A civil trial accusing Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedic Brad Cox of using excessive force against a homeless man during a 2019 emergency call is now set for Dec. 7, 2026, according to Dallas County court records. The case centers on an August 2019 confrontation on an Interstate 30 frontage road in West Dallas, where Cox was captured on camera punching and kicking Kyle Vess, a man who suffered a fractured sinus, a fractured eye socket, cracked teeth, and lasting partial paralysis on the right side of his face.
Court records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News show the confrontation unfolded fast. Cox had gotten out of a firetruck just before 1 p.m. and was stomping out a grass fire near where Vess was lying when Vess threw an object toward him and then ran at him, according to the outlet's reporting. A Dallas police officer and a Dallas County sheriff's deputy captured Cox punching and kicking Vess, and police used a Taser against Vess after he confronted Cox. Vess was initially charged with assaulting a public servant, but the Dallas County District Attorney's Office dismissed that case in 2021.
Additional surveillance footage released in October 2021 complicated the initial narrative considerably. That video showed Cox kicking Vess at least nine times over roughly two minutes while Vess lay on the ground, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — a far more prolonged assault than what internal police integrity investigators had reviewed when they initially cleared Cox. Vess's family has said he lives with a mental illness similar to schizophrenia and a traumatic brain injury, and the lawsuit alleges Cox's kicks and punches aggravated that existing brain injury. Vess was homeless at the time of the altercation, per court records cited by The Dallas Morning News.
A Prosecutor Who Admitted the System Failed
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot acknowledged in the fall of 2021 that his office had dropped the ball by failing to thoroughly investigate Cox after the 2019 altercation, according to MyMMANews. Law enforcement had originally treated Vess as the primary aggressor before body camera and surveillance footage were re-examined. A Dallas County grand jury later declined to indict Cox on a felony charge of injury to a disabled person in 2022, per court records referenced by The Dallas Morning News.
Cox's history with Dallas Fire-Rescue predates the Vess incident by years, and it is central to why the case has drawn scrutiny beyond a single call. In 2016, Cox and another paramedic allegedly failed to treat Hirschell Fletcher Jr., a homeless man suffering a traumatic head injury, and Fletcher died in custody. That case led to Cox's 2019 guilty plea for tampering with official records after lying on his incident report, and he was on probation for that conviction when he encountered Vess. Court records cited by The Dallas Morning News also discuss Cox's probation.
Federal Courts Have Repeatedly Rejected Immunity Defenses
In June 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to Cox in the Fletcher family's separate federal civil lawsuit, ruling that pretrial detainees have a clearly established Fourteenth Amendment right to medical attention, according to Justia Law. A year later, in June 2022, a federal judge ruled that Vess's Fourth Amendment excessive force claims against Cox, along with failure-to-discipline claims against the City of Dallas, could proceed, rejecting the city's efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, per federal court filings. Vess's Fourteenth Amendment claim in that same suit was dismissed that same month, according to court records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News.
The municipal liability theory rests on Cox's long paper trail inside Dallas Fire-Rescue. Federal court filings show his disciplinary record before the 2016 and 2019 incidents included a 2002 arrest for suspected assault at a birthday party, three reprimands for refusing to treat patients, and a 2011 written counseling for unacceptable patient conduct. Plaintiff attorneys have cited those records to argue the city allowed a pattern of misconduct to go unaddressed for years.
Fired, Then Reinstated With a Demotion
Dallas Fire-Rescue fired Cox in October 2021, but the department reinstated him in 2023 after a Dallas civil service administrative hearing overturned his termination in favor of a demotion, one that came without back pay. Fire officials told Dallas City Hall in 2023 that the grass fire Cox had been putting out that day was a fire code violation rather than arson, according to court records cited by The Dallas Morning News. Separately, the Texas Department of State Health Services issued an emergency suspension of Cox's paramedic license in November 2021 and, after briefly rescinding it due to a clerical error, concluded an investigation in March 2022 recommending a full one-year certification suspension, according to the Dallas Observer.
Before joining Dallas Fire-Rescue, Cox competed as a professional mixed martial artist between 2008 and 2013, compiling a 3-1 professional record — combat training that Vess's attorneys have highlighted in civil court pleadings, per MyMMANews. Cox has claimed in court records that he was acting in self-defense during the encounter with Vess.
Taxpayers Footing a Six-Figure Legal Bill
In December 2024, the Dallas City Council approved increasing municipal legal defense funding for Cox to as much as $150,000 to fight Vess's civil suit, despite Cox's prior termination and subsequent demotion, according to WFAA. The station reported that the city had approved funding for Cox's defense. The lawsuit itself claims Vess's injuries stemmed in part from the city's failure to discipline Cox for his past violations, and The Dallas Morning News reported it had contacted attorneys for both Cox and Vess seeking comment on the case's next steps as the December trial date approaches.
