Gross says there's a photo of him taken shortly after the incident, at a bail-bond company, that shows his injuries. His lawyer, Steve Sumner of Dallas, will subpoena it for trial, but the bond company could not produce it by press time.
Sumner is a prominent Dallas attorney who made a name in Houston earlier this year by winning a $26 million award against the city on behalf of Barbra Piotrowski, who became paralyzed in a murder-for-hire plot allegedly orchestrated by an ex-boyfriend.
That case involved allegations of police misconduct, and since then Sumner has begun to take on more and more lawsuits involving claims of abuse by law-enforcement agencies. That's what brought him to the attention of Bob Gaddis, the Houston lawyer to whom Gross first turned. Gaddis, a childhood friend of Gross's who is serving as co-counsel, doesn't normally handle such federal civil rights suits against police departments.
Police Chief Little won't comment on the beating allegations, and Harris County officials also refused, citing the pending litigation. The county denied the incident occurred in its initial answer to Gross's suit.
In the aggravated assault trial, one Deer Park officer testified that Gross had intentionally injured himself when he was told to get out of the police car at the jail.
"It looks -- being an officer for just two years, I have not experienced a whole lot," said Officer Jason LaPoint. "It was something out of the movies to me. I have never experienced anyone trying to harm themselves, and it just drew me back. I have never been in a situation like that before."
So either Gross is someone who'd slam his head into a car to make a point, or Deer Park police officers feel free to request beatings of people they don't like. Either way, it's a strange tale coming out of Deer Park. And a jury will decide who's right.
Gross says the harassment ended with the filing of the suit. His lawyer's letter formally notifying the city of the suit specifically laid out that they would be on the lookout for any retaliation. Still, he says, it's odd working in a town where you're fighting the police.
"I come in from Pasadena, and as soon as I cross Spencer Highway, I'm on guard," he says. "I don't have anything against the whole Deer Park Police Department, but there are bad apples there, and I don't know what they'd do. I mind the laws, drive 30 miles per hour and just try to get out of Deer Park every day."
He says he can't depend on the police for help when situations arise in his business. "Unless you're a pharmacist, you don't know what kind of nuts we have to deal with -- people coming in wanting drugs, using forged prescriptions and getting mad when you turn them down," he says. "I had a guy who pulled a six-inch knife on me -- he was about six-four. I would've called the cops, but I didn't because I was afraid I'd be the one arrested. Instead, I talked him down, which I'm pretty good at."
Chief Little doesn't have patience for Gross's claims he can't trust the police. Even though Gross has been a thorn in the department's side, the chief says, he gets treated like everyone else. "If we get a call, we will follow it up like anything else," he says. "He will not be ignored just because of all this."
Little says Gross's suit and claims of being beaten stem from his courtroom victory. "Obviously the thing that set him off was being arrested for aggravated assault," he says. "He was found not guilty, and so be it. The jury didn't find the kids too credible, I guess.... But I wish I had the answer to what's driving him."
Gross claims to be equally baffled. "I think about it every day, why this is going on, and I can't figure it out," he says.
One way or another, the feud -- whether it consists mainly of police harassment or bogus complaints from Gross -- is close to ending. Even if the suit goes nowhere, the pharmacist says, he's looking to sell his store and move back to Austin.
"I probably would have stayed for another ten years or so, but all this has just left a sour taste in my mouth," he says.
He says he has mostly kept his travails to himself, not telling his wife or his customers much about what he says has happened.
"I just sit back," he says, "and I can't believe that all of this has gone on."
E-mail Richard Connelly at rich_connelly@houstonpress.com.
