The national epidemic of drunk and drugged up cops
Off-duty
cop arrested for drunkenly driving wrong way on freeway
NYPD cop Ronald Holmes of Belmont was busted for smashing
into five cars for his Saturday morning joyride, which sent one person to the
hospital. The Brooklyn NYPD officer was suspended without pay, according to an
official. Authorities said he was driving drunk.
Police
report: Officer accused in a drunken house break/ Cops has since been fired.
A witness at a home in Warwick claims a Johnston police
officer has a serious drug problem and that's why she came barging into his
house. Officer Marisa Ciccone was
charged with assault and breaking and entering. According to the police report,
a homeowner on Byron Boulevard told officers that Ciccone came into his house
uninvited Monday and punched his niece in the face.
The witness said when Ciccone came in, she started yelling
and swearing, "Where is my (expletive) money?" and "Where is my
drugs?" while she was apparently looking for someone who had lived in the
house.
The homeowner said he had kicked out the person Ciccone was
apparently looking for.
The homeowner said Ciccone was highly intoxicated and kept
repeating that she was going to get her gun and blow everybody away.
Ciccone then allegedly started throwing things off a dresser
and punched the homeowner's niece in the face when the niece tried to protect
her mother from Ciccone.
The homeowner told NBC 10 that Ciccone was looking for her
drug partner.
According to the police report, he told officers that
Ciccone has a serious cocaine problem, that his former roommate and Ciccone
made drug deals, and that the former roommate was holding Ciccone's share of
the profit and that's why she was looking for him.
Hughestown
officer suspended indefinitely after federal drug arrest
Hughestown Police Officer Robert F. Evans Jr. has been
suspended indefinitely without pay following his arrest last week on a federal
drug charge, the borough council said Thursday. Federal agents charged Evans,
of Moosic, after he allegedly sold the powerful painkillers oxycodone, Percocet
and Vicodin out of his cruiser while in full uniform.
IMPD
officer suspended after DUI arrest
MORGAN CO., Ind. (WISH) - An IMPD officer was suspended
without pay Tuesday after he was arrested in Mooresville for driving while
intoxicated. Officer Kevin Brown, 41, was arrested around 3 a.m. Tuesday
morning. Brown was a patient of the St. Francis Hospital emergency room for an
injury to the right hand he received during a bar fight.While at the hospital,
Brown admitted he was drinking alcoholic beverages Monday night and said he had
seven beers.
Officer
charged with DWI on desk duties
Sergio Reyes a 16-year veteran Laredo police officer has
been assigned to desk duties following his suspected drunk driving arrest early
Sunday in the Del Mar Hills Area C neighborhood, according to authorities. He’s
been charged with driving while intoxicated.
Soddy
Daisy Officer Suspended After Early Morning Drunken Road Rage Run In
Soddy Daisy Police Officer Ryan Patterson has been suspended
in connection with an early morning road rage incident that led to gunfire and
a female fight. He is on administrative leave without pay pending an internal
investigation, Chief Phillip Hambrick said. The sheriff's office said the
incident shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday involved Officer Patterson, who had been
to a birthday celebration at Charlie's Lounge with two women, Carrie M. Rogers
and Bridget Frederick. Deputy William Ben Johnson said he determined that
Officer Patterson had been drinking but was not too intoxicated to drive after
he was given field sobriety tests. Ms. Frederick was too drunk to give a
statement.
3
Minneapolis officers investigated for bar fight
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Days after responding to allegations that
two off-duty white Minneapolis police officers used profanity and racial slurs.
The department is investigating a bar fight involving three other off-duty
white Minneapolis officers in Apple Valley last November. Two of the officers,
Christopher John Bennett and William C. Woodis, pleaded guilty in June to
charges of disorderly conduct in Dakota County.Apple Valley police initially
cited Bennett, Woodis and another Minneapolis officer, Andrew R. Allen, for
assault, damage to property and disorderly conduct following the fight at
Bogart's Place on Nov. 19, 2012. After the plea agreement by Bennett and
Woodis, the other charges were dismissed.
Tyrone Franson, Rodney Spann, Michael Spann and Lovell
Gamer, who are black, told Apple Valley police that a group of white men glared
at them when they entered the bar that evening. Franson said when he and a friend
went out to the patio to smoke, at least four men followed them and told them
they shouldn't be at the bar, according to the incident report.
"My little brother was left inside with the
gentlemen," Franson said. "And they started hard mugging him. I told
him to come outside with us. I came outside [and] as he came outside the four
gentlemen followed him outside. The next thing I know all hell broke
loose."
Franson said the Minneapolis officers told him and the other
black men "You ain't supposed to be here. Your kind ain't welcome. Get out
of here, you don't belong here."
The four men told police that when they tried to leave,
Woodis grabbed Michael Spann and started hitting him. They told police that a
group of about eight white men started punching and kicking Michael Spann.
Franson said his group didn't fight back and that Woodis also punched Rodney
Spann when he tried to break up the fight.
Haverhill
cops blame West Newbury officers for ex-trooper avoiding arrest
HAVERHILL — Legal arguments by two Haverhill police officers
— Lt. William Leeman and patrolman Christopher Pagliuca —fighting suspensions for
giving special treatment to an ex-state trooper show the officers blame West
Newbury police for not charging him with drunken driving.
