HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — It was an attention-grabbing headline. Two women were accused of beating an employee while getting their car oil changed. Now, a grand jury has ruled there isn’t enough evidence to pursue the charges, and the women at the center of the story claim they are the victims.
Dymond Canada and her girlfriend Donae Douglas said the initial confrontation seemed to start over a Groupon that was presented as a means of paying for the service at the Midas on Bellaire Boulevard.
“He immediately started laughing, and that’s when the “broke” comments came,” Canada said. But they said the situation quickly escalated to comments they believed were about their sexual orientation.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Employee beaten with stiletto heel, struck by vehicle over Groupon disagreement, records show
“‘Oh, since you want to be a man, why don’t you just change it yourself,'” Douglas said of the encounter.
The women said they asked for a manager, not realizing the man behind the desk berating them was one.
“Once we asked for the manager, he told me, he said, ‘I’m tired of you women coming in here thinking you know everything,'” Canada said.
The women said they turned around and got in their car to drive away, but he started kicking the car.
In photos shared with ABC13, shoe treads in the dents appear on their car.
The two women claim they could not pull out of the lot due to traffic. That’s when Canada reportedly got out to calm him, but he punched her in the face and put Douglas in a chokehold.
“‘What’s your problem?’ He just, I don’t know,” Douglas said.
“Every time he pushed her, he said, ‘You want to be a man? Fight me like a man,'” Canada said.
Douglas and Canada said they were able to get away and drive the few blocks to their home.
They called the police, who arrived and brought them back to the Midas to hear from them and the manager. In the end, they were arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
“Those two cops did not believe us. I told those two cops sitting in the back of the cop car you’re making a big mistake,” Canada said.
The manager claimed they hit him more than a dozen times with a stiletto shoe and once with their car. “I didn’t even have on stilettos,” Canada said.
Canada said a heel did fall out of her car during the scuffle but was never used as a weapon.
Canada said she believed the fact that the employee was a manager led police to believe him over them.
“We never laid a hand on him. It was all force against us, and we overly explained this to them,” Canada said.
RELATED: Woman accused of stabbing man 25 times with stiletto shoe
The case went to a grand jury that determined a no-bill, a decision that means there’s no probable cause.
It’s a decision that’s so rare it happened less than 1% over the last year in Harris County.
While happy with that outcome, the women say they should never have been arrested.
“Even having those charges, it was scary, like we were super criminals or something. It was super scary,” Douglas said.
We asked the district attorney’s office why they accepted the charges. They emailed us back, stating: “We accept charges based on the evidence presented to us by law enforcement.”
We asked specifically what evidence given to them led to accepting the charges, and they sent back the same response.
ABC13 asked the Houston Police Department if they are investigating the Midas employee for the alleged assault. We have yet to hear a response.
Eyewitness News also asked the Houston Police Department if it’s investigating the Midas employee for the alleged assault. We have yet to hear a response.
For more news updates, follow Lileana Pearson on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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