nicely (another officer fired last week), nor are we going to go into a DWI case still pending against Pierce. She wasn't fired over any of that.

Records show Pierce was fired as a result of Dallas Police Department Internal Affairs control number "05-304," an investigation conducted by Dallas Police Internal Affairs Detective Emory Nash, so that's what we need to look at.

The investigation produced the following charges against Pierce:

"It is alleged that on September 16, 2005, Police Officer Shelly Pierce, #8074, was involved in a disturbance off-duty."

"It is alleged that on September 16, 2005, Police Officer Shelly Pierce, #8074, was intoxicated off-duty."

Indeed, Detective Nash's summary of the incident reads:

"On September 16, 2005, Police Officer Shelly Pierce, #8074, was involved in an off-duty disturbance. It is alleged that Officer Pierce was intoxicated in public and attempted to harm herself by running into oncoming vehicles. As a result, the following investigation was conducted."

So what, exactly, happened on the evening of September 16, 2005?

Pierce had (as both officers would later refer to it) an "off again, on again" personal relationship with a fellow police officer Stan Verbal. Pierce characterized the relationship as emotionally abusive. A friend of Pierce and Verbal's would write: "Shelly and Verbal are both wonderful people who happen to bring out the worst in each other."

The evening of September 16th, it was obviously "off again."

Pierce was hanging out at a carnival where Rachel Nicely, a friend and another fellow police officer, was working an off-duty assignment. Though their relationship was taking another down-turn, Pierce and Verbal, had made plans to see a movie. Pierce would classify the date as "reluctantly" made.

Verbal would claim that, upon arrival to pick up his "date" at the carnival, Pierce was intoxicated and wanted him to just take her home. Pierce would say she wanted to go home to freshen up. Both, however, would indicate the ride home was not pleasant.

"Shelly kept telling me how much she hated me, hated herself and that she had nothing to live for," Verbal would write after the fact. Pierce would claim that Verbal started the argument by attacking her for having a few beers (3 or 4, according to Pierce) at the carnival. "Verbal does not want me to drink at all," Pierce would write, "and feels that if one drinks a few beers then they have a problem with alcohol."

Here's where the stories start to diverge. According to Pierce, upon arrival at her Uptown apartment, Verbal wanted to go inside with her. Pierce refused to allow it but, according to her, Verbal persisted.

Verbal would report that Pierce was just, plain emotional--no mention of him wanting to go inside her apartment.

Verbal would write that Pierce got out of his truck, threw her keys and cell phone away, and then jumped into traffic trying to kill herself. "There was a car coming down Cole Ave," Verbal would write, and she jumped off the curb and into the front of the car that was going about 40 MPH."

"The car slammed on the brake and swerved just missing her," Verbal would continue.

Now, I'll freely admit to not being an expert in the physics behind motor vehicles, but this defensive driving manual has a table that shows the stopping distance of a vehicle traveling 40 MPH to be 150 feet under "optimal" conditions. But Pierce's "suicide" attempt happened at night--conditions one might call "less-than-optimal."

"...jumped off the curb and into the front of the car that was going about 40 MPH?"

OK, maybe it all depends on the definition of "into the front of the car." Different people might write it different ways. After all, my report might have read "jumped in front of a car that was half-a-football-field's length away," but that might just be me.

We could just ask the other people who saw Pierce jump into traffic.

But nobody else did.

However, the suicidal behavior is all throughout several police reports in the 1-inch stack of paperwork. The Dallas Morning News even reported it as fact the next morning.

"Shelly then laid down in the street," Verbal continued, describing the antics of the distraught and obviously suicidal Pierce. So surely somebody else must have seen the suicide drama unfolding and called 9-1-1? No?

No.

Even though it was widely reported, the only witness to the thwarted suicide attempt, according to the 1-inch stack of paperwork, was Officer Verbal--an "on-again, off-again" ex-boyfriend. Verbal placed the only call to 9-1-1.

Pierce's report to Internal Affairs admitted she ran across a street. But she claims it was in an attempt to get away from ex-boyfriend Verbal. But I'm just not buying it yet because, you see, after being saved from an ugly traffic-related suicide, Pierce located a wire surveyor's flag and tried again to kill herself with it.

Hey! That's what the 1-inch stack of reports, filed by almost a dozen officers and supervisors, said!

One of the reports referred to Pierce as "stabbing" herself in the wrist and stomach. Verbal reported that "Shelly then picked up a wire flag object that was sticking out of the ground and started trying to cut her wrist and abdomen."

Numerous officers, on the scene, put it in their reports as well. Pierce had the marks on her wrist to prove it.

Well, not exactly on her wrist. About a foot above her wrist,to be exact, were two skin scratches. Drunk as she was, however, it's conceivable she could have missed her wrist by a foot or so. Look, this is what all the witnesses reported in the 1-inch stack of police reports!

Well, OK, the witness.

The only person, again, who witnessed the attempt at Hari-Kari-by-surveyor-flag was Officer Verbal.

So what was Pierce's explanation? She crawled through some bushes and over a chain link fence trying to get away from Verbal. Right. Likely story. Just the kind of thing we might expect to hear from a drunk like Pierce!

After all, several officers reported smelling alcohol on Pierce's breath. Verbal dutifully reported that Pierce was "walking around drunk."

Perhaps the court paperwork--the conviction, for instance, might yield some more details.

But there wasn't a conviction or even a trial.

So what about the arrest report?

No arrest report?

Pierce was taken to Green Oaks Psychiatric Hospital for observation due to the reported, multiple thwarted suicide attempts witnessed by Verbal and widely reported by everyone else.

So Pierce must have been written a citation, instead.

But there was no citation either.

Just as (the Hitchhiker's Guide will tell you) interstellar bypasses must inevitably be built, circumstances sometimes put an strange twist on fate.

When officers and supervisors began arriving on the scene of the "disturbance," the evening of September 16, they would describe Pierce as being seated on a concrete retaining wall crying.

During the unfolding drama as more and more officers, and supervisors arrived (including Sergeant Ramon Gonzales who was fired for sending profane emails from city computers to Lower Greenville Activist Avi Adelman) none would indicate that Pierce was anything other than calm but emotional.

None of the reports would describe Pierce as uncooperative or loud.

Officer Maria Reyna, the only female to interview Pierce at the scene of the disturbance, wrote something odd and tucked it away in her report. Reyna said that Pierce claimed to have told Verbal she didn't want to "make love" (with an "f") that night. But that was probably just "girl talk."

He said. She said.

After all, with a 1-inch stack of paperwork to back up the suicide attempts and drunkenness, it's completely outlandish to think that maybe Pierce was just trying to get away from someone she didn't want to have sex with that evening--and who wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

Internal Affairs Detective Nash certainly took the side of the "he said" with an "attaboy" pat.

He found that the calm, sitting-on-the-retaining-wall-crying Pierce was guilty of being involved in a disturbance with her fellow police officer ex-boyfriend. Nash also found the citation-less, arrest-less Pierce was guilty of being drunk off-duty.

We can't have that, so 6 months later, Pierce was fired.

According to Internal Affairs report "05-304," Verbal was never investigated for his role in the "disturbance." He remains on duty with the Dallas Police Department.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just grab my towel and be gone.

[Stick around for Part 2 of this story--"The Apple Cutting Affair"--coming to an interstellar theatre (or just plain-old Dallas.Org) soon!]

Last viewed: