Tony Timpa's wrongful death trial finally set to begin on Monday
DALLAS - Proceedings in a federal civil rights case against four Dallas police officers are set to start Monday.
Tony Timpa called 911 during a drug and mental health crisis back in 2016. He was off his medicine and afraid he might harm himself or others.
Body camera video of the incident showed an officer holding his knee on Timpa’s neck for nearly 15 minutes, even after Timpa stopped resisting.
The medical examiner ruled that Timpa's cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest from the combination of cocaine and stress on his body from the restraint police placed him in.
Four officers were indicted by a Dallas County Grand Jury, but the district attorney dismissed the charges.
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Timpa’s family filed a lawsuit claiming the city and the officers share responsibility for his death.
There had been a legal battle over whether the officers had qualified immunity, protecting them from civil liability for his death.
Dallas tried to argue the officers are legally protected from lawsuits, but the Supreme Court upheld a federal appeals court’s ruling that allowed the case to proceed.
The trial was originally scheduled to begin in July, but it was delayed at the last minute.