July 13, 2023 - A Shelby County jury found Dwight Preston not guilty recently regarding the allegation of assault against elderly or disabled, involving a Center ISD student.
The charge on information stemmed from an incident that took place March 4, 2020, which alleged Preston, who was a paraprofessional at the school, caused physical contact with a disabled individual and should have reasonably known the contact would be regarded as offensive or provocative.
Trial was held June 6, 2023 in county court, as the charge was misdemeanor, and the trial was ruled over by Jim Payne, 273rd Judicial District Court Judge. After reviewing all of the information presented, according to court documents the six-person jury deliberated and came back with a finding of not guilty.
Preston’s attorney, Quinon Brooker was available for comment on the case and felt the allegation was necessary for review; however, he did wish the time it took to get to an end result had been less.
“When you saw the evidence, when you see the video, you could understand why it did have to be looked at,” said Brooker. “I think it did have to be looked at, I just wish that it didn’t have to take three years of his life to get to that point.”
The allegation was of a basic assault, but Brooker explained that since it was involving a disabled individual that exacerbated the situation.
“The interesting thing about it was there was a video and you have this video, which was very good quality and you can’t always say that,” said Brooker. “The video however, had no audio so in order to truly understand what was going on having audio would have been much better.”
Brooker described the facts alleged were that Preston had assaulted the student in the cafeteria in front of other students in a place where he knew a camera was located, while he was working.
“The video showed Mr. Preston grab the student and forcibly move the student from one seat to another,” said Brooker. “As we got into the testimony, you could see, the child put his head down on the table and put his hood over. I know from what [Mr. Preston] told me, the context of that [the student] was ignoring Dwight, at that point Dwight takes [the student’s] hood off says something to him, and then puts his hood back on and walks away.”
Brooker explained this action was being portrayed as Preston slamming the student’s head into the cafeteria table. Alternatively, Brooker says when someone watches the video they could clearly see Preston walk up to the student lift the hoody, lean in and say something to the student, replace the hoody and then walk away.
“We found out in testimony that the teacher, the actual instructor, she had never seen the video even that day, to this day she hasn’t seen the video, but she had heard about what happened,” said Brooker.
Brooker said the video was very clear and he felt County Attorney John Price, assisted by District Attorney Karren Price, tried a very good case; however, he believes the video that was presented was more helpful to Preston’s case rather than to the prosecution. Brooker believes without the video providing the jurors with a view of what actually occurred, there may have been a completely different outcome to the trial.
A point of contention which resulted in an argument between the defense and prosecution during trial, according to Brooker, was over Section 9.62: Educator-student of the Penal Code and whether or not it could be included in the jury charge.
“[It] allows an educator to use force to further a purpose or to maintain discipline in a classroom setting,” said Brooker.
Ultimately, Judge Jim Payne sided with the defense in allowing Section 9.62 to be included in the jury charge. See Section 9.62 here.
Brooker says Preston was doing what he thought was in the best interest of the children involved on the day of the incident, and he knew the child in question and was aware of his proclivities and behaviors.
“[Preston] was not even supposed to be there, he was actually walking another child to class and another one of the children that was sitting in the cafeteria called [Preston’s] name,” said Brooker.
According to Brooker, that child informed Preston the other student was sitting in the cafeteria and was not supposed to be sitting there, and not beside him.
“Dwight goes over, you can see him talking to the child from across the table, he has a backpack on because he’s leaving, he’s not even supposed to be in there, and the child doesn’t comply, he just sits there,” said Brooker. “Dwight says that the child said some choice words to him and Dwight was upset, so he goes around the table, picks the child up, and moves him to the other seat.”
Brooker elaborated the student was a child of larger stature and as a result was more difficult for Preston to move, which didn’t present a good appearance as he was attempting to move the student. He further explained to the jury it wouldn’t look good to see someone with their hands on their child.
“The child wouldn’t move, he was a larger child, and it took some strength or some force to move the child over,” sand Brooker. “He moved him over to the chair and he walked away, and then he said something else to the child, the child put his head down like, ‘I’m ignoring you,’ and then Dwight walked over, picked the hood up said something to the child, put the hood back down, and left.”
Brooker thinks proper procedures were followed in how school police investigated, and how it was handled by school staff, who all agreed an assault had occurred. He went on to describe a situation of students who were witnesses to what had happened taking their story home, and without an explanation, the school would possibly have had something for which to answer.
“Even though, they know the rule, they know [Section] 9.62, they know in dealing with disabled children or any child in school there are times when you have to grab a child to break up a fight, or you have to grab a child when he’s not being compliant with an instruction you may have to use some force,” said Brooker.
There is training for paraprofessionals and Brooker said they receive certification and go through training on how to de-escalate a situation, and if that doesn’t work they are even taught what kinds of holds to use in a situation where a de-escalation is unsuccessful.
“Mr. Preston had that certification at the time, had he testified we would have presented that certification, but we didn’t need to because ironically one of the state’s witnesses, who was also a paraprofessional, she testified that they had to receive that certification and that she had that green card as well,” said Brooker.
In addition to Preston’s work at the school, another thing he is well known for in the community is the Preston Football Camp which is a summer camp he has hosted for years, helping to educate children on the fundamentals of football.
“I hope that he’s able to get back into the community and do that work, it’s very important, I believe that he does it sincerely and he’s not looking for anything from it he just wants to give back, he loves Center, he loves Shelby County,” said Brooker. “I think he’ll be able to. Everything that I received from even those that testified for the state they were all like, ‘hey we love Dwight, this is unfortunate,’ even one of the officers that testified, he was so conflicted. You just could tell it was tearing him apart just to go up there and to report what he believed he had seen.”
Brooker hopes that can be a repaired relationship and Preston can go back and continue his work in the community, and only time will tell.
