A grand jury is reviewing a fatal crash the president of Dallas’ largest police union was involved in while off duty earlier this year, according to newly obtained records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News.
The investigation signals possible criminal charges in the multi-vehicle crash in northwest Dallas that left a pedestrian dead. Grand juries work in secret to review the work of investigators and prosecutors and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to merit charges.
Department leadership placed Sr. Cpl. Jaime Castro, a longtime officer and president of the Dallas Police Association, on administrative leave as part of an internal affairs investigation eight months after the March crash. Police spokespeople have declined to explain the Nov. 14 decision and its timing.
An internal police document provided to The News on Wednesday through an open-records request states the rationale for Castro’s being placed on leave as “Grand Jury referral for Class A Misdemeanor.”
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The scope of the investigation and whether it’s Castro who could face charges were unclear Wednesday. The vehicle he was in had two other occupants, and a responding officer’s report listed him as a passenger.
A Dallas County district attorney’s spokesperson did not respond to a list of questions about the grand jury on Wednesday. Neither Castro nor his attorney, John Snider, has returned messages seeking comment since the officer was placed on leave.
The handling of the March 15 crash in the 2500 block of West Northwest Highway has been under scrutiny for months. An allegation that two responding officers failed to properly investigate the crash began 10 days afterward, records show.
Those officers, Officer Evan Muller and Officer Robert Wilcox Jr., were on administrative leave until at least Aug. 15, according to records reviewed by The News.
Whether Muller and Wilcox faced disciplinary action and have returned to duty is unclear. Police spokespeople have declined to answer questions about their standing, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police were dispatched to the West Northwest Highway scene around 10 p.m. and found a woman had been struck by a Cadillac sedan while attempting to cross the roadway on foot, Muller wrote in a report obtained by The News.
The report lists Castro as the front-seat passenger of the Cadillac. The impact caused the sedan to swerve and hit a Toyota sedan trailing behind it on the roadway, Muller wrote.
Dallas Fire-Rescue personnel transported the woman to Parkland Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 10:43 p.m. She was identified as Atianna Washington, 25.
The area where Washington was struck had no dedicated crosswalk and had “very little to no” lighting, Muller wrote in a report.
A toxicology analysis of Washington found she was intoxicated by alcohol and “drugs,” according to a May supplement to the report.
The report does not specify the degree of intoxication or which drugs Washington may have used. It lists the findings as “contributing factors” in the crash.
Castro, 52, joined the department in 1998 and is assigned to the department’s alarm unit, which is housed in the office of the police chief. Dallas Police Association members elected him president in January 2024. Before then, he had served on the union’s executive board since 2016.