casebolt_mckinney-pool party
Officer(s) Involved: Cpl. Eric Casebolt and one other officer, whose name is currently unknown.
Department Involved: McKinney (TX) Police Department
Location: 2200 Taylor Burk Dr., McKinney, TX. 75071,
Phone Number: (972) 547-2700

The out of control behavior of former McKinney Texas Police Officer Eric Casebolt during a pool party incident are still fresh in everyone's minds, especially that impressive somersault. This story comes to us from the "submit" tab here at CopBlock.org from a reader that wishes to remain anonymous for personal safety. This reader wanted to make the public aware of an incident that took place back in September of 2011 which highlights another instance of this guy unnecessarily escalating a simple 911 call for an injured person into an outright violation of rights and violence:
I'd like to provide you an overview of the "hell" my friend, Priscilla Diane Long (not to mention her husband of 35 yrs. and children) have been living through the past 4 yrs. as a result of Mr. Casebolt's threats and reckless escalation of a possible medical issue that McKinney police should have never been involved in to begin with. Today, she sits in the Collin County Detention Center waiting a court hearing on July 29th to hopefully have her charge of Assault Against a Peace Officer found not guilty.

Diane (goes by her middle name) is a 60 yr. old wife, mother, and grandmother who prior to the incident on 9/28/11 had no criminal history (likewise for her husband). She was a former Frisco city council candidate in 2000, active in numerous public service causes including membership in the First United Methodist Church of McKinney. I have several on-line testimonials which provide strong examples of her character.

On the afternoon of 9/28/11 at a home they were temporarily renting in McKinney (they had just sold their Lake Texoma property), Diane was laying down in the living room, not feeling well, when the rental property mgr. knocked on the door unannounced and wanted to speak to her. When Diane asked her to please come back later and went to shut the door, the prop. mgr. stuck her foot in the door which caused Diane to slip on a blanket she had wrapped around her, fall backwards and hit her head on the foyer floor.

What happened next is a surreal nightmare:
Although her husband was home, the prop. mgr. took it upon herself to call 911. However, instead of an ambulance, two McKinney cops arrived, one was Eric Casebolt. After helping his wife upstairs to lay down, the doorbell rang and Mr. Long was told they were here for a welfare check and needed to see for themselves if his wife was OK. He was shocked and told them she was lying down and if she needed medical care that he, her husband, would take her to the hospital or call 911.

Casebolt insisted angrily that "either she needs to come down here or we need to go upstairs." After he pleaded that neither she nor he had ever done anything wrong in our lives and didn't want any trouble, he threatened Mr. Long saying "maybe you & I need to go take a walk." At that point he was scared, relented, and they proceeded to walk up the stairs as his wife was yelling at them to not come up the stairs. Walking into their bedroom, they noticed a gun, called SWAT (including heavy tank like vehicles), at least 30-40 cop cars, locked down a North McKinney High School event, shot Mrs. Long from 10 ft. away with a bean bag gun, jumped on her, made her strip naked, and arrested her for two counts of assault against a peace officer. It's amazing she wasn't killed. Her two sons were outside the barricaded scene with Mr. Long and had to endure the horror of wondering if they'd see their mother alive again. Mr. Long was told by a different cop "it's always the people who don't pay taxes we have the most problems with." Prior to renting that home in 2010, Mr. & Mrs. Long had owned primary residences and investment properties since Sept. 1983.

I'm writing this to you because a property mgr., who should have never called 911, and a reckless, threatening officer, who should have never got involved let alone over escalate the situation, have destroyed these people's lives the past four yrs.
Casebolt originally stated that he let events that took place earlier in the day affect his judgement in the handling of the events that unfolded while responding to the pool party call. He resigned from his position as police officer shortly after the story went viral. I call shenanigans at his excuse as now we have another story of this guy abusing his authority to illegally gain entry into someone's home and escalating a situation of an injured woman into a full SWAT response.

Mr. Casebolt is not alone in being assigned blame in this instance though. The property manager was also in the wrong for how she handled things from the time she stuck her foot in the door to prevent the door from being closed to the time she called 911. It appears that this situation was doomed to take a dark turn from the moment the property manager knocked on the door.