News / Society

Texas prosecutor fired after intoxicated outburst with Uber driver

Wednesday, 15 November 2017 4:13 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 16 November 2017 11:08 AM ]

Jody Warner, a now-fired Dallas County prosecutor, has apologized for berating an Uber driver during a ride home from a bar in an incident that prompted her dismissal. (Photo by CBS News)

A Dallas assistant district attorney was fired after she drunkenly insulted and threatened an Uber driver and accusing him of kidnapping her while he gave her a ride home.

Jody Warner’s intoxicated outburst was recorded by the driver who later ultimately gave the recording to the Dallas Morning News, which published it online.

Shaun Platt, the 26-year-old driver, said he picked up Warner at Capitol Pub in Old East Dallas as she appeared intoxicated. She yelled at friends out the window when she got in his car. Platt said he tried to initiate small talk with her, asking if she was excited for the holidays. He noticed she was getting increasingly upset.

Platt said her anger escalated after Warner told him to change directions from the route his GPS directed him to go and he got lost.

“I said, ‘Should I make a left up here?’ and she refused to answer me,” Platt said. “She said, ‘You can follow the [expletive] GPS' and she became increasingly angry, even though I was just trying to get her home.”

They argued back and forth, he said, and he had enough when she started calling him names, including “retard.” He stopped the car, ended the ride on the app and told her she needed to get out. She refused — repeatedly and belligerently.

“She kept saying she’s an assistant DA and said, ‘Who are they gonna believe you or me?’ And I said, ‘You know what, you’re kind of right,’ ” Platt told ABC News. “So I took out my phone and I recorded it.”

At one point she said, "I think this might be a kidnapping," so Platt decided to pull over.

"You're so stupid. I want the cops to come so that they can f--- you up," Warner can be heard saying to Platt on the video recording.

District Attorney Faith Johnson announced Monday afternoon that after a "thorough investigation," she had terminated Warner, 32, who had worked in the office for six years and was a prosecutor in the crimes against children unit.

Warner held a tearful news conference where she apologized on Tuesday. She told reporters she felt uncomfortable when Platt went a different way than she was used to.

"I embarrassed my family and I embarrassed myself," said Warner. "That's not who I am."

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