Fort Worth officials have dropped
intoxication charges against four men in connection with a police
raid on a gay bar last year, the Dallas News reported.
The city announced Friday that charges
against Chad Gibson, George Armstrong, Dylan Brown and Jose Macias
were dropped Thursday.
The
four men were arrested in June during a police raid on the Rainbow
Lounge, a gay bar. Gibson, who was hospitalized for a severe
head injury after he hit his head outside the bar while in police
custody, had also pleaded not guilty to assaulting a Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Commission agent.
“Their words early on were that
serious mistakes were made by law enforcement and the city wanted to
learn from those mistakes and move forward,” Adam Seidel, an
attorney presenting Gibson and Armstrong, told the paper. “I guess
finally the actions are matching the words.”
The raid sparked a loud outcry from the
city's gay and lesbian community, which called the raid “police
harassment.”
A police department report released
soon after the raid suggested that police officers and agents from
the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), which assisted the
department in carrying out the bar inspection, turned
violent during the inspection because they faced sexually aggressive
patrons – a claim eye-witnesses deny – including groping
officers.
TABC
officials fired three agents involved in the raid, while police
officers received a one- to three-day suspension.