The Haverhill officers were suspended without pay for ten and
five days, respectively, for violating police rules and ethical standards, as
well as unsatisfactory performance. Harry Miller, another Haverhill officer at
the scene of the crash involving the retired trooper, previously agreed not to
fight his 10-day suspension. He accepted a demotion from sergeant to patrolman
to save his job.
According to the legal briefs, here’s what the Haverhill
officers said happened:
Pagliuca, the first Haverhill officer on the scene of the
Mach 2012 crash, said West Newbury and Merrimac police officers were already
investigating the accident near the Rocks Village Bridge involving former state
trooper Charles Noyes when Pagliuca arrived at the scene. Noyes, who lives in
Haverhill, was a lieutenant colonel with the State Police when he retired in
2006.
Police reports show West Newbury Sergeant Daniel Cena was
first on the scene, that he spoke to Noyes through the driver’s side window of
his vehicle, and that he told other officers that Noyes was intoxicated.
Reports said Cena asked Noyes to take a field sobriety test, but that Noyes
refused.
Miller and Pagliuca testified at a local Civil Service
hearing that they believed Cena was in charge of the scene. Pagliuca testified
that Cena told him that he smelled “booze” on Noyes.
Miller testified that he said to Pagliuca, “What do you
think?” Pagliuca responded that Noyes “cannot stand up, his eyes are glassy,
and I think he is intoxicated.”
Miller then went back to Cena and asked him, “So are you
charging him with leaving the scene and OUI?” Cena responded, “No, I am
charging him with leaving the scene, but not OUI.” Miller then said, “Why
aren’t you charging him with OUI if you are charging him with leaving the
scene?” Cena responded, “My chief and the district attorney will get mad at
me.”
Miller then called Leeman at the Haverhill Police Station
and told him what was happening at the scene. Leeman was the senior Haverhill
officer on duty at the time.
While they were deciding what course of action to take,
Miller said Noyes started speaking to him about how they all work the same job
and that if this was the good old days, the officers would just let him go.
At that point, Miller said he told Noyes, “If I get the
green light to charge you, you are getting charged.”
A few moments elapsed and then Miller called Leeman back.
Leeman told Miller that he researched case law, but could not find any case
that would justify Haverhill officers charging Noyes with drunken driving based
on the facts presented to him by Miller.
Miller then discussed with Cena which department was going
to charge Noyes. It was at the point that Miller realized that Noyes was not
going to be arrested nor charged with drunken driving.
Eventually, Noyes agreed to get into an ambulance and go to
the hospital to be checked out.
The legal brief goes on to describe a tense discussion
between Cena and Noyes as Noyes boarded the ambulance.
“It was at this point that Cena began yelling at Noyes,” the
brief said.
It went on to explain what happened next.
Cena accused Noyes of giving officers the run-around,
claiming they could not prove Noyes was the operator of automobile.
“Are you really going to play this (expletive) game,” Cena
asked Noyes. “You are lucky you made it to Haverhill because if you didn’t
you’d be going to jail right now.”
The brief also said Cena told Noyes that he was almost
killed by a drunken driver in a previous incident and that Noyes’ “failure to
take ownership of what happened was ridiculous.”
In its decision to uphold the suspensions of the Haverhill
officers, Civil Service chairman Christopher Bowman accused Noyes of lying to
police at the scene of the accident as well as to the commission at a
disciplinary hearing for the two Haverhill officers earlier this year. Bowman
said Noyes’ testimony to the commission was “wildly unbelievable and tarnishes
the image of the Massachusetts State Police.”
The rest of the 41 page legal brief goes on to document how
police handled the subsequent investigation and testimony at the Civil Service
hearing.
In a statement on the Civil Service Commission’s recent
decision to uphold the city’s decision to suspend Leeman and Pagliuca, the
police patrolman’s union claimed the commission failed to consider key factual
and legal issues in the case.
“The true issue before the commission was not whether
Charles Noyes was actually intoxicated, which is what one may assume after
reading the decision, it was whether Officer Pagliuca and Lieutenant Leeman had
violated their duties as police officers. They did not,” the statement reads,
in part.
“Perhaps the most important overlooked fact was West Newbury
Sergeant Daniel Cena’s role in how this matter was handled,’’ the statement
continues. “Sergeant Cena did have the authority to lawfully summons Noyes for
operating under the influence but failed to do so. In fact, Worcester County
Assistant District Attorney John Hartmayer told the city during their
investigation of this matter that “if Mr. Noyes was to be charged with OUI, the
charge should have been brought by West Newbury.
“Unfortunately, that fact appears nowhere in the city’s nor
the commission’s decisions and, instead, unjustified blame is placed on Officer
Pagliuca and Lieutenant Leeman as a means of addressing the public’s legitimate
concerns with how this matter was handled as a whole,” the statement says.
According to police reports, Noyes crashed his Cadillac
Escalade in West Newbury on March 30, 2012, then kept driving with his air bags
deployed until police found him in the travel lane just over the Haverhill
line. The crash snapped a utility pole on Route 113 in West Newbury, cutting
power to the surrounding area for almost 11 hours.
An internal Haverhill police investigation concluded that
Noyes was given special treatment by West Newbury and Haverhill police officers
due to his previous state police position, and that officers acted to cover up
their actions in investigating the incident.