Mothers calling out Dayton PD for alleged mishandling of deadly car crash investigation
DAYTON, Texas - Two mothers in Dayton, Texas are calling for an independent investigation into the police department.
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This comes after the moms say the police mishandled the investigation of two separate car accidents that left one of their daughters dead, and the other paralyzed.
In September of 2020, FOX 26 interviewed Amanda Morales about her 27-year-old daughter Allyssa Salazar, who died while in the front seat of a car that crashed along HWY 146 that July.
"This police department failed us miserably," said Morales, during a news conference last Friday.
BACKGROUND: Dayton mother seeking justice after her daughter was killed in a car crash
Nearly a year and a half later, there have been no changes to Allyssa's case.
Morales says the driver wasn’t sober enough to be behind the wheel, but claims investigators never held her accountable.
Police body cam video captures how detectives examined the scene of the crash and interviewed the driver.
Investigators can be heard in the video saying, "It’s a fatal. There's only one person in there. Looks like they come from the passenger seat and their head went up into the sunroof and the car rolled over."
"Not one person asked her, 'are you drinking?'" Morales said.
For months, Morales has been requesting the video but was repeatedly told no, only obtaining a copy a few days ago through Dolcefino Consulting.
"We can't believe this body cam. With all the liquor bottles and drugs, she wasn’t given a field sobriety test – nothing," Morales said.
"That’s what makes this not just incompetence. They fought this woman for months – both of these mothers over body camera video, and why?" said Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.
Morales has also hired attorney Chris Tritico and his associates for possible civil charges against the bar, where Allyssa and the driver were before the crash.
"You don’t allow someone who you suspect is driving while intoxicated to drive themselves away from the scene," FOX 26 Legal Analyst ChrisTritico said. "And that’s what they did here. This police department should be decertified and someone else should come in and take this over."
Similarly, Marina Hernandez-Quiroz and her daughter, Madelyn, who was paralyzed in a car crash in January of 2020, have been attempting to get a copy of the body cam video from Madelyn's accident.
"Now, I've been told the bodycam footage has been deleted. You tell me why," Hernandez-Quiroz said.
"We are now conducting an investigation into every single major accident in the city of Dayton, over the last several years, focusing in part on folks of color," Dolcefino added.
No criminal charges were ever filed for either case.
FOX 26 reached out to Dayton Police and the city attorney for comment, but have not heard back as of Sunday evening.