Dallas City Councilman Kevin Felder is facing a third-degree felony charge stemming from an alleged incident in which he’s accused of hitting a teenager on a scooter.
Felder held what he called an "information session" Friday night in front of his District-7 constituents ahead of Election Day on May 4.
Felder said very little. He instead, allowed his attorney Pete Schulte to answer the questions submitted on index cards. The two still denying a crash ever happened.
Cameras weren't allowed inside Stronghold Christian Church in Dallas and the event only lasted about 30 minutes.
"The questions for tonight should be related to the incident that has been in the news," said Schulte.
Schulte went on to call the handling of the incident a "political event." He accused the Dallas Police Department of mishandling the case and not treating Felder, "like any other citizen that is innocent until proven guilty."
"The last two to three weeks have been very trying and stressful for me," said Felder. "First and foremost, I am totally innocent. What was put in the media did not happen. We have all of the evidence that we need to prove my innocence. It's unfortunate that we all are having to go through this."
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Felder went on to say the teenager was weaving in and out of traffic on Malcolm X Blvd in Dallas on February 13. Felder said he honked his horn, trying to get the young man to get out of the road. At one point, he rolled down his window and said he told the teen he was going to get hurt if he continued.
"He became more and more agitated. He had a backpack on and began to unzip it and that's when I left.
"That's the end of the story," said Felder to the couple dozen people who were in the listening audience.
"The young man continued to get agitated," said Felder's attorney. "He got off the scooter and threw it at Councilman Felder's car. So if there was anything on the car, that young man did it himself."
Schulte went on to say that the dent on Felder's car that has been the subject of police investigation in fact happened prior to this alleged incident.
Schulte said he also plans to subpoena Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall. He claimed she called Felder after the alleged incident to interrogate him about what happened.
"The fact that he is having to have a meeting like this tonight, screams this is all about politics for Dallas PD. So that's the story. And it hasn't changed," said Schulte.
Chief Hall sent the following statement to NBC 5 in regards to Schulte's claim:
Upon being made aware by members of the Dallas Police Department command staff that Dallas City Council Member Felder was the subject of a possible hit and run, I notified the City Manager, TC Broadnax, to inform him that I would be contacting Mr. Felder to let him know the detectives would need to speak with him regarding this incident. I then contacted Mr. Felder to find out his location and then directed the detectives accordingly.
Those in attendance willing to talk on camera after the information session had mixed reviews.
"All I wanted to hear was Councilman Felder's side of the story and we got that," said Bobbie Hatcher. "It was OK that we only heard from the attorney. That's why you hire an attorney. So they can talk for you."
"I think a lot of things were done wrong and said wrong to begin with," said Olden Hatcher.
Claudia Fowler was not as pleased.
"The lawyer did most of the talking," said Fowler. "[I was expecting to hear] the truth. That's what we were hoping to hear. His lawyer talked the whole time. He took all the questions, he did all of that. If this was going to be his information session and his tell all, why did his lawyer have to talk?"
The case is still under investigation by the District Attorney's office.
