Crime
Police
In 2021, Bryan Riser was jailed in connection with murders he denied playing any part in. Now, he'll be getting a check from the city after agreeing to be reinstated then immediately resigning.
By Jacob Vaughn
August 14, 2024
Bryan Riser is suing the investigator who initially accused him of capital murder, saying he violated his civil rights.Scott Rodgerson/Unsplash
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Bryan Riser, a former Dallas Police Department officer once accused of capital murder and fired from the department, has signed an agreement with the city to be reinstated, then immediately resign. Riser will receive full back pay from March 2021 to July 10, 2024. Robert Rogers, Riser’s attorney, said the agreement will allow his client to move on with his life.
"This was about clearing his name," Rogers said. "He really had no desire to go back and work for the Dallas Police Department." He is hopeful that this will open up employment opportunities for his client in the private sector.
In 2021, a Dallas police investigator accused Riser of ordering hits on two people: 30-year-old Liza Saenz and 60-year-old Albert Douglas. The problem is the department didn’t have the evidence to back up the claim. Nonetheless, Riser was arrested and lost his job over the accusation. Riser has maintained his innocence the whole time.
"This was about clearing his name." – Robert Rogers, attorney tweet this
He was released from jail about a month after his arrest in April 2021 when a judge said there wasn’t enough evidence to keep him locked up. Detective Esteban Montenegro, who is still with the department, brought the case against Riser but testified during a hearing in 2021 that he made false statements in the arrest warrant affidavit that served as the basis to arrest the former DPD officer. The arrest warrant affidavit claimed there was cellphone data that placed Riser in or around the area of the killings. Montenegro later testified that this was a mistake and wasn’t true.
This was all sparked by another suspect in the case who told Montenegro that Riser ordered the hits. For his testimony against Riser, the other suspect was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years. He was initially facing the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Riser appealed his firing earlier but was unsuccessful. His last chance to be reinstated was before the city’s civil service board during a hearing in July.
The administrative law judge presiding over the hearing threw out the capital murder allegations, as well as an accusation that Riser didn’t make note of some of his employment on his DPD job application. The only charge that stuck during the hearing related to an inconsistent statement Riser made during an internal affairs interview. “It was a minor, technical violation,” Rogers said of the charge. He said his client is relieved this part of the process is over.
Riser still has a pending lawsuit against the investigator who initially accused him, but now that this agreement has been signed, Rogers said his client can “continue to piece his life back together.” He added, “This was an important step in clearing his name.”
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