DALLAS – Ernestina Mondragon understood she would have to pay a fine when rookie Dallas police officer ticketed her for making an illegal U-turn.
But it was a ticket he gave her for being a “non-English speaking driver” that she knew had to be wrong.
“I wanted to tell him,” Mondragon told The Associated Press in Spanish on Friday. “I couldn’t talk back to him out of respect.”
Mondragon had been driving her 11-year-old daughter to school on Oct. 2 when Officer Gary Bromley stopped her. She had forgotten her purse with her license in it while darting out the door that morning after her daughter missed the school bus.
Bromley cited her for making an illegal U-turn, failing to carry her drivers license and being a “non-English speaking driver.”
“I felt humiliated. Sad,” she said. “I wanted to cry but I couldn’t. The anger wouldn’t let me.”
During the exchange between her and the officer, Mondragon said she used the limited English words and phrases she knows.
“He asked me if I spoke English. I said I speak a little and understand it,” she said.
The Dallas Police Department admited the patrol officer, who is still in his second phase of field training, made a mistake when he issued the ticket.
While there is a law that requires commercial drivers to speak English, no law prohibits people who don’t speak English from driving a private vehicle.
Police said the ticket was reviewed by the officers training officer and supervisor, but both failed to correct it.
When she went court, Mondragon said court staffers seemed puzzled by the charge. The court ultimately dismissed the “non-English” ticket and driver’s license citation after Mondragon presented her license.
Dallas police said over the past three years, 38 similar citations have been issued. Only one other person has challenged it in court, and it was dismissed.
Chief David Kunkle said he has apologized to Mondragon and is investigating the other cases.
“The department is reviewing its current processes to ensure this action from occurring again as well as investigating this incident to determine responsibility. Once the findings are presented, a determination will be made on possible disciplinary or corrective actions,” the department stated in a release.
