According to the Dallas Morning News reports, Maritza Thomas, wife of Cowboys linebacker Zach Thomas, had and encounter with Robert Powell, a Dallas police officer. It was reported that Maritza was handcuffed and was sent to the jail where she spent about three hours on the ground of illegal U-turn in July 2008.

At that time, Officer Powell stopped Maritza Thomas for making an illegal U-turn. Mrs. Thomas was issued 5 tickets for various offenses. Four of the said tickets were later dropped including failure to show proof of insurance, improper address in driver’s license, running a red light, and a registration sticker was not on the windshield. Mrs. Thomas was, however, handcuffed and thrown to jail which the lawyer of Maritza claimed as improper as she should not have been arrested just for Class C citation.  She, nonetheless, accepted deferred adjudication for the illegal U-turn charge, and her record will be cleared next month.

Bob Gorskly, lawyer of Powell, on the other hand, claimed that the arrest was proper because it was due to multiple traffic charges.

“I do understand that an arrest on multiple traffic charges happens often and is absolutely proper under these circumstances,” Gorsky told The Morning News. “Often, when there are multiple charges, an arrest made and bond posted, some of the charges from a single event are later dropped.”

Another allegation arose against the officer that he was the one who prevented Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats from entering a hospital to be able to see his dying mother-in-law just last week. Powell even detained Moats for 13 minutes, in which time his mother-in-law died. Powell gave out an apology just last Friday.

Thomas, however, said to the same News, “This in no way compares to what happened to Ryan Moats and his family. But we wanted to tell our story, not knowing how many others have been affected by Officer Powell. We know the vast majority of the Dallas police force are good and professional people, but this guy just seems excessive.”

Accordingly, Officer Powell was placed under administrative leave ever since the incident with Ryan Moats. The Dallas police are to investigate the complaints filed against Officer Powell.