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Dallas Cop Tickets Woman For Not Speaking English

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Oct 26, 2009 2:33 pm US/Eastern

Dallas Cop Tickets Woman For Not Speaking English

Ernestina Mondragon Wants Bigger Apology From Police, Reimbursement For Hospital Stay

DALLAS (CBS) ― The Dallas mother who was given a traffic ticket for not being able to speak English says she feels humiliated and wants an apology.

Ernestina Mondragon also says she wants to be reimbursed for a hospital stay she says was caused by the incident.

She now has a high-profile attorney, former State Representative and Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Domingo Garcia, reports CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas.

Mondragon, along with her daughters, Garcia, and the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC asked for a more in-depth investigation than the Dallas chief of police David Kunkle has already promised.

Ernestina Mondragon spoke with KTVT Sunday through a translator. She said she felt humiliated when she got the ticket for being a non-English speaking driver.

Mondragon sometimes dabbed her eyes as her daughters helped tell her story.  She admits she was rushing to take 11-year-old Vanessa to school and missed a no u-turn sign. She was pulled over, ticketed for that, for not having a license with her, and then for not being proficient in English.

Vanessa Mondragon told the officer she would translate if he wanted. 

"He just ignored me. He didn't say nothing", she said.

Ernestina wanted Vanessa to be allowed to go on to school, and she recounted that in her limited English.  "My daughter can go to school, because it is late for her? He say, yes, okay."

But after she got home, Brenda Mondragon says her mother broke down.  "She was worried, that now every time she drives if she gets pulled over and get another ticket for not speaking English?"

Mondragon says she was so stressed and worried about paying for the tickets she had to be hospitalized and ran up a bill of nearly $5,000.  Her Attorney, Domingo Garcia, wants Mondragon reimbursed for all her expenses, and he wants an apology from the city.

"We believe what happened to her is a travesty of justice," he said.

On Friday Chief Kunkle offered an apology. 

"This is something I wished hadn't happened, it's an embarrassment."

And he said Mondragon's experience was not unique, that 38 other drivers had been ticketed for not speaking English in the past three years.

The chief said the department will investigate those tickets, return any fines, and that the officers and their supervisors would be disciplined if it's warranted.

Garcia wants Kunkle to present the matter to a civilian review board.

Dallas Police had no further comment on the case Sunday.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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