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The Dickinson police sergeant accused of inflicting a brain bleed on a 65-year-old man and neglecting to get him medical attention has faced multiple allegations of misconduct over his six-year career, one of which preceded his resignation from another department.

A Abdelraoufsinno review of Michael Kinsley’s employment records found repeated allegations of excessive force and reckless behavior, resulting in at least five internal affairs investigations by the Dickinson and Houston police departments.

One investigation documented Kinsley breaking numerous Dickinson police policies during a dangerous patrol car chase in another jurisdiction, prompting a complaint from a neighboring police chief. Another showed he slammed his body onto a suspect already restrained on the ground by another officer.

The records also indicate Dickinson police hired Kinsley even though he had resigned from his previous law enforcement job with the Houston Police Department amid an ongoing internal affairs investigation into unspecified “allegations of misconduct.” Kinsley had been relieved of duty pending the results of the probe.

The findings shine new light on the sergeant already facing sharp criticism from some Dickinson city leaders for his actions during the February 2022 arrest of Michael Scurlock.

Efforts to reach Kinsley for this article and previous stories about his actions in the Scurlock case have been unsuccessful.

Dickinson Police Chief Michael Berezin, who joined the department in early 2023, has lauded Kinsley’s job performance as “spectacular” during his tenure. Kinsley, who was an officer at the time of the Scurlock encounter, was promoted to sergeant in August.

Berezin said he did not know whether his predecessors were aware of Kinsley resigning from the Houston Police Department when they hired him, and Kinsley’s job application was not included in his personnel file provided to the Landing.

Body camera footage published by the Landing in October showed Kinsley throwing Scurlock to the ground, causing his body to go limp for nearly three minutes, during a minor bike crash investigation.

The video also showed Kinsley withheld key information about Scurlock’s condition from emergency medical personnel who responded to the scene, then did not get Scurlock additional medical attention as his condition deteriorated on the way to jail.

Scurlock ultimately spent two weeks in a hospital intensive care unit with a brain bleed. He then bounced between hospital and nursing homes for nine months before dying in December 2022 following a stroke. A medical examiner concluded Scurlock died of Parkinson’s disease, but his family attributed his death to complications from the brain bleed.

Dickinson police brass cleared Kinsley of any wrongdoing following an internal affairs investigation. However, a private investigator hired by the city to review the incident condemned Kinsley’s actions as demonstrating “ill will and malice” and found he misrepresented facts from the encounter in an official report. The private investigator blasted the internal affairs inquiry as “biased” and “flawed” in favor of Kinsley.

A Galveston County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson confirmed Monday that the agency’s public integrity division is reviewing the private investigator’s findings for criminal charges. He declined to comment further on a pending investigation. abdelraoufsinno reported on the existence of the review in October. 

Scurlock’s sister, Maryann Scurlock Ainsworth, said her family is outraged by what they view as a lack of accountability for Kinsley across his law enforcement career.

Kinsley was docked five days of paid time off in one internal affairs case, while personnel files don’t detail any punishment in another that involved verified findings of misconduct. Three other investigations were dropped or did not result in disciplinary action, though Kinsley’s resignation in one case preempted any findings and potential punishment.

“He really hasn’t even been punished,” Scurlock Ainsworth said. “And because of that, look how far it went. I don’t have a brother because of him.”

A dubious exit

Kinsley began his law enforcement career in 2017 as a patrol officer at the Houston Police Department. He received positive performance reviews during his two-year tenure, with supervisors praising his dependability, leadership skills, and “safety mindedness,” among other qualities.

But Kinsley’s file also details several allegations of misconduct.

Internal affairs investigators found Kinsley “dropped his body weight” onto a suspect during an arrest in August 2018, even though the suspect was already “prone on the ground” as another officer pinned him down with a knee on his back.

Then-police chief Art Acevedo wrote that Kinsley’s use of force “was not necessary” in the situation. Kinsley elected to give up five days of paid time off instead of serving the resulting five-day suspension.

Then, in June 2019, Kinsley was relieved of duty pending the results of another internal investigation. Details about the alleged misconduct are not included in Kinsley’s personnel file and could not be confirmed by the Landing.

However, Kinsley resigned from the Houston Police Department in October 2019 while still under investigation. Houston police did not confirm whether the probe continued following Kinsley’s exit.

