Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

I was curious about the legal implications of the following scenario.

I was on my way to an urgent care center to be checked out because of chest pains accompanied by unusually high heart rate and blood pressure. As I pulled into the parking lot, a police officer pulled me over for an undisclosed reason, and ultimately wrote a ticket for expired registration. However, in doing so he demanded my drivers license. When I was trying to check in at the urgent care center, they couldn't admit me without identification. The officer refused to return my license for some time, preventing me from being seen by a doctor. Only upon finishing writing the ticket, which took some time, was I finally admitted. I was diagnosed with having panic attacks. I do have a series of text messages to a friend that prove I was having chest pains and was going to the doctor, which disproves what the officer assumed was me pulling into a medical center to avoid a ticket. It might also be worth noting that while I was trying to get the officer to give me my license, he threatened to arrest me if I didn't "calm down." Further, I believe the reason the officer followed me into that parking lot was that I cut across three lanes of traffic to get to the urgent care center.

I'm not worried about the ticket itself so much, I just have to get the registration renewed and pay a $40 filing fee. I am more consider with what action I should take regarding the officer. He essentially delayed medical care for a chest pain related medical problem because he refused to give me my drivers license long enough to be checked in to the urgent care center.


Asked on 1/12/10, 4:14 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Keith Engelke Law Office of S. Keith Engelke

You can contact the internal affairs division of the local police department to have the matter reviewed. However, if you never told the officer about your medical problem, he may have acted properly. Often officers will contact EMS in this situation, which admittedly sounds stupid in the parking lot of an emergency care center. If you complained of chest pains to the officer, he should have contacted EMS.

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Answered on 1/17/10, 9:43 am


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