Court Rules Not Guilty Over A Father Who Took Away His Child's iPhone

Dallas County Criminal Court judge finally made his verdict last week on the case of a father named, Ronald Jackson, who took away his 12-year-old daughter's iPhone 4s after seeing disrespectful messages towards him and his new girlfriend. He was arrested and charged in 2013 with property theft.

Jackson, 36, and his child's mother are no longer together and he is now living with his new woman. Both he and his ex were granted joint custody for their child. But since he started dating another woman, his daughter didn't like the idea. She sent a text to a friend in 2013 about how she didn't like her dad's new girlfriend or her kids.

The Washington Post reported that the complete text message says, "I don't like his ratchet girlfriend or her kids." The word "ratchet" referring to a woman is derogatory and it means she is a low-class diva who is a little idiotic. Jackson saw her daughter's message and didn't think twice in confiscating it from her.

His daughter went to a friend's house after her dad took her phone away and that was where she called her mom. The police were sent to Jackson's home and asked him to return the phone to the child. But he refused to and said that they were interfering with his parenting.

He was then arrested by the police for taking his daughter's phone and not willing to return it to her. His charge is a Class B misdemeanor. In an interview with CBS-DFW, Jackson reasoned, "I was being a parent." He also said that if a child does something wrong, parents should teach them what is right.

After a long battle with the state's law, the court in Dallas County decided to order the jury to find him not guilty of the case since not enough evidence was presented by the state itself to go on with the trial.