Widow of Slain Dallas Officer Takes Union to Trial in Johnson County

A civil trial opened Tuesday in Johnson County over how the Dallas Police Association's nonprofit handled roughly $10 million donated to families of the five officers killed in the 2016 downtown Dallas ambush. Katrina Ahrens, widow of Dallas Lance Corporal Lorne Ahrens and a Johnson County resident, filed the lawsuit in 2017 alleging she received nothing from the Dallas Police Association's nonprofit, Assist the Officer. According to NBC DFW, testimony indicates the Ahrens family was eventually placed in an interest-bearing trust account holding $2.1 million. Ahrens contends the nonprofit withheld funds unless she agreed to certain conditions and never provided a full accounting of donations collected. The suit argues the union and its nonprofit were understaffed and unprepared for the volume of contributions — including an estimated 22,000 pieces of mail — leading to poor record-keeping and some checks going uncashed. Ahrens is asking the jury for approximately $1 million in damages and a full independent audit of the donated funds.