BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas – A Brazoria County man who claims he had just been beaten at a bar is now suing the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office after former deputy Kevin Tippit allegedly fractured his ankle during a traffic stop — then allegedly called the violent takedown “protocol.”
Justin Parker filed the federal civil rights lawsuit last week. The suit names Tippit, three other deputies, a supervising sergeant and Brazoria County as defendants.
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What happened that night
According to the lawsuit, Parker — a 118-pound, shirtless man — was stopped on a rural county road in Damon, Texas, in the early morning hours of Dec. 13, 2025, after bar patrons reported he had engaged in “deadly conduct” involving a firearm. Parker was not armed with an accessible weapon and had, he claims, been the victim of an assault at the Half Time 36 Bar moments before the stop.
The lawsuit alleges Parker complied with every command deputies gave him, including exiting his truck, raising his hands and standing in the roadway as instructed. Then, according to the suit, Tippit approached him from behind without warning.
“When they approached my client’s vehicle, they instructed them to get out of the vehicle. He complied, put his hands up, he did everything they told him to do, but then while he was standing out on that road, Deputy Tippit came up behind him without any warning, without any instruction, and then kicked his feet from under him and then caused him to fracture his ankle,” said Brandon Grable, Parker’s civil rights attorney.
After the kick, Tippit handcuffed Parker — who was on the ground — then allegedly drove his knee into Parker’s back and pressed his face into the asphalt pavement for approximately two to three minutes, according to the lawsuit. Parker immediately cried out that his ankle was broken.
No medical care, no use-of-force report
Despite Parker’s repeated complaints of a fractured ankle and visible swelling, the suit alleges no deputy called for EMS or offered medical attention. Instead, according to the lawsuit, deputies made Parker stand and perform field sobriety tests on the broken ankle. He was held for roughly two hours before being released without a ticket, citation or arrest.
The incident report for that night consists of just two sentences and makes no mention of any use of force. The call was closed as “UNFOUNDED.”
“According to the sheriff’s policy, what was supposed to happen was a use of force report, a supervisor’s review, photographs of the injury. None of that happened at all,” Grable said.
The lawsuit alleges that Tippit repeatedly stated — on both his body-worn camera and in-car recording — that his actions were “protocol.”
“Yes, he said it was protocol. There were multiple deputies out there to include a sergeant. We’ve named them all. And essentially what their responsibility is, what Texas law requires, what the sheriff’s office policy requires, is that when you see violations or you see use of force that’s not warranted, you’re supposed to ... stop that from happening. They didn’t do that,” Grable said.
A leadership problem, not just a deputy problem
The lawsuit names Sgt. James F. Kennedy Jr. as the on-scene supervisor, along with Deputies Blayne Griffin, Robert Pruett III and Tyler Vincent — all of whom, the suit alleges, had an unobstructed view of Tippit kneeling on Parker’s back and chose not to intervene. The suit also names Brazoria County itself, arguing the incident reflects a broader failure of policy and leadership.
Grable said the case goes beyond one bad actor.
“Anytime you look at a government agency or really anything, if you want to see how the people act, you have to start with the leadership, you have [to] start with what policies are in place, what training exists,” Grable said.
“If it was just a deputy Tippit problem, then the sergeant, and these other deputies would have stepped in and done something about it. And if they didn’t step in and do something about [it], then the sheriff’s office would have investigated it and looked into it and determined that something was wrong. But there were failures on multiple levels. And when you allow this to happen with a deputy, I see it as a leadership problem, I see [it] as a policy problem,” he added.
Connection to John Mendoza Jr. shooting
About six months after the traffic stop involving Parker, Tippit was involved in the fatal shooting of John Mendoza Jr., a Texas State University student home for summer break and fatally shot while sitting in his car inside his father’s garage after a brief pursuit.
Sheriff Bo Stallman fired Tippit the following week for alleged policy violations and a grand jury indicted Tippit in August for aggravated assault by a public servant.
Grable raised the question of whether earlier accountability for Tippit might have changed the outcome in that case and pointed to what he called a troubling pattern following Tippit’s indictment in the Mendoza case.
“After Tippit was indicted and then arrested, the sheriff came out and talked about what a great guy Tippit was. I have a concern with that,” Grable said.
After Tippit’s arrest, Stallman called him a “good man, who worked very hard to do a good job for our team and our community” in a media statement.
Transparency, body camera footage
Among the key demands in the lawsuit is the release of body-worn and in-car camera footage from the night of the Parker incident. Parker’s family submitted Texas Public Information Act requests in January and May 2026 seeking that footage, along with use-of-force reports, CAD logs and supplemental narratives — but the video has not been released, according to the suit.
Grable said the lack of transparency is telling.
“I would say first and foremost, I would like to see the sheriff’s office to release the video in this case. I want them to release the body worn camera,” Grable said. “In my experience, any time a law enforcement officer does the right thing, goes above and beyond, we see that body-worn camera all the time. But when they want to hide behind or hide or bury conduct that the community would call into question, they make it so difficult to give us that information. I don’t understand why.”
What comes next
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 15, 2026, and records show no responses have been filed yet. Grable said Tuesday his team is still working to get the defendants formally served.
Neither the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office, a spokesperson for the county, nor an attorney for the county, have responded to KPRC 2’s request for comment.
The criminal defense attorney representing Tippit in his felony case related to Mendoza’s death, Guy Womack, told KPRC 2 he was not aware of the suit and isn’t involved in it, but it was his understanding Tippit “has an unblemished record and was highly regarded as an outstanding young deputy. This has nothing to do with his pending case in Brazoria County.”
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney’s fees and a jury trial.
Grable said he hopes the case ultimately brings accountability — and expressed relief that the criminal process against Tippit is moving forward separately.
“I’m glad to see that Deputy Tippit has been terminated. I’m glad to see that a grand jury indicted him and that the prosecutors are actually presenting his case. I’m not involved in that side of it. I am glad to see that hopefully at the end of the road for at least one family that there will be accountability,” Grable said.
