A Dallas County alternate election judge has accused Commissioner John Wiley Price of assault.
Cynthia Stairs filed a police report with Dallas Police days after the alleged incident on May 3 at Friendship West Church polling location, according to a statement by the Dallas County Republican Party chairman.
Dallas Police spokesperson Corbin Rubinson said the victim reported that the suspect knocked her phone out of her hands and demanded she leave the location.
DPD transferred the report to the Dallas County Sheriff's Office after it was filed May 5 because the sheriff's office has jurisdiction over polling places.
Sheriff spokesperson Doug Sisk said investigators will review the report and decide whether an offense occurred.
"From what I understand, it's an accusation of a physical contact thing," he said. "So all it's going to be is, basically, probably boil down to a Class C traffic ticket — Class C assault."
Assault by contact — a misdemeanor different than a felony assault — means a victim was not necessarily injured.
Stairs had called 911 from the church, but eventually said police help was no longer needed, so no action taken and no report was made that day.
Dallas Police can arrest or detain someone if they witness a crime in progress at the scene, including at locations where they do not have jurisdiction, Rubinson said.
"The report was made after the incident occurred," he said. "There's just definitely nothing for us to, just, immediately go and file an arrest warrant. We took the information and then said, 'Oh, this happened at an election site, we're going to transfer this over to the county.'"
The Class C charge legal process is the same as a barking dog complaint, Sisk said.
"You want to file a complaint on it, the officers go out and take a report," he said. "The report goes to the court, then the complainant has to go to the court and sign a complaint to have an officer or the marshal go out, write a ticket for that offense, and then they go to court about it."
Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West said in a statement that if a white Republican male commissioner assaulted a Black woman the "usual suspects" would come to Dallas, followed by a "national outcry" for prosecution and resignation.
"I find this behavior despicable," the statement said.
Commissioner Price did not respond to text or phone messages.
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