Car Crash Victims’ Families Call For Firings In Dayton After Police Misconduct
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2021
Two heartbroken and very angry mothers will hold a news conference Friday, November 19 to reveal the horrible police negligence and city hall coverup in the handling of police investigations of accidents that killed one of their daughters and left another paralyzed.
The moms will call for the resignation of Interim City Manager David Willard and demand Dayton City Council conduct an independent investigation of the police department and make the findings public. Police Chief Robert Vine announced his resignation this week, citing a new job, but not the Dolcefino Consulting investigation that has proven the city of Dayton lied to at least one of these accident victims’ families and failed the citizens of Dayton.
Madelyn “Maddii” Quiroz was just 16 years old when she was the victim of a car accident that paralyzed her from the waist down. On January 23, 2020, Maddii—a dancer on her high school team—climbed into the backseat of her friend’s car to get crawfish after school. The driver began driving recklessly, racing another car, and eventually crashed.
Dayton police did not conduct a sobriety test, inventory the vehicle, or conduct formal witness interviews. Maddii’s mother Marina begged the department to conduct an accident reconstruction. The victim’s mom says police lied when they told her they didn’t have the resources for accident reconstruction. In fact, two accident reconstructionists were on the police payroll. Dayton police haven’t even bothered to even interview the teenage victim in 22 months.
For a year and half the city fought the mom’s request to view police body camera video, even telling the Texas Attorney General the video was part of an ongoing criminal investigation. It turns out that was a lie. The video was destroyed by Dayton police, just months after the accident and the city is now claiming the case was never under investigation.
“One of these moms buried her daughter and the other has to see her little girl struggle every minute of every day for the rest of her life, and the city of Dayton has treated them like… well you know the rest,” said Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “The city has kept all their incompetence and coverups a secret from the citizens of Dayton and that ends Friday morning.”
Sadly, Maddii’s accident was not the only case botched by police. On July 6, 27-year-old Allyssa Salazar sent her last Snapchat video, which shows her and a friend drinking at a sports bar. Hours later, Allyssa died in the passenger seat of a car that flipped over on 146. Salazar was ejected from the sunroof and the car crashed on her.
Dayton Police noted no alcohol or drug use in their accident report. However, photographs from the scene show bottles of alcohol and a bag of marijuana in the grass just feet from the wreck. As in Maddii’s case, the police again refused an accident reconstruction and fought requests for body camera footage.
Criminal charges were never filed in either accident and now we have body camera footage of that accident the media will want to see. We have also obtained a copy of a previously secret report written by former Dayton City Manager Theo Melancon who confirmed the police incompetence. Melancon recommended Chief Vine be demoted last year, but the current interim city manager reversed the recommendation.
Dolcefino Consulting President Wayne Dolcefino will join Marina and Maddii Quiroz and Amanda Morales this Friday, November 19, in front of the Dayton Police Department, located at 2004 N. Cleveland Street, to call for heads to roll. We are now conducting investigations into other accidents in the City of Dayton.
We will make available body camera video, documents kept secret by the city of Dayton, and audio recordings made with Dayton Police officers.
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