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Zach Thomas' Wife Had Run-In With Same Officer as Ryan Moats

Posted Mar 29, 2009 12:40PM By Ryan Wilson (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Cowboys, Texans, NFL Fans

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It seems like officer Robert Powell has been busily enforcing the law -- to the extreme, and without discretion, good judgment or common sense -- for some time now. Last week, Powell detained Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats and his wife in a Dallas-area hospital parking lot as they were rushing to be with a dying relative.

The video evidence -- taken from Powell's dashboard-mounted camera, ironically enough -- is both disturbing and damning, and it led to his suspension. The officer has since apologized for his behavior but, apparently, it's not the first time he has displayed, in his words, "poor judgment."

Maritza Thomas, the wife of former Cowboys' linebacker Zach Thomas, also had an encounter with Powell. Via the Dallas Morning News:
On July 27, 2008, while her husband was at training camp with the Cowboys in Oxnard, Calif., Maritza Thomas was pulled over by Powell for an illegal U-turn near NorthPark Center.

Maritza Thomas was issued five tickets by Powell, four of which were later dismissed. Thomas was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police cruiser, spent about three hours in the Dallas County Jail and was threatened with the possibility of spending the night behind bars.
There's more, of course:
According to Maritza Thomas, a pharmacist with no prior criminal record, Powell would not accept the explanation of where the proper paperwork was before she was taken to jail. Her mother, Teresa Lozano, who was making her first trip to Dallas and speaks little English, was forced to ride with the tow truck driver when the car was impounded. She later posted bail for her daughter's release.

"My mom was begging for him to let her go to the apartment that was five minutes away to get the paperwork," Maritza Thomas said. "He unbuckled his holster, and she got scared."
Sounds like a wonderful use of Powell's time.

Zach Thomas was quick to point out that "This in no way compares to what happened to Ryan Moats and his family ... But we wanted to tell our story, not knowing how many others have been affected by Officer Powell. We know the vast majority of the Dallas police force are good and professional people, but this guy just seems excessive."

While the severity of the incidents don't compare, the constant -- officer Powell -- is troubling. Powell's lawyer questions the timing of the news, wondering why it's taken 19 months for the story to surface. The Thomas' response: at the time, they considered filing a complaint but decided against it "because we didn't want to cause a stir," Zach said, thinking it "was maybe a guy having a bad day." And, yeah, they're filing now.

Something worth remembering, even though it might be difficult given the circumstances: a power-mad cop, even one who may not have fully embraced the civil rights movement (this is just speculation, but Moats is black, and Maritza is Hispanic), shouldn't obscure the fact that thousands of officers honorably perform their duties everyday without incident.

As for Powell, my friend has a theory on guys like that: give a not-so-bright kid in his early 20s a costume, a badge and a handgun, and bad things are bound to happen. The only thing that's missing is a mustache.

Moats had originally called for Powell to be fired before backing off those statements in a radio interview last week, but save working out his days as an inventory clerk in a dank, windowless converted basement doubling as the evidence room, I fully support his dismissal.

Tags: Maritza+Thomas, MaritzaThomas, Robert+Powell, RobertPowell, Ryan+Moats, RyanMoats, Zach+Thomas, ZachThomas

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