A Resolution for Lawrence Parrish

Lawrence Parrish, at right

Prosecutors dropped first-degree felony charges of aggravated assault against a public servant against Lawrence Parrish on Wednesday, and coordinated two plea deals with the defendant, on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance. Parrish will serve concurring sentences of two years for each charge. He’s been held in the Travis County Jail since his arrest last April, on a $500,000 bond. His attorney Chris Tolbert told the Chronicle that he expects Parrish to be released within the next three weeks.

Parrish was arrested after a supposed shootout with Austin police outside of his Northeast Austin home on April 7. 2017. He was shot seven times, because the four responding officers believed that he first fired at them. But a few days after the incident, then-interim Police Chief Brian Manley held a press conference to say that while Parrish was in possession of a .40-caliber Hi-Point semiautomatic rifle, he didn’t actually fire it. Yet the charge of assault against a public servant remained; Manley said Parrish used the rifle in a threatening manner against the officers.

Tolbert said on Wednesday that he and his client were “glad to have a resolution to a very tragic event.” He continued: “Lawrence Parrish was shot seven times by the Austin Police Department, charged erroneously and then held on a $500,000 bond on that charge. The case of Lawrence Parrish exposes that our system has a long ways to go. Our bail system is often used as a tool of punishment and oppression and was in this case in the worst way. The State of Texas held on dearly to an erroneous charge to avoid civil liability for the Austin Police Department. All of this was done at the expense Lawrence Parrish. We have a lot of work to do.”