The Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to pursue charges against two 18-year-old women accused of assaulting a young man inside a McDonald’s restaurant near Greatwood, where they work.
One of the two women is accused of biting 20-year-old Raymond Smith during a July 13 incident at the restaurant, at 1125 Crabb River Road. The other is accused of groping him. The women also are accused of stealing some CDs and a small amount of cash from Smith’s car.
In the past few days, circumstances surrounding the altercation – and its investigation by the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office – have erupted into controversy:
→ Smith’s mother, Barbara Jones complained that a deputy on the scene made inappropriate remarks about the incident, sparking an internal investigation at the sheriff’s office.
→ Chief Deputy Craig Brady said video from the restaurant shows Smith didn’t attempt to resist or leave McDonald’s during the incident.
→ Community activist Quanell X, speaking on behalf of the family, said the sheriff’s office refused to take Smith’s complaint seriously, and “revictimized the victim.”
→ Quanell X, Smith and Jones held a press conference outside the McDonald’s restaurant in which Jones called for Brady’s resignation.
→ Brady said he was misquoted on a Houston TV news report, and said Quanell X “has done a disservice to the public by putting out information that is totally inaccurate.”
The chief deputy said Wednesday he believes the incident could result in theft and Class A assault charges, but not sexual assault, adding, “if you took everything, it did not meet the statutory requirements of a sexual assault.”
District Attorney John Healey said his office will review evidence presented by sheriff’s detectives, determine whether laws may have been broken, and then either accept the case, reject it or asked detectives to gather additional evidence.
Meanwhile, Brady has called a 2 p.m. Thursday press conference at the sheriff’s office during which, he said, he will release video of the incident shot by a McDonald’s security camera, audio recorded by sheriff’s deputies upon entering the restaurant after the incident, and most, but not all, of the statements given to detectives by the two women accused of attacking Smith.
“This unprecedented release has become necessary due to the continual dissemination of false information by an activist and a single media outlet,” a notice of the press conference, issued by the sheriff’s office, states.
The outlet to which the alert refers is Houston’s KTRK-TV 13. Brady said he complained to the station after it ran a news report displaying his photo and name above a written quote that he said he didn’t make.
KTRK’s news director didn’t return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.
Brady said evidence gathered in the investigation shows, among other things, that the accused women “had been rude” to Smith’s mother in the past, and that in prior visits to the drive-through window at the restaurant, both Smith and the women had “talked dirty” to each other.
Brady also said he thinks Smith “was trying to get the girls to go home with him” and followed one of them into a restaurant bathroom briefly.
Brady said evidence shows the women “did remove some items in his car,” which the sheriff’s office has recovered. While the women were in Smith’s car, Smith was inside talking to a third woman.
In the video, “it’s obvious he’s not resisting. Even after the incident where he was allegedly bitten, he did not leave,” Brady said of Smith. “I haven’t seen anything yet where the young man said he didn’t want to be touched.”
Brady said Jones complained about remarks a deputy allegedly made upon investigating the incident, but audio from that initial investigation shows the deputy didn’t utter the statement Smith’s mother accused him of.
However, Brady acknowledged a deputy on the scene “did make an inappropriate remark.”
Brady said after Jones’ complaint, he initiated an internal affairs investigation. However, Smith’s family wouldn’t cooperate and the investigation couldn’t proceed.
“This has been the most thoroughly investigated misdemeanor in quite some time,” Brady said. “It isn’t the crime of the century.”
When they roll the audio and video I suspect alot hem hawwing and crawfishing from the racebaiters that claimed racism.
at Macdonalds they do it all for you
Much ado about nothing it appears. And of course Quannel X is right there as soon as he smells cameras coming to the scene. What a joke.
Logic and common sense are thrown right out the window,…It’s all about getting a easy check,…ya know like the floor was wet and I slipped, ahhhh,, that will be a guarented check of $10,000.00.
Why work?
Wonder if Evans (QX) will be at the press conference Thursday.
CST, I’ve changed it to read “near Greatwood.” Not to impinge on Greatwood, but it is extremely close to Greatwood and is worded thus in order for people to understand where this occurred. Other news reports have consistently referred to it as being in Richmond, which it is not.
That McDonalds is not part of Greatwood. Please do not refer to it as “the Greatwood McDonald’s restaurant”.