2nd Driver Alleges Abuse By Patrolman By Steve Mcvicker And Kristen Mack, The Houston Chronicle
Metro’s police chief publicly apologized Wednesday to the Ethiopian-born cabdriver who recorded an abusive, profanity-laced tirade allegedly directed at him by a Metro police officer.
“I’m embarrassed,” said Chief Tom Lambert, who placed the officer on desk duty Wednesday pending an investigation.
“And I really want to apologize to Mr. (Amanuel) Hadis -- which I will do personally -- but also to the public. We fundamentally believe that you’ve got to respect all people in delivering services.”
The apology came a day after Hadis, who fled civil war in his native country in 1990 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2001, filed a complaint alleging he was berated by officer Doug Carr of the Metropolitan Transit Authority police force.
After coming to a stop in his taxi at the downtown intersection of Main Street and Texas Avenue, Hadis said, Carr began screaming obscenities at him and ordered him to pull over to the side of the road.
The officer’s demeanor so frightened him that Hadis used his cellular telephone to dial his own voice mail and record the encounter.
“We don’t need your kind here,” the voice on the tape says. “You can go back to where you come from if you don’t want to abide by our laws. You understand me?”
Also Wednesday, another cabdriver, Ethiopian-born Barock Goshu, 23, told the Chronicle that Carr had verbally abused him during a traffic stop in October.
According to a Houston Municipal Courts citation, Goshu, who like Hadis drives for Central Cab Co., was stopped by Carr after allegedly running a red light downtown. When Goshu attempted to plead his innocence, he said, Carr became irate.
“He kept (saying), `Do you speak English? Do you speak English?’ ” said Goshu. “I just stopped talking to him because I figured there was something wrong with the guy.”
Goshu said he attempted to file a complaint with Metro at the time but was never successful in contacting the investigating officer. However, he now says he plans to renew his complaint.
Lambert said Carr, a 12-year veteran, will remain on desk duty until the internal investigation is complete. He would not speculate on how long that might take.
The chief did acknowledge that Carr, who worked 11 years as an officer for the Houston Police Department before joining Metro, has had complaints filed against him in the past.
On Feb. 4, Lambert said, Carr was the focus of a “communication conflict issue.” The chief would not elaborate on the details but said the incident is being investigated along with the complaint filed by Hadis.
He said Carr also had a conduct-related complaint filed against him in both 2000 and 2001, and an accident investigation complaint in 1994. None of those complaints was ever substantiated, Lambert said.
Thus far, Carr has declined to comment on the allegations.
At Wednesday’s Houston City Council meeting, several members voiced their own concerns about the incident, which comes as Metro has stepped up enforcement of traffic laws in the wake of several accidents involving the downtown light rail line.
Mayor Bill White said that if reports of the incident are accurate, Carr’s behavior was “unacceptable.”
“Metro should investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action,” White said. “We ought to have people who are trained and held to high standards of treating citizens with respect, even if they are very strict on law enforcement.”
Council members Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and Gordon Quan echoed that.
“It needs to be more than a slap on the wrist or an investigation,” said Sekula-Gibbs.
“I hope Lambert acts in a quick and fair manner,” added Quan, who also is an immigration lawyer. “This is not the type of conduct we condone in any way.”