The Ellis County District Attorney’s Office will not pursue additional charges against the woman who made “blatantly false and malicious” allegations of sexual assault against a state trooper last weekend.
Sherita Dixon-Cole falsely accused a Texas DPS trooper of sexually assaulting her during an arrest for allegedly driving drunk on May 20. Body camera footage cleared the officer in the case.
The district attorney’s office considered two different false report or false alarm charges.
She’ll be spared additional charges, though, because she made the “damaging” allegations to a detention officer at the Ellis County Jail and over the phone to private citizens.
“It is from those phone calls that the false claims against the trooper were made public,” the district attorney’s office said.
According to the Texas Penal Code, a false report charge is warranted only when the claims are made to a peace officer or investigator working a case. D.A. Patrick Wilson decided a detention officer doesn’t fit that bill.
A false alarm charge is pursued when a false claim “causes action by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies,” puts someone in fear of “imminent serious bodily injury” or interferes with public access to an establishment.
Dixon-Cole’s lies “did not create a situation, either real or false, in which there was imminent danger of serious bodily injury or imminent danger of damage or destruction to property,” Wilson wrote.
Wilson acknowledged that the decision would “frustrate many in the public who have called for charges” in the case, and said the office “shares the frustration.”
“This office agrees wholeheartedly with the public sentiment that something should be done to Sherita Dixon-Cole for the malicious lies she told and for the harm she brought to a dedicated peace officer who was just doing his job with grace and dignity,” the statement reads. “But the law and the facts in this matter do not support the filing of criminal charges. Other possible remedies at law are outside the scope and expertise of this office.”
Dixon-Cole’s claims were amplified by a statement from attorney Lee Merritt and by a viral social media post by activist Shaun King. Merritt apologized for “bringing the issue to national attention” and King wrote a blog post on Medium admitting no wrong was done and saying he was “baffled” by the lies.