Packard Law Firm is Now Representing the Family of Melissa Perez Against the SAPD

News on this case continues to be in progress. This article was last updated on: June 30th, 2023

The death of Melissa Perez at the hands of San Antonio police officers has shocked this community. When there’s a wrongful death in the San Antonio area, surviving family members can count on Packard Law Firm. Attorney Daniel W. Packard now represents the family of Melissa Perez, whose recent tragic death – in her own home – should not have happened.

Three San Antonio police officers have now been charged with murder in the death of Ms. Perez, 46, who was having what Police Chief William McManus called a mental health crisis when she refused the officers’ orders to exit her apartment in the early hours of Friday, June 23. Officers were responding to a call about a woman destroying property at the apartment complex.

Ms. Perez threw a glass candle at one of the officers, brandished a hammer, and used the hammer to break a window, but there is no indication that she posed a threat to anyone’s life. At one point, all three officers fired on Ms. Perez. Their “actions were not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training,” Police Chief McManus said at a news conference.

One day after the murder charges were filed, attorney Daniel W. Packard of Packard Law Firm announced that surviving family members plan to seek damages with a lawsuit against the San Antonio Police Department. Attorney Packard told Good Morning America, “There needs to be systemic changes at the police department, or this is going to continue to happen.”

Packard Law Firm Handles Complex Wrongful Death Cases Based on Murder

In 2018, Packard Law Firm successfully represented Al Fox, the son of Anita Fox, a housekeeper who was murdered at a home where she was working in Colleyville, Texas. According to her son’s testimony, Ms. Fox did not know that her life was insured for $5 million or that she was murdered as part of an insurance scheme that involved her own daughter and son-in-law.

Virginia and Mark Buckland, the daughter and son-in-law, had transferred one of the policies to a third-party investor, Patrick Gorman. In 2017, Gorman’s nephew, Bernard Gorman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Although they were not charged with murder, Mark and Virginia Buckland were found “negligently responsible” for Anita Fox’s death after Al Fox filed a wrongful death lawsuit handled by Packard Law Firm. The jury unanimously agreed that the Bucklands willfully and with malice conspired with others in the murder of Anita Fox.

That verdict prevented the Bucklands from inheriting any of the life insurance proceeds. Jurors awarded more than $166 million to Al Fox individually and as personal representative of the estate of Anita Fox.

Have You Lost a Loved One in a Wrongful Death?

The award-winning and nationally-recognized San Antonio wrongful death attorneys at Packard Law Firm have successfully handled the most complex and difficult wrongful death cases. Our attorneys will protect your family’s rights, and we’ll fight aggressively and effectively for justice on your behalf.

If your family has lost a loved one in a wrongful death, or if wrongful death strikes your family in the future, call Packard Law Firm promptly at 210-899-6142.