FORT WORTH, Texas — Arlington resident Patrice Jones was arrested days after police accused her of “criminal mischief” stemming from an incident during a series of protests. Jones was accused of damaging tabletops and bar tops at Hopdoddy Burger Bar, according to a police incident report.
Though Jones admits she was inside the restaurant, she has steadfastly denied that she caused any damage, citing police intimidation as the motive for her arrest. As Spectrum News 1 reported in June 2020, several protest leaders suspected police were targeting them as retaliation for demanding police reform and justice for police crimes against people of color.
Jones had never been arrested before last June when 10 police officers dressed in military gear surrounded her home before taking her in. She was one of roughly 50 people arrested in connection with the protests. Only a few cases are still pending, as Tarrant County prosecutors have either dropped cases against protesters or worked out plea deals.
Two weeks ago, Jones’ case was dropped, but only after the county District Attorney’s office hauled her in and out of court while offering her various plea deals along the way.
“I kept turning the offers down,” she said. “I’m innocent, so I was willing to take it to a jury trial, and the lead prosecutor didn’t want to do that because they didn’t have any evidence.”
Not even the CEO of the Austin-based burger chain wanted Jones prosecuted. In a letter to her penned last year, Hopdoddy’s chief executive Jeff Chandler affirmed that his company didn’t plan to press charges and sounded generally supportive of the protests.
Jones said the protesters marched to Hopdoddy because of a sign on the door that suggested the restaurant would be closed due to civil disorder. The group also marched to Varsity Tavern — a nearby bar with a sordid history of enforcing its allegedly racist dress code, and Your Mom’s House — a bar whose former employee dressed as Colin Kaepernick in Black-face for Halloween and wasn’t immediately fired.
Two other women arrested in connection with the protest at Hopdoddy each accepted a plea deal of two years probation.
Amad Beverly is another holdout who refuses to accept a plea deal. Against his instincts, he said he turned himself in when other protesters told him a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he said he has no intention of giving up.
Like Jones, Beverly has been pulled into court multiple times and offered various deals by the DA’s office. He was also arrested for damage to Hopdoddy but maintains that he never damaged any property — and says he has video evidence that supports his claim.
Beverly said the whole ordeal has affected both his personal and work lives.
“I’m still fighting this case,” he said. “I got fired from two jobs because they looked me up, and they see ‘criminal mischief.’”
He was almost fired again from his current job, but this time his employers were more sympathetic.
“They said, ‘How come you tell us about this,’” he said. “I said, ‘Because I’m not convicted. And I didn’t do any of that.’
Jones was one of many local citizens who entered political life in the wake of the protests. She served as communications manager to recent mayoral candidate Deborah Peoples. She and others also started the Southside Comment Gardens, a 501c3 dedicated to addressing the food desert in East Fort Worth.
She said she’s not looking to get back into politics anytime soon but will continue to be an active voice for change in Fort Worth.
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A protester's charges were dropped, another refuses to accept a plea deal - Spectrum News
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