Kinsley began his next law enforcement job in December 2020 with the 50-member Dickinson Police Department. There, Kinsley once again received glowing performance evaluations, yet he continued to draw scrutiny from internal affairs.

His first run-in came in March 2021, when Kinsley allegedly pointed a gun at a driver during a traffic stop, only to issue a traffic ticket. Dickinson’s internal affairs investigator at the time, Lt. Frank Price, ruled the complaint “unfounded” and issued no discipline, finding that Kinsley was justified in pulling his weapon because he thought the driver was evading arrest.

The Scurlock incident followed nearly one year later. While Price cleared Kinsley of wrongdoing, the case roiled the department.

A colleague would later tell a private investigator examining the internal affairs inquiry that Kinsley had been the subject of multiple complaints regarding use of force that were “swept under the rug” by department leaders, according to the private investigator’s report. Another officer said she believed Kinsley’s actions contributed to Scurlock’s death, and that the case might end up before a grand jury.

The private investigator found Kinsley misrepresented events in the Scurlock arrest in an official report, though Kinsley defended his actions in an interview, arguing he used proper force and fulfilled his duty in getting Scurlock medical help. The private investigator does not appear to have investigated the colleague’s allegations about additional use of force complaints.

Five months after the Scurlock encounter, Kinsley came under investigation again, this time for an unauthorized car chase.

Personnel records showed Kinsley responded to a vehicle pursuit led by the Friendswood Police Department, even though Friendswood had not asked for assistance and Kinsley never notified dispatchers that he was en route. According to Dickinson’s internal investigation, Kinsley raced to the scene of the chase, accelerating to nearly 100 mph in a 40 mph zone without activating his emergency lights or siren.

When he reached the scene of the chase, Kinsley forced the suspect vehicle onto the sidewalk and drove into oncoming traffic to pursue the fleeing vehicle, nearly colliding with a Friendswood squad car. At one point, a pedestrian was forced to leap out of the way of traffic as Kinsley approached.

Kinsley abandoned the pursuit only after sustaining a flat tire as he drove over the highway median. Following the case, he did not complete an incident report as required by department policy.

Price, the Dickinson internal affairs lieutenant, initiated an internal investigation into the chase after Friendswood’s police chief complained to the department about Kinsley’s actions. A Friendswood police sergeant would later liken Kinsley to Barney Fife, the bumbling law enforcement officer from “The Andy Griffith Show,” Price wrote in his investigation notes.

Kinsley later told Price that he initiated the pursuit to “help out another officer” and decided against filing a report in anticipation of an internal affairs probe.

Dickinson officials ultimately concluded Kinsley violated numerous policies and “should have reasonably known that this pursuit was clearly a danger to the public.” However, Kinsley’s personnel file does not indicate whether he was disciplined for his actions.

‘Makes me angrier’

In two separate interviews, Berezin, the Dickinson police chief, has declined to comment on Kinsley’s history in the department and in Houston.

“Today’s my six-month anniversary with Dickinson so I’d have absolutely no idea,” he said earlier this month.

Berezin also said he was unaware whether the department reviewed Kinsley’s history at the Houston Police Department during the hiring process. A public records request submitted by the Landing for Kinsley’s job application is pending.

However, Berezin noted Dickinson now complies with a state law enacted in 2021 — after Kinsley’s hiring — that requires all Texas police agencies conduct a thorough review of job candidates’ previous employment records during the hiring process. The law also mandates agencies must maintain documentation on allegations of misconduct, even if they did not complete an internal investigation, so prospective employers can get a full picture of the candidate’s background.

Skylor Hearn, executive director of the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, said the guidelines — bolstered by additional legislation passed in 2023 — help to deter roving officers with poor performance histories or allegations of misconduct in their records.

“The agency that you’re leaving should properly document any deficiencies that would suggest that you don’t need to be a law enforcement officer,” he said. “And then the hiring agency should do their due diligence to ensure that anyone they bring on doesn’t have those issues.”

In interviews, Scurlock’s siblings blasted Dickinson and the Houston Police Department, arguing their failure to hold him accountable for prior misconduct allowed his behavior to escalate. They support criminal charges against Kinsley and are exploring options for suing Kinsley and the Dickinson Police Department.

“This makes me angrier,” said Scurlock Ainsworth, who was not aware of prior investigations into Kinsley’s behavior until contacted by the Landing.

“Why would they send him to Dickinson to be an officer when he had all this on him, and everything going on in Houston? Because of this, Michael’s gone.”

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