Mobile DA: Bodycam video will be released to Jawan Dallas' mom after investigation

Mobile DA: Bodycam video will be released to Jawan Dallas’ mom after investigation

The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office says it’s willing to release the police-worn body camera footage to the mother of Jawan Dallas, who was killed during a July 2 altercation with Mobile police.

But the footage will only be released after an investigation into the matter is complete, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Keith Blackwood said.

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Birmingham attorney Roderick Van Daniel of Birmingham wants Dallas’ mother, Christine, to be able to view the camera footage as soon as possible, even if a criminal investigation is not complete into the killing of the 36-year-old Black Mobile man after he was tased by a police officer.

Van Daniel made an official request to the City of Mobile, citing a new state law that took effect on Sept. 1. The law allows for written requests to view body camera footage. But the new law grants law enforcement officials the right to deny requests based on an ongoing investigation and does not permit for public disclosures that are frequent in high-profile cases around the nation including in Tennessee.

“They could still use that law to say ‘No,’ but within the law it says (that a denial) is if they feel like it would affect an investigation,” Van Daniel told AL.com earlier this week. “I feel that if we’re showing the video to the mother, it would not affect the investigation. She just wants to see the last moments of her child’s life.”

Van Daniel and Christine Dallas are scheduled to speak, once again, before the Mobile City Council. The two have made passionate calls before for the City of Mobile to release the body camera footage so that family members could view it.

A spokeswoman with the council said the decision is up to Blackwood’s office on whether the footage should be released to Christine Dallas’ viewing only. His office is charged with handling the investigation into whether there was any wrongdoing by police leading up to the killing of Jawan Dallas.

Tara Zieman, spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, said the body camera footage will be released to Christine Dallas at an “appropriate time.” She clarified that an appropriate time would be at the conclusion of an investigation once a decision is rendered by a grand jury.

There is no timetable on how long that might last.

Zieman said that the District Attorney’s Office has not yet received any formal requests for the family to view the footage. Van Daniel sent a formal request to view the video and audio recordings held by police earlier this week to a host of Mobile city officials including Mayor Sandy Stimpson, Chief of Staff James Barber, City Attorney Ricardo Woods and Police Chief Paul Prine.

“The city still has the authority to give the Dallas family an opportunity to see the video,” said Van Daniel, adding that Mobile police precedence of preventing the release of footage during an investigation should be changed.

Mobile police have also not released body camera footage into the police shooting death of 24-year-old Kordell Jones, a Black man who was killed in early March while Mobile police attempted to arrest his brother after a no-knock search of the Mobile residence they were in.

“Sometimes we need to change precedence,” Van Daniel said. “These family members are grieving. This is not just for the Dallas family, but for all families in the community. You cannot be stuck on a precedence when the precedence is harming the community.”

Also calling for the footage’s release is state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, who sponsored the new state law as a way to give people opportunities to view police-worn body camera footage in Alabama.

The new law, approved by the Legislature in the spring, says people whose image or voice is the subject of a body camera recording can file a written request to review the recording.

In addition, an attorney, parent or spouse or another designated representative can also make the request.

Givan said the District Attorney’s Office said it should not be an issue to release the footage to the family, though she admits there are provisions for law enforcement to deny the requests.

She said footage generally should not be released in cases when “someone’s life was in jeopardy.” But she said in the Dallas case, the family should be granted access.

Givan, though, said the family should make their official request first to the District Attorney’s Office.

“Herein lies the problem,” Givan said. “They’ve been going back and forth to the (Mobile) City Council. The problem is they haven’t requested it (formally) from the custodian of the footage.”

The family is seeking the footage to gain clarity about what happened to Jawan Dallas while he sat inside his vehicle and away from a trailer where police were initially responding to a 911 call about a burglary on July 2.

The 911 call prompted a rapid response by Mobile police. Dallas and another man were encountered roughly a football field’s length away from the trailer. The attorneys for the Dallas family have since argued that the caller informed police dispatch that someone was “only in his yard” and that a burglary was not happening.

The 911 caller also claimed the person who trespassed onto the property was homeless. Dallas, who was approached by police, was “sitting in a fully functional vehicle” and did not appear to be indigent, according to a claim the family filed with the city.

Mobile police then demanded Dallas produce a state-issued ID, which he did not. Christine Dallas said her son did not have an ID, and that he died because of it.

Dallas was then struck with a Taser multiple times, according to the claim the city filed in July. An attorney for the family says Dallas fell to the ground after the first tasing, grabbed his chest and completed of pain. The office then tased him again, the attorney says, “until he stopped moving.”

Mobile police have previously said that Dallas evaded police after they showed up to investigate the burglary call. Prine, the police chief, said responding officers feared for their own safety because of Dallas’ behavior and “strange movement int he car,” such as “moving to the backseat with his hands.”

Dallas, a convicted felon, was later found to have drugs — crystal methamphetamine and analog marijuana known as spice.

Christine Dallas has since called on the officers involved in the call — none of whom have been named — be held accountable for her son’s death.