Cop Running for Mayor as Police Reformer Accused of Tasing Her Boyfriend

A police officer running to be Houston’s next mayor is facing criminal charges after allegedly using her department-issued baton and taser to attack her boyfriend, authorities said.

Missouri City Police Officer Robin Williams, 32, was arrested on Tuesday for assault—continuous family violence in connection with two incidents involving her boyfriend, Germaine Taylor, over the last six months, according to a Harris County criminal complaint. The Missouri City Police Department said in a statement that Williams, who is now on paid administrative leave, was taken into custody at the police department “as a result of a criminal investigation conducted by the Harris County Precinct 7 Constable’s Office.”

Williams, who launched her longshot bid for mayor last year under the slogan “Back the blue but not the bullies in blue,” posted $15,000 bond after being held at Harris County Detention Center. It was unclear if she had been released around midday Wednesday. Neither she nor her campaign immediately responded to a request for comment, and it was unclear if she had an attorney. Julia Williams, the officer’s campaign manager, told the Houston Chronicle a statement would be issued soon.

Authorities say Williams assaulted Taylor using her police baton in August—and again four months later. The complaint also says Taylor took a video of the Aug. 4 incident, where Williams could be seen in her Missouri City Police Department T-shirt yelling and hitting him multiple times with the baton. Taylor told police that sometime in August, Williams also shot him with her Taser.

“Bitch you broke my phone and you know that I’m a police officer,” Williams allegedly told Taylor in the Aug. 4 video, according to the complaint. “Bitch I’ll kill you hoe.”

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The allegations against Williams are disturbing on their own, but are especially remarkable given her mayoral candidacy is centered around combating crime and repairing police and community relations. According to her campaign website, Williams served in the United States Marine Corps for four years before joining the American Red Cross International Social Services Department in 2018.

Eventually, she joined the Missouri City Police Department. Last February, Williams announced her mayoral bid—landing her among at least eight candidates hoping to replace Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner in the November 2023 election. Though she has not previously been elected to public office, her website says she hopes to “lead our city in the right direction.”

“As a Police Officer, I have seen the good and bad of our city. I want to suppress crime and ensure that the residents of Houston are safe,” Williams says on her website. “I truly stand by my campaign slogan ‘Back the blue but not bullies in blue.’ There is no place for a bully in society and I plan on enforcing that. Our Officers do an amazing job and I want to promote the good deeds of good Officers.”

The allegations from the Harris County Precinct 7 Constable’s Office suggest she may be part of the problem she has pledged to correct.

The complaint says an officer was called to Williams’ house on New Year’s Eve on reports of a “domestic violence case.” At the house, Taylor alleged that Williams “assaulted him with her police baton” after the pair got into a fight. During the altercation, Taylor said that Williams “punched him in the mouth, causing a scratch on his lip, and causing him to bleed from the mouth.”

Officers said that on the scene, Taylor also described an Aug. 4 incident, where he alleged that Williams used her baton on him multiple times—causing Taylor to suffer “knots on his body from where [Williams] struck him.” The complaint states that in the video Taylor later provided of the incident, Williams is seen hitting Taylor in his body and legs.

When making the complaint last month, Taylor also claimed that Williams “has used her department-issued Taser on him,” indicating that Williams “went into their bedroom, grabbed her taser, and shot him with it.”