When Carolyn Rodriguez appeared in court last Tuesday, she thought it was for a charge against her to be thrown out. How could she have been “resisting arrest,” she thought, when her June encounter with police began and ended with a male officer smashing her face-first to the pavement (“Takedown Blue,” June 28)?
What happened in court shocked Rodriguez, but the 60-year-old self-described cop watcher with 93,000 YouTube subscribers was not surprised.
District Attorney Phil Sorrells’ office had tacked on two additional charges: false reporting and interference with public duties.
“I’ve been arrested six or seven times,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t resist, because it hurts.”
The DA’s office could not be reached for comment, but we will update this story accordingly if we receive a response.
Video from surveillance, bodycam, and personal devices captured the moment when Officer M. Krueger grabbed Rodriguez by the arm and whipped her forcefully to the ground. Rodriguez suffered a disjointed shoulder and elbow, assorted lacerations, and a concussion. She was filming Krueger and several other police officers conducting an investigation in the West 7th corridor when Officer Krueger injured her.
In the charges, the DA’s office says Rodriguez “did intentionally prevent or obstruct” Officer Krueger from performing his duties “by using force against said peace officer, namely by pulling or pushing her body away” from his.
Internal Affairs and an outside monitor are investigating Krueger, and the department has reassigned him from patrol pending the outcome of the investigation. The department says he’s been with the force for seven years.
“I’m the bad guy,” Rodriguez told Fort Worth City Council Tuesday night. “I’m being charged with three crimes, and I got my ass kicked by the cops.”
For her planned lawsuit against the Fort Worth Police Department, Rodriguez is now assembling a team that includes Fort Worth attorney Ben Westbrook.
The DA’s office, she said, is “just trying to get one charge to stick, so I can’t sue them civilly. We can beat all three [charges]. This is ridiculousness.”
Rodriguez has been representing herself so far, and she feels it’s working to her advantage. When ADA Lloyd Whechel allegedly told her she could meet with his assistant, Rodriguez said, “ ‘Whoa, hang on. The manual says I can meet with you, not your assistant.’ He got so mad. It’s so much fun to make them mad.”
Rodriguez said the next step in the legal process is discovery, and “when they give me all that [information], it’s going right online.”
She’s also convinced law enforcement despise cop watchers like her. “If I was just a regular person, [Officer Krueger] would be fired. … We expose a lot of stuff. He came out of his car after me. I didn’t go after him. It took 17 seconds for him to come out of his car to get me.”
Police brutality has gone up nationwide over the past 30 years, with the most killings in more than a decade occurring in 2023, and most officers are not held accountable for applying excessive force. The nonprofit Mapping Police Violence says that from 2013 to 2022, 98% of all police killings did not result in charges against the officers.
This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.
