Rainbow Lounge: Did Fort Worth City Staff Pull a Fast One on Mayor Moncrief?
When the Fort Worth City Council asked the U.S. attorney in Dallas to investigate the June 28 raid at the Rainbow Lounge that sent Chad Gibson to the hospital with a brain injury, a lot of people in Fort Worth — myself included — believed this was a step in the right direction. With the all of the fingerpointing between the Fort Worth Police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), it seems that the only way to get a complete picture of what happened that night is to have a third-party investigate. The U.S. attorney’s office, with the full investigative power of the Justice Department behind it, seems the logical choice.
But was that really what Mayor Moncrief intended to do? Not according to one city hall insider.
Although the U.S. attorney had previously agreed to review findings of the FWPD internal affairs investigation, the Mayor asked city staff to check with the Feds to “see what they could do.” According to the source, the recommendation for a federal investigation with agents conducting their own interviews and potentially subpoenaing witnesses was not what the Mayor expected when the staff report was presented in the pre-council meeting for consideration.
“When the Mayor looked at the report for the first time, his face got very red, very fast,” said the source.
So, did someone (or several someones) on city staff “go rogue” on this one? Did they figure that the mayor was not about to argue that a federal investigation wasn’t needed? No one is saying. But to the person or people who went out on a limb for this investigation, here is one thank you from a grateful Fort Worth resident.
Good to see you blogging again. We gotta get beers soon.
Sounds good to me, Mike.