Holding Houston Police Accountable for Alleged Attack on a Disabled Black Man
Holland v. Otero et al.
On January 29, 2025, Civil Rights Corps filed a lawsuit against 6 Houston Police Department (“HPD”) officers on behalf of Houston resident Terrence Holland. Mr. Holland has multiple physical, cognitive, and psychological disabilities, including PTSD, hearing impairments, and a traumatic brain injury. The complaint alleges that defendant HPD officers Antonio Otero, Aaron Parr, Lucia Gracia, R. Hernandez, Julian M. Montemayor, and Sergeant John C. Fisher used overwhelming and excessive force on Mr. Holland when they repeatedly hit, kicked, punched, and tased him during a minor traffic stop.
According to the complaint, Defendant Otero stopped Mr. Holland for a suspected traffic violation one block away from his home on December 19, 2019. Otero stated that there was an issue with Mr. Holland’s license or registration and immediately ordered Mr. Holland to step out of his car. Mr. Holland, noticing Otero’s agitation and wanting to avoid a violent escalation, fully complied and requested to speak with a police supervisor. Defendant Otero then summoned additional HPD officers to the scene for backup, who arrived several minutes later. Mr. Holland was standing calmly with his hands in the air to demonstrate that he posed no threat when the additional officers arrived. The lawsuit alleges that Defendants Gracia and Parr immediately grabbed Mr. Holland, kicked him, and pulled him to the ground. The complaint further alleges that, within seconds, Defendant Parr deployed his taser on Mr. Holland and shocked him repeatedly for about a minute straight, in a blatant violation of HPD policy. Next, the complaint states, Defendant Otero joined in the pile-on, grabbing Mr. Holland and striking him in the head with his knee and elbow. Finally, the complaint alleges that Defendants Montemayor and Hernandez observed the violent assault and did nothing to intervene in their fellow officers’ misconduct.
Mr. Holland was physically incapacitated by the body weight of at least three armed officers who, the lawsuit alleges, had no reason to believe he posed a threat to their safety, let alone one that would justify this level of force. According to the lawsuit, the defendant officers continued their attack despite Mr. Holland’s lack of resistance to their assault, and despite the fact he was crying out in pain and unarmed. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Holland’s then-girlfriend informed the officers that Mr. Holland is disabled and pleaded with them to stop, to no avail. The complaint alleges that after the attack, defendant officers arrested Mr. Holland and charged him with assault on an officer, using falsified evidence to cover up their excessive use of force.
The alleged attack left Mr. Holland injured and traumatized. According to the complaint, the defendants’ assault ruptured the stitches in Mr. Holland’s ear, split his lip open, and wounded his rib cage. The charges against Mr. Holland were ultimately dismissed, but not before he was made to endure an unjust prosecution that, the complaint alleges, was designed to cover up defendants’ own violence. With this lawsuit, Mr. Holland hopes to shed light on the epidemic of police violence against Black disabled people, who are both disproportionately targeted for police violence and more likely to suffer severe and lasting injuries as a result.
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