Houston Police Accused of Beating Marvin Driver Jr.

By TChris, Section Misconduct
Posted on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 12:59:30 PM EST
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The truth of these allegations hasn't been established, but it's undisputed that Marvin Driver, Jr. was hospitalized after his encounter with the Houston police. The incident merits mention here because Marvin is the father of beloved Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver, who missed two days of practice this week to visit his dad in a Houston hospital.

According to the Driver family, Marvin was stopped by Houston police and arrested on outstanding traffic warrants.

"Later, the family found out he never made it to the jail, he was picked up by the paramedics several blocks from his parents home laying in the street bloody and unconscious and the police were no where to be found."

According to Marvin, who had to write out the details on paper towels because he was unable to speak: [more ...]

Driver wrote that the officers, whom he said he knew personally, took him to a station, kicked him in the stomach, elbowed him in the neck and forced something down his throat.

Those officers have been removed from patrol duties and given administrative jobs pending investigation. This is their version, as related by the police department:

"Mr. Marvin Driver Jr. was arrested during a traffic stop and placed into custody on outstanding traffic warrants about 1:30 am on Monday (Nov 17). Officers placed him in the back seat of a patrol unit and transported him to our Southeast Jail at 8300 Mykawa Road. Upon arrival to the jail, our officers stated Mr Driver was unresponsive. One of our jail doctors examined Mr. Driver and advised officers to contact HFD paramedics. HFD then transported Mr. Driver to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Driver was treated for a brain hemorrhage. By Thursday, his condition had been upgraded from critical to good, although he remains hospitalized. Meanwhile, Donald Driver has returned to team practices and is expected to play in Monday night's game against the Saints.

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Houston Police Accused of Beating Marvin Driver Jr. | 8 comments (8 topical)

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Perhaps you are (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by JamesTX on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 01:47:49 PM EST

unaware, but the Texas justice system not only recognizes, but requires, two distinct and mutually exclusive sequences of events to be valid, and sometimes more if more than one official is required to be exonerated. One sequence must convict the accused, and the others exonerate the officials. I know this is sort of hard to understand for residents of other states, but hey, we're big -- we have room for more than one story.

: 1984 (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by Jacob Freeze on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 04:49:46 PM EST

"The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this."
The strangest thing about 1984 is that it all came true, and everybody and nobody noticed and didn't notice.

if: (4.66 / 3) (#1)
by cpinva on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 01:25:02 PM EST

Upon arrival to the jail, our officers stated Mr Driver was unresponsive. One of our jail doctors examined Mr. Driver and advised officers to contact HFD paramedics. HFD then transported Mr. Driver to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

is true and documented, then

how could this also be true?

one version is obviously false, unless the HFD paramedics dropped him on the road and left him there, to be picked up by others later.

should be interesting to see how these two versions of events are reconciled.

: It can be pretty easily verified, I would think (none / 0) (#2)
by eric on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 01:39:38 PM EST

by the paramedics. Either they picked him up off the road or they picked him up at the jail. Either way, the guy was beat up by somebody, it seems.

And all over... (1.00 / 1) (#7)
by kdog on Sun Nov 23, 2008 at 08:26:30 AM EST

some unpaid traffic tickets...I almost wish this sh*t still shocked me, the fact that it doesn't is the saddest thing of all...I have no faith in our institutions...none.

One way street (none / 0) (#5)
by sailingwindward on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 08:33:11 PM EST

Why is it when citizens commit crimes they get arrested, and when cops commit a crime they get paid administrative leave, even if charges are later dropped, the citizen has an arrest record for life, is there something that says cops are above the law?

: yes. (1.00 / 1) (#6)
by cpinva on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 09:10:13 PM EST

is there something that says cops are above the law?

Facts aren't in yet (none / 0) (#8)
by Helpful on Mon Nov 24, 2008 at 06:21:52 AM EST

I listened to the family spokesman the other day in a lengthy interview on the Michael Berry show and he says that most of the media accounts of what transpired are not accurate so I'll reserve my judgement of what took place but offer a few points here.
Mr. Driver (the man claiming he was beaten) has a lengthy criminal history for robbing people, drugs, and other things. The city police have perfect records.
Mr. Driver claims the cops beat him when they stopped at a Valero gas station and the police say they did not stop. This should be easily verifiable since the police track cars by some form of GPS that records their moves.
Mr. Driver says the cops poured something down his throat while at the Valero, presumably drugs, which seems counter intuitive (if they had found drugs on him, wouldn't it be easier to put him in jail for them instead of some traffic tickets?).
The early accounts were that Mr. Driver and the cops knew each other personally, the police having grown up in his neighborhood. His spokesperson says this was falsely reported.

If the police officers did what was accused of them, they should be punished but jumping the gun to believe unsubstantiated accounts does them, and the community as a whole, a disservice. This is the kind of case where reasonable people might want to give it some time to be checked out.