Speaking Out

Monika Diaz reports

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• 10/22: Woman cited for not speaking English
• 10/23: Dallas' top cop apologizes
• 10/23: Lawyer: There may be more victims
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DALLAS — The woman who exposed a Dallas police practice of issuing tickets for failing to speak English is now speaking out for herself.

Dallas police Chief David Kunkle apologized Friday for the ticket that was issued to Ernestina Mondragon. Kunkle admitted that 38 similar tickets had been issued in the past three years.

Now, Mondragon and Hispanic leaders are demanding change.

At a news conference on Sunday, Mondragon said she attempted to communicate with the officer who had stopped her for making an illegal U-turn. She said she asked the officer — in English — if her daughter could get out of the car and go to school.

"My daughter can go to school because its late for her? He said, 'Yes, okay.'"

Mondragon, who is a legal U.S. resident, calls it discrimination.

"It's very humilating," she told reporters,speaking in Spanish. "My self-esteem hit the floor. I felt bad. I felt like I was being discriminated against."

Now that she knows dozens of others have been cited for the same rason, she wants the Dallas Police Department to give its officers and supervisors more training.

"I wouldn't want this to happen to my kids, my grandchildren, because it's so humiliating," Mondragon said. "It has marked me for the rest of my life."

On Friday, Chief Kunkle promised that the six officers who wrote the 39 tickets and their suspervisors will be investigated.

Kunkle said the officers might have been confused by an option on the citation menu on the computer inside patrol cars, but that option applies only to commercial drivers.

Mondragon's attorney, Domingo Garcia, wants Dallas Police to investigate how many "no-English" tickets have been handed out in the last ten years.

"We are concerned that tickets are being given out ... for driving while not being able to speak English to U.S. residents, U.S. citizens, people with drivers' licenses who might have a language barrier," Garcia said.

Garcia plans to file a complaint with the Dallas Police Review Board this week.

E-mail mdiaz@wfaa